Kermie came away with a 2nd place in Pro Women at Xterra 2009. Well done to the pilot Susie Wood !
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Kermie lives!
Kermie came away with a 2nd place in Pro Women at Xterra 2009. Well done to the pilot Susie Wood !Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Grape Ride
Last weekend we jumped on the Blue Bridge Ferry and headed south for the Grape Ride. A 101 km fun-ride that starts in Marlborough in the middle of a vineyard. It has a romantic sound to it, but the realities of 2,500 fun riders taking off in a driveway narrower than the one at your house means that its a bit of a mission.
Accomodation was courtesy of the "Voodoo Lounge" (see pix below) at my parents place in Blenheim. We also got picked up from the ferry terminal in Picton by my mum.
A quick shop and we had stocked up on some local produce to get us through the weekend.
The team was Dave, Neil, Ran, Kathleen, and my wife Kay. Everyone was keen to give it a crack, and Kay had even been riding to work (2okms each way) in a bid to get fit. Dave catches some Zeds in the Voodoo lounge!
The day dawned very crisp and we got stuck in these massive lines of people "walking" to the race start. A sign of the kind of people that do this race. They were not in any kind of a hurry!
Some 15 mins after our "punters" race had started I managed to leave the vineyard in about the 5th wave I guess. We had a big bunch that seemed to have a high percentage of Onslow Tar Babies in it. They were reasonably keen to work though so we made pretty good time til Picton, where 4 of us rode off the front on the hill just out of town. One of them was Alan Williams, a team WARM-UP rider from Christchurch who was doing the two lapper, he had just caught our bunch as we left the start and was very keen to lap it out. We just kept catching people all the way through the beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound, and all the way home. We were still catching people at Okaramio. Somewhere long the way Alan's acclerations had despatched two of the guys, and we picked another up momentarily. One more surge on the last climb before the Wairau and Jurgen got spat as well. True to his word Alan offered to buy me a beer! He had just won the two-lapper by about 11 mins I think.
Neil was going good and came in well under 3 hours. Ran and Dave were about 15 mins past the hour and while Kathleen had to pull the plug, due to not having done any training (she lasted for 60kms!) Kay finished looking very fresh, having had time to stop and gorge herself on road-side Banana Passionfruit and Walnuts and she also stopped to buy a pie!
That night we went to local Restaurant "Roccos" for a very nice meal, and the next morning we checked out the local Farmers market for more local produce. Hmmmmm. Roast chestnuts, local cheeses, etc etc.
Accomodation was courtesy of the "Voodoo Lounge" (see pix below) at my parents place in Blenheim. We also got picked up from the ferry terminal in Picton by my mum.A quick shop and we had stocked up on some local produce to get us through the weekend.
The team was Dave, Neil, Ran, Kathleen, and my wife Kay. Everyone was keen to give it a crack, and Kay had even been riding to work (2okms each way) in a bid to get fit. Dave catches some Zeds in the Voodoo lounge!
The day dawned very crisp and we got stuck in these massive lines of people "walking" to the race start. A sign of the kind of people that do this race. They were not in any kind of a hurry!
Some 15 mins after our "punters" race had started I managed to leave the vineyard in about the 5th wave I guess. We had a big bunch that seemed to have a high percentage of Onslow Tar Babies in it. They were reasonably keen to work though so we made pretty good time til Picton, where 4 of us rode off the front on the hill just out of town. One of them was Alan Williams, a team WARM-UP rider from Christchurch who was doing the two lapper, he had just caught our bunch as we left the start and was very keen to lap it out. We just kept catching people all the way through the beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound, and all the way home. We were still catching people at Okaramio. Somewhere long the way Alan's acclerations had despatched two of the guys, and we picked another up momentarily. One more surge on the last climb before the Wairau and Jurgen got spat as well. True to his word Alan offered to buy me a beer! He had just won the two-lapper by about 11 mins I think.
Neil was going good and came in well under 3 hours. Ran and Dave were about 15 mins past the hour and while Kathleen had to pull the plug, due to not having done any training (she lasted for 60kms!) Kay finished looking very fresh, having had time to stop and gorge herself on road-side Banana Passionfruit and Walnuts and she also stopped to buy a pie!That night we went to local Restaurant "Roccos" for a very nice meal, and the next morning we checked out the local Farmers market for more local produce. Hmmmmm. Roast chestnuts, local cheeses, etc etc.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
Karapoti revisted
Its a hard road planning out your season. For the past two years I have watched in envy as every man and his dog are doing PB's at Karapoti. A weird desire to do my first poti since 2003 came over me and I decided to do a couple of races to reacquaint myself with the dirt.
My first was a PNP race at Mt Vic where I did my only ever face-plant in my life and smashed my lid. Then the next race was a Nats final, in muddy Mt Vic where my very rusty skills became even more obvious.
My ribs still havent recovered from being acquainted with my bar-ends there, and watching Geoff Notman riding away from me on his over-geared single-speed hardly built my confidence. I pulled out before I expired. A sad day. I blame David Blake for making me build a fence out the front of my house. Its the mother of all fences, and gets more complements than anything I have ever had anything to do with in my life. I burned a lot of matches with that fence!
You'll note I stayed well away from Makara Park races, where you have to know the names of all the tracks to have any chance of not getting lost, and I dont know my "uncle Bobs wheelie" from my "Leaping Gecko".
I had some good Time Trial form but I couldnt see how that was going to help me down the Rock Garden, and Google Street View isnt what its cracked up to be in the Akatarawas. Some Hill reps up Belmont Trig did me no harm but my technical riding was confined to riding up and down Danzig. When NIWA announced that it was the wettest February for some time, I knew that it wasnt gonna be a fast year. Too bad, I had already entered.
Karapoti 2009 - The didymo conspiracy.....
I reckon I had a problem with the didymo procedure. I got to wash my wheels with soapy water, which is what you do to seat tubeless tyres? I was tootling back to the car and ka-boomb! A gigantic hole 4cms long is ripped into my tube....
I walked back to the car, stressing as I only brought one spare tube. I ripped off my tyre which was a narrow-ish aggressively knobbed green michelin with big spaces between the knobs... I had once used it as tubeless set-up and there were remnants of dried latex crap in it. My tube had stuck to the tyre, and I believe it slipped on the rim after it was didymoed, tearing my tube to shreds. Crap.
I got a new tube and took off with the Pro men. I was having a great race, and had decided to pace myself for once. Not long after Ricky Pincot passed me in his big ring after Deadwood I had a nasty crash on the slick rock at speed. I banged my head, leg and ac joint badly. Had to reset mt head set and straighten fork and from then on rode even more like a complete nana.
My left shifter lever was torn off in my crash, but if I could find a 2mm stump to tickle to change down if I was careful, the upchanger was still there. My right shifter was barely working, but was very painful on my shoulder with the amount of force I was having to put into it.The Rock Garden was hard work with my confidence and gone and my shoulder giving me grief.
A high-light was seeing an eel, or a trout jump out of a puddle at the bottom of the stair-case into the stream alongside !
Anyway, I grovelled up the staircase pushing (not carrying) my bike. The only person I saw the whole time was a very cheerful Craig Madsen snapping fotos. Some time later as I was tootling up dopers, I had just caught Scott McLachlan... ka-boom! My rear tube exploded on me again. Some how it jumped out of my tyre and wrapped itself around my v-brake mounts! What a mess. It had a giant split in it, just like the first one. My mousse would have been a useless on that kind of a flat. Traction was great everywhere I went (in pro) so I guess it was a combination of the slipping tyre (soapy water) - against the rim, the tube sticking to the tyre, and a very grippy tyre that was causing my problems.
If not for the mishaps it would have been one of my most enjoyable karapoti's ever. I can also reccommend the A&E in the Hutt hospital. The camaraderie amongst the Karapoti refugees in there was great. Very very quick to process us on a saturday night. According to the radiographer its way busier in Wellington than the Hutt on a saturday night. Keep that in mind if you have a choice!
Cheers
jeff
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Ruamahanga 50 time trial -2009 - Power and pacing geekfest
There are some things that are kind of peculiar to Wellington Cycling, and one of them is the Ruamahanga 50, a very old-school 80km time trial organised by Dave Holey from the Wellington Veterans Cycling Club. It's one loop of a circuit that is mostly flat, and goes around Lake Wairarapa.Apart from the distance, the main challenge in this event is the savage gusting side-winds that are present most years down the western side of the lake. Some years the field has been decimated down to about 5 finishers, as those who value their life more than the challenge have reluctantly pulled the pin. Lets face it, if you are up for 80kms of pain, you are not going to take quitting lightly.
This year everyone made it through, but the as the winds increased over the space of an hour, the last riders to leave were at a distinct disadvantage.This year there were at least 6 of us riding with power meters so we have tabulated a bit of data for geeking out on.
Despite the appalling conditions this year, local pro, Scott Lyttle smashed the old record of 1:56 held by Brent Backhouse with a 1:55. Unfortunately Scott didnt use a power meter... or even a speedo, so the only things he could supply to geek off were his rediculously low heart rate figures. I dont think I could have driven a car around with a HR as low as his.
Anyway, the following guys fronted with the following hardware, and we got splits for each 10km segment of the course.
Ben, Garmin 705 with Power tap.
Jeff, Jason and Matt with Power taps .
Peter with an SRM, and Craig with a Polar.
We tabulated the data so you we could see where our weaknesses were. If you know what you are looking for you can see where the different riders fortunes changed for better or worse.
Jason was probably the most consistant all round but rode on the limit the whole way and faded slightly before the end. Ben put in a scarily fast leg down the lake edge where most of us were hanging on for dear life. This moved him into the "virtual lead" of our group, but "discomfort" in the saddle area became a real problem on the home stretch. Matt also suffered with this. For myself I suspect I may have started a tad too easy, as I seemed to have a bit in the bank for the final run in. Peters power numbers dont look that big for a big guy, which implies that he has good aerodynamics on the bike for him to be going so well. Craigs heart rate was up and down a little so possibley a bit more focus is needed.
If you wanted to compare our power output with each other you would need to assume all the power meters were correctly calibrated, and even then you have to divide your watts by kgs.
Here is the actual course as a Google-flyby.
Craig splits
10km NP/AP splits
dist. watts np/ap hr time.
00-10 236/223W 176B 20.25
10-20 207/204W 171B 21.05
20-30 203/199W 170B 16.15
30-40 195/193W 166B 17.05
40-50 217/254W 170B 16.20
50-60 182/178W 165B 17.30
60-70 212/196W 170B 16.35
70-80 203/197W 173B 16.55
Peak 20min (223 watts):
Peak 30min (216 watts):
Peak 60min (209 watts):
2.22.
==================================
Peters splits
10km NP/AP splits
dist. watts np/ap hr time.
00-10 274/271W 134B 18.32
10-20 258/257W 135B 19.00
20-30 257/252W 135B 14.48
30-40 262/261W 134B 15.20
40-50 259/254W 135B 15.26
50-60 254/253W 135B 15.14
60-70 264/258W 136B 15.21
70-80 265/264W 142B 15.30
Peak 20min (272 watts):
Peak 30min (267 watts):
Peak 60min (261 watts):
2.09.
==================================
Matts splits
10km NP/AP splits
dist. watts np/ap hr time.
00-10 274/273W B 19.17
10-20 260/259W B 19.57
20-30 256/253W B 15.38
30-40 247/246W B 16.13
40-50 261/258W B 15.12
50-60 249/247W B 16.16
60-70 245/237W B 15.34
70-80 234/231W B 15.45
Peak 20min (272 watts):
Peak 30min (269 watts):
Peak 60min (261 watts):
2.13.49
============================
Jasons splits
10km NP/AP splits
dist. watts np/ap hr time.
00-10 284/274W 164B 17.16
10-20 274/273W 172B 17.49
20-30 264/263W 175B 14.24
30-40 268/266W 175B 14.49
40-50 263/261W 174B 14.35
50-60 266/265W 176B 14.21
60-70 253/249W 176B 14.31
70-80 252/251W 176B 14.19
Peak 20min (274 watts):
Peak 30min (274 watts):
Peak 60min (270 watts):
2.02.48
===============================
Jeffs splits
10km NP/AP splits
dist. watts np/ap hr time.
00-10 290/285W 164B 17.13
10-20 271/269W 167B 17.39
20-30 267/260W 168B 14.34
30-40 249/244W 167B 14.52
40-50 253/242W 166B 14.44
50-60 251/248W 169B 14.36
60-70 269/254W 171B 14.20
70-80 275/274W 177B 14.10
Peak 20min (283 watts):
Peak 30min (280 watts):
Peak 60min (268 watts):
2.02.21
===================
Bens splits
10k NP Splits:
00-10 328W 171B 17.28
10-20 315W 171B 17.45
20-30 300W 171B 13.45
30-40 292W 169B 14.50
40-50 284W 165B 14.33
50-60 290W 167B 14.40
60-70 279W 168B 14.36
70-80 266W 169B 14.28
Peak 20min (323 watts):
Peak 30min (320 watts):
Peak 60min (306 watts):
2.02.53
=================
More geekage.. (from Ben)
on elapsed time by end of each 10k stage who was ahead?
Splits Ben Matt Jeff Peter Jason
00-10 17.47 19.28 17.22 18.53 17.27 Jeff
10-20 35.22 39.23 34.87 37.53 35.08 Jeff
20-30 48.97 54.87 49.43 52.33 49.48 Ben
30-40 63.80 71.08 64.30 67.67 64.30 Ben
40-50 78.35 86.28 79.03 83.10 78.88 Ben
50-60 93.02 102.55 93.63 98.33 93.23 Ben
60-70 107.62 118.12 107.97 113.68 107.75 Ben
70-80 122.88 133.87 122.35 129.18 122.80 Jeff
This is the final 10km stretch which is pretty telling in the overall picture.
If its FIXED, dont BRAKE it....
We had the final local evening Time Trial this week - 3 days after we had all munted ourselves on the Ruamanga 50 (80km) TT. I had decided not to do the evening TT, but would go and support my buddies Dave and Neil who had come to support me in Australia in 07 at the Master Track Worlds. I was encouraging Dave to do the TT on my dedicated TT bike as his bike is a standard road bike.
As I was prepping Daves bike I looked into the shed and spied my pursuit bike hanging up. Hmmmm. Conditions were pretty good. Another calm Wednesday night. We had had over a month of them, mostly light southerlies. Admittedly our summer was arse, but the mid-week TTing was great.
I could go down and give it a crack. I had no idea what gearing was on it, or why I even had a front brake on it? Maybe I did some road rides on it last year.
Anyway, we all went down and had a great time. Neil beat Dave, Dave got a PB, so it was win-win. I seemed to be a bit short on gears with my 50-15 (90 gear inches) and was doing 111rpm at my top speed of 47kmh. In the end I averaged about 41.5 kmh and it was a real blast. I had no problems on the rollers and could have done with heaps more gearing.
In the UK TTing community a lot of them swear by riding fixed gear. I am not sure why. My old steel pursuit bike is way heavier than my TT bike, which isn't particularly light anyway.
Anyway, to finish off the story. On Friday night I get an email from 72 year old Garry Humpherson who sent me the results from a local 40km TT he did in his new hometown.
He rode his world champs Alan track bike, Fixed gear (96 inches), 808 on the front with a rear disc, and he cranked out a 58.27 !!!!!!!
He just gets faster.....
FYI. See the results for this season's evening TTs as organised by the Wellington Veterans Cycling Club here. They start in December and go on until late February. 6.30 on a wednesday night on the Liverton Road Circuit.
As I was prepping Daves bike I looked into the shed and spied my pursuit bike hanging up. Hmmmm. Conditions were pretty good. Another calm Wednesday night. We had had over a month of them, mostly light southerlies. Admittedly our summer was arse, but the mid-week TTing was great.I could go down and give it a crack. I had no idea what gearing was on it, or why I even had a front brake on it? Maybe I did some road rides on it last year.
Anyway, we all went down and had a great time. Neil beat Dave, Dave got a PB, so it was win-win. I seemed to be a bit short on gears with my 50-15 (90 gear inches) and was doing 111rpm at my top speed of 47kmh. In the end I averaged about 41.5 kmh and it was a real blast. I had no problems on the rollers and could have done with heaps more gearing.
In the UK TTing community a lot of them swear by riding fixed gear. I am not sure why. My old steel pursuit bike is way heavier than my TT bike, which isn't particularly light anyway.Anyway, to finish off the story. On Friday night I get an email from 72 year old Garry Humpherson who sent me the results from a local 40km TT he did in his new hometown.
He rode his world champs Alan track bike, Fixed gear (96 inches), 808 on the front with a rear disc, and he cranked out a 58.27 !!!!!!!
He just gets faster.....
FYI. See the results for this season's evening TTs as organised by the Wellington Veterans Cycling Club here. They start in December and go on until late February. 6.30 on a wednesday night on the Liverton Road Circuit.
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090225.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090218.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090211.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090128.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090121.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090114.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20090108.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20081217.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20081210.html
- http://wvcc.org.nz/staticinfo/results/results08_09/20081203.html
Friday, February 27, 2009
Gazzas new wheels
Gazza is thinking of borrowing my TT bike for Triathlon Nats in Wellington. I fipped the stem for him in case he wants to run after he finishes his bike!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tour de Vineyards Nelson 2009
TDV 2009, Stage1. Masters 3 plus+.A typically sunny Nelson day on the 35km Hope Circuit just out of Richmond. Its a 7km rectangular circuit among the vineyards with a tiny riser (KOM points) on the furthermost corner. The plan was to keep my nose clean and keep an eye on any breakaways. Brian Fowler wasnt there so that left Hawkes Bay's Kerry Harford as the obvious rider to watch. Having not done the TDV for quite a few years I didnt know a lot of the names, except for Brent Harris who had won the tour on a previous year on the Takaka Hill stage.
Brent was one of the Warmup team that seemed to be everywhere all the time. Sprint points, KOM points, stage wins, they were going for everything. I had all my eggs in the Takaka Hill basket so was going to keep my powder dry until then. History shows that the final General classification pretty much echoes the finishing order up the Takaka Hill stage. I was well short on racing but had hoped that I'd done enough hard yards in the hills.
After a largely uneventual race, the bunch thinned in the dying moments of the sprint for the finish line, and a gap opened up on the inside. Wahoo! I was through and crossed the line in 3rd place with a good gap to the bunch. Its a pretty rare occurance that I would feature in a sprint, but I guess that shows what you can do when youv'e been hiding in the bunch the whole time.
Kerry Harford seemed to have employed his usual tactic of riding off the front so hard that no-one could come around him and effectively leading himself out for the sprint! It was close though as he barely pipped Greg Atkins.
Day 2 was the 90km St Arnaud stage which took in the Spooners range. A few of the non-climbers were worried about it, but once again history shows that the bunch usually regroups on the other side of the hill. I positioned myself in the front couple of riders and was pleased to see a few of them gasping as we got to the brow of the hill which had some KOM (king of the mountains points). I was feeling pretty damn good so thought I might have a crack at them just for a laugh. No sooner had I launched a bit of an attack and who should leap out of the bunch in exactly the right gear but Greg Atkins! I got 2nd in the KOM sprint and we kept our heads down to see who we could drop down the other side. I think about 8 of us got away, and we started to really hammer downhill and onto the flat at over 50kmh. Kerry Harford was driving it hard and I have to say I was hoping the chasing bunch would catch us in a hurry, as I didnt have enough racing in my legs to be able to ride at that speed for the next 70 odd kms!
Luckily the bunch, hauled along mostly by my buddy Paul Lewin and at least 1 other guy managed to catch us. God knows how, but I was happy when we stopped trying to gap them.
The pace settled down after that and it was only really the odd rolling hill that was there to test us. Unfortunately the next feedzone coincided with the next KOM points, so if youv'e seen the opening few minutes of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" it was a bit like that.
People sprinting.... spouses thrusting their water-bottled fulled hands in front of your face, trying to reach a husband foolishly stuck in the middle of the bunch... What a mess. It was also the point where I noticed my legs were AWOL! Aaagh... I mangaged to get entrenched back into the bunch and started to worry about where my legs had gone... I dont think we had even been riding for 2 hours.
At some point on the outskirts of St Arnaud on a slight roller someone threw in a small attack. I felt the lights go out compeltely in my legs like someone had pulled a fuse, and I started to panic. I chopped down a couple of cogs and managed to hang in by the skin of my teeth. Before long we were approaching the township of St Arnaud and I would guess half of us had no idea where the finish was.
A sign with 'Sprint 1km" appeared on the side of the road and people started to wind up. Way to early. It was downhill and around a corner and there were people all over the road. Scary as.
Once again Kerry Harford took out the sprint from local rider Richie Howes and Warmup's Brent Harris who always seemed to be up the front.
I was pretty disappointed. My legs were completely blown. What chance did I have for the 130km stage the next day that was to finish with the infamous 50 minute Takaka hill climb? An estimated 4 hours, and my legs had crapped out at 2 hours today.
The answer came to me while at a friends BBQ that night. Gazza had one of those foam massage rolls. By using it I found that my quads were fully cooked, but my glutes were fresh as..... Why was it that I could ride for 4 hours on the gnarliest hills in Wellington and have no problems, but as soon as I did a race, my legs were cooked at 2 hours?
As a time triallist I have a tendency to creep forward on the bike seat... and I had already made some positional adjustments and moved my seat forward substantially earlier in the year. I think I had overdone this repositioning of my seat. My position was too forward and was overloading my quads. I needed to start using my glutes if I was going to get get through the next days stage. It was a big risk, but I whacked my seat back 2 cms and hit the sack, full of doubt for the next days 130km stage.
Day 3. 130kms. The Takaka Hill day.
The next day was like any other. The legs didnt seem to be particularly tired. I seemed to have more than my usual toilet breaks before the start but it was all to no avail. Sometime after the first sprint I had a real bad urge to take a leak. Bugger. Marco had been telling me about the new Steve Gurney book, and how he describes learning to relieve himself on the bike. I was getting desperate and it was playing on my mind. There was a hill coming up. If I stopped now I might not get back on the bunch?
All of a sudden I saw a guy pull over for a comfort stop. I did the same! At least I'd have someone to work with to catch the bunch again. As I stopped I was comforted to see half the bunch pull over! Was it Takaka Hill nerves or what?
Anyway. After a lengthy stop we took off again and regrouped. Not much happened after that. A gradual climb up the Rae Saddle and some gradual downhill with tailwind. People just seemed to be tootling along. There was the odd breakaway here and there that didn't amount to much.
The feed station/KOM points at Stanley Brook was the usual chaos. It was a sad sight when the guys going for points expired halfway up the hill as the sign saying "KOM 100 meters" was a bit premature to say the least. I accidently rolled over Brent and Greg who were both after points. They were gasping. A small breakaway started over the top but was soon brought back to the following bunch.
Some time later Brent Harris rode off the front as nobody was coming though to take a turn. No one was keen to chase either so I ended up chasing him down and of course dragging the whole bunch up to him. It was at about this point, over 2 and half hours into the race that Kerry Harford mentioned the 2 guys who were up the road and had 7 minutes on us! What?
Apparently two guys from the Thule team in Christchurch had ridden off after the first sprint just out of town, and had 7 minutes on us! At least 2 minutes of that was our rather relaxed toilet break! This was a big news to me.
The stage, and indeed the whole race was effectively over if we didn't bring them back. Nobody was interested.
There is a big disparity in the level of training people do in Vets racing. There are guys who would be close to 20 hours a week training, and others lucky to be doing 8 hours. Most of us wouldn't be able to lap it out hard enough to pull back that deficit. We continued tootling, along saving ourselves for the Takaka Hill and at very best, 3rd place in the stage, and 3rd place overall on General Classification (unless the breakaway guys exploded spectacularly). The only good news was that my legs felt mint. I had been making a concious effort to sit back on the seat more to try to take the load off my quads.
We got to the bottom of the Takaka hill at around 2 and 3/4 hours give or take. Kay and Iva had water bottles for us and we grabbed them and hit the gas. Bang. The bunch was dropped. Myself, Greg Atkin and local ex-pat englishman Rob Searle had made a break. We quickly put time on the rest and spun up the steepest part of the hill with relative ease. It became obvious to me pretty quickly that Rob knew this hill like the back of his hand, as he threw in little surges at certain locations. I was able to respond and catch on to each one, and then come through for a turn. Greg was taking turns too, but was letting me do the main bridging. I figured that maybe he was more tired than I was, or maybe he was just riding clever. Rob was definitely the strongest rider and he was setting the pace. I think we were still together with 5kms to go, but my memory is clouded. A friend had given me a gel to take so I thought I better take it before it was too late. I reached into my pocket and fumbled for it just in time for Rob to throw in another of his well timed surges. Stuff it. Greg could chase that one down.
Bugger... he didnt.
We were now dropped from Robs wheel. While you may not think there is much drafting while riding up a hill like Takaka, the truth is, the pychological draft is immense. You lock onto that rear wheel in front like a heat seeking missile.
Greg and I were offically dropped. We had to share the load between two now, and I was starting to flag. Rob was just up the road, at times he seemed close, at others he seemed to be moving away.
Some time later we hit the short downhill part of the hill but we couldnt catch Rob. Greg was now doing more than his fair share and I was just hanging on. Not long after that, the red and yellow apparition that was Brent Harris loomed up from behind in true "terminator" style. Standing up and swinging on the bars in a crazily tall gear, he was eating back into our lead. We were less than 2 kms from the top. Brent eventually accelerated past us and Greg managed to latch on. I didnt. I was fading fast. 1km to go and who should come up behind me but the other half of Brents Team, Mark Forsey and my buddy (and sworn enemy; ) Marco Renall. Marco and Mark sprinted for the line and beat me by 12 seconds.It was a bittersweet finish.
We had let two guys steal the march on us without even knowing it. They hadnt featured in any other part of the race, but then again, thats probably a good strategy, the same one that Rob Searle used. They probably werent hill climbers so they took their chances on a crazy breakaway. It had been done before, and this time it paid off for them. I had attacked the hill hard at the bottom and backed myself but blown short of the summit. Marco had spanked me in the dying moments, but the good news was, my legs had lasted the distance (mostly). My seat stayed where it was.
Stage 4. 35kms. The Hill St Circuit.Based in the small hills above Richmond this is a torturous little rectangular circuit bisected with a couple of grunty little climbs and a series of 90 degree corners. The last time I did this tour I actually snuck away un-noticed for the win on this stage. There was only one person here who was present last time (Kerry Harford) so I figured he would have forgotten and I might try it again? It wasnt to be. A very strong (for Nelson) southerly came up and any attempts at getting away would have been shut down immediately. So it was a bit of a procession. I had a stab at a couple of the sprints and think I got a 2nd and a 3rd in the last two.
No major changes to GC. Kerry won all the sprints and the final dash across the line to wrap up the Sprint competition and win 3 of the four stages in the tour. Its not for nothing that he has been the National road champ in Masters 2 the last 2 years. The Thule guys (Barry Tinker and Richard Naylor) kept their 1st and 2nd postions overall and Rob Searle came 3rd. Like me, Rob had put his eggs in the Takaka Hill basket, but unlike me, he held it together to the top and would have easily had the fastest ascent.
The Tour de Vineyards is a great tour to do, with a relaxed atmosphere and always good weather. Its especially good if you like hills, but even if you dont, the bunch usually regroups on the other side, so even the Clydesdales are there to have a crack at the sprints.
Check out some of David Letsche's photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/making-websites-work/
Monday, November 17, 2008
12hr Wild Wellington Relay swap-meet!
I thought it was time I finished my 12 hour teams relay report.As in last years event, testing new bikes was what it was all about for the Jville Crew.
The course was massively improved on last years so generally the vibe was heaps better. I started out on my trusty 93 Litespeed hardtail and straight away dropped my chain on the first climb. DOH!
I couldnt match the adrenaline charge pace of that first lap, but after another lap I jumped on Francis's new rig, a Commencal meta-666. This baby had 6 inches at both ends, and was like riding a comfy armchair, and in with the rear shock on "pro-pedal" mode, it was just "point and shoot". Bliss, and easily the most popular bike on loan!
Francis also had an extremely old Scott singlespeed sporting a 32-20 gear set. Apparently too low for this course. Being a singlespeed virgin I was none the wiser and had one of the most enjoyable laps of the race. If you a relative newcomer to the sport, you will not recognise the fork it was equiped with. The ubiquitous AMP fork!!! A whole 57 mms of travel, and half of that was probably pivot slop!! Actually it was surprisingly good.... and check this.... I did EXACTLY the same time as I did on the 28 pound fully. 
One of the other guys had a pretty interesting rig which I grabbed next. It was a Jefson 29er. Chrome - moly frame, with Cyclo-cross wheels on it!! I felt like I was flying on this but in actual fact it was a good 20 seconds slower than the previous two bikes. I didnt really notice the larger wheels but did notice the smaller tread on a couple of occasions. So heres the finer detail of some of these laps:
Commencal 28 pound 6 inch fully: 18.48
Retro Scott 32-20 singlespeed with relic amp fork: 18.48
Jefson custom 29er with discs and cross wheels: 19.13
Litespeed Hardtail: 19.00
Commencal 28 pound 6 inch fully: 19.02
Litespeed Hardtail in the dark : 20.30
Jefson custom 29er with discs and cross wheels: 19.13
Litespeed Hardtail: 19.00
Commencal 28 pound 6 inch fully: 19.02
Litespeed Hardtail in the dark : 20.30
Does anyone recognise these characters? They were 
there... Geoff Knotman, these days riding a singlespeed, Jonty Ritchie, riding a Cross bike on the day, and Simon Kennet who with his brother Jonathon was on a tandem. I think these pix are from a North Island Cup round at Dry Creek (Belmont) in around 1992.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Garry Humpherson smashes world record again.
Wellington cyclist Garry Humpherson has just won his 2nd 70+ world pursuit title and smashed the world record in the process by over 8 seconds.
Garry beat his own personal best of 2:40:892 in qualifying on wednesday morning with a time of 2:36:85 .
Later that evening he won the all kiwi final against ex-Olympian Warick Dalton by five seconds to win in a time of 2:42:983
It would have been a very emotional ride for Garry whose mother passed away a few days before he left to go to Aussie.
Last year Garry was unable to claim world-record holder status for his time, because he was unable to afford the drugs test. This year Garry has been helped out with financial assistance from the PNP Cycling Club and John Wilson from NZline who subsidised Garry's trip to Aussie and also set him up with a very flash new Alan track bike and skinsuit.
Another link to some of Garry's TT palmares.
A link to the TV3 article on Garry before he left to go to Australia.
Archival video links to Garry's race from the Masters World Champs track racing website.
Results from Masters World Champs track racing website.
World Masters track Champs
Sydney Bankstown Australia
Wednesday, 15 October 2008 7:30 PM
Mens 70+ 2000m Individual Pursuit Final
Place Rider Name Speed Time
Gold & Silver Medals
1 Garry HUMPHERSON NZL 44.20 2:42.893
2 Warwick DALTON NZL 43.04 2:47.284
Bronze Medal
3 Denis ROBINSON AUS 41.97 2:51.542
4 Mark NICHOLLS AUS 41.16 2:54.912
============================================
World Masters track Champs
Sydney Bankstown Australia
Wednesday, 15 October 2008 9:00 AM.
Mens 70+ 2000m Individual Pursuit Qualification
Rank Rider Name Affiliation Speed Time
1 Garry HUMPHERSON NZL 45.90 2:36.854
2 Warwick DALTON NZL 43.19 2:46.704
3 Denis ROBINSON AUS 42.35 2:50.005
4 Mark NICHOLLS AUS 41.76 2:52.400
5 Gordon DUFF NZL 41.06 2:55.355
6 Barry ROBERTS AUS 40.06 2:59.751
7 Andre JOUBERT RSA 39.15 3:03.922
8 Brian KENNEDY AUS 37.17 3:13.725
9 Owen DUFFY NZL 36.38 3:17.897
10 Peter HULL AUS 34.68 3:27.594
Fastest 2 race for Gold, 3rd & 4th race for Bronze
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Paula Tesoriero takes home three medals
Its been a very successful campaign for Wellington Paralympian Vegan cyclist Paula Tesoriero at the recent Paralympics. Her plan to concentrate on her specialty event paid off with the gold in the 500 metres time trial, a new world record (43.3 secs) and she also come away with the bronze in the 3000 metres pursuit, and completely unexpectedly, the road time trial !
It wasnt all beer and skittles though as a crash on her gold medal warm down lap could have scuttled the rest of her campaign. Her helmet did its job and Paula lived to go on and get the two bronzes.
Paula's coach Simon Crumpton was trying to keep us in the loop with updates to his his blog, but struck problems when he tried to log on and found the interface all in chinese!
http://simonscrumpets.blogspot.com/
A few people have asked when Paula is returning to New Zealand after her triple medal success at the Paralympics. There is an open invitation to all family, friends, and colleagues to see her at the airport when she lands on Friday 19 September.
Paula lands in Auckland at 08:45 am (Flight NZ 38) and in Wellington at 11:30 am (Flight NZ421).
A final reminder - friends and fans can vote for Paula on the TVNZ site http://olympicoutlander.tvnz.co.nz/ You’ll go in for a chance to win an Mitsubishi Outlander, and the top scoring competitor gets one also.
Women's 500M Time Trial Finals (Lc3-4/Cp 3)
1 Paula Tesoriero (New Zealand) 0.43.3
2 Natalie Simanowski (Germany) 0.00.5
3 Jayme Paris (Australia) 0.01.2
4 Jane Armstrong (Australia) 0.02.1
5 Qi Tang (China) 0.02.6
6 Allison Jones (USA) 0.03.1
7 Susan Van Staden (South Africa) 0.03.8
8 Barbara Buchan (USA) 0.03.8
9 Raquel Acinas (Spain) 0.05.4
10 Zhifeng Niu (China) 0.05.7
300 metres pursuit
1 Barbara Buchan (United States of America) CP3 4.33.46 93.560 4.15.848
2 Natalie Simanowski (Germany) LC3 4.19.40 100.00 4.19.396
3 Paula Tesoriero (New Zealand) LC3 4.26.08 100.00 4.26.080
4 Jayme Paris (Australia) CP3 4.44.94 93.560 4.26.587
Road time trial
1 Barbara Buchan (United States Of America) CP3 42.29 94.919 44:45.2
2 Allison Jones (United States Of America) LC3 2.14 100 44:42.9
3 Paula Tesoriero (New Zealand) LC3 2.32 100 45:00.9
4 Natalie Simanowski (Germany) LC3 3.10 100 45:38.2
5 Qi Tang (People's Republic of China) LC3 4.55 100 47:23.6
6 Raquel Acinas (Spain) LC3 5.02 100 47:30.5
7 Zhifeng Niu (People's Republic of China) LC3 6.17 100 48:45.6
8 Jayme Paris (Australia) CP3 7.42 94.919 52:51.8
9 Susan Van Staden (South Africa) LC3 7.47 100 50:15.3
10 Jane Armstrong (Australia) LC3 7.59 100 50:27.7
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4685504a1823.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4688258a6033.html
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/sep08/paralympics08/?id=stages
