Falling Trees, Shaved Heads and Tan Lines

It was 6am and blowing a gale around Lake Taupo. John had started riding at 1.30am that morning for the Enduro (2 laps of the lake) so I was kinda hoping we would drive past him so I could shout out obscenities at him... We went past quite a large bunch all sporting their "Enduro" caps... No John... Passed another couple of riders... Still no John... I refused to believe he would have been dropped, then just as we came into Taupo, about 4km from the end of his first lap, I saw "the legs"... I recognise those legs!!! It's John!!! I tooted the horn with all my might, but he looked rather unimpressed (maybe he thought I was some road raging moron). Man, he was setting some good pace. He would have been just over a 5 hour lap... Bloody good going. I pulled over on the side of the road and jumped out of the car screaming until I was hoarse "Go Sifter!!! Come on John! Looking good!!! YEEEEOOOOW!"... I think I got a slight grin out him, but that crosswind looked painful. I hopped back in the car and headed on my way to the start line of the Huka 80km MTB race, quite stoked to have seen my team mate in action looking strong (I was so proud!). I also had a new rig attached to the bike rack which had arrived on Thursday, which I couldn't wait to try out! Whilst waiting for my new Yeti ASR5 frame to arrive, Kashi had kindly sent me an XS Yeti 575 demo, which was actually brand spanking new. It is a really sweet looking bike and whilst it is a little heavier than my usual racing machine, I was quite excited to get out on it and smash some descents. I figured that after climbing 7000 metres with all my gear last weekend, hauling a bit of extra weight up some small hills wouldn't phase me too much. I had spent a little bit of time setting it up, but without a proper test ride on it, I was hoping I had set the suspension up properly, and the saddle position. Everything else was a no brainer for someone my height... Invert the stem and whack it straight down onto the headset!

The wind was a bit chilly, but I knew it would warm up in the forest so I chose to rock the shorts and jersey just with a wind vest over the top (even this ended up getting quite warm!)... I cruised on up to the start chute and switched on my GPS... Hmmm, why did it say I had no heart rate??? Maybe because I forgot to put my heart rate monitor on... Argh! Was it really going to be one of THOSE days??? I considered going back to the car to get it but I had been packed into the start chute by what looked like a couple of hundred riders and it really wasn't that important. I had been moved back into the Huka Challenge and out of the elite category because I had lost my race license some time during the course of the year (that's what happens when you don't use it!!!), so this was a really nice opportunity for a brilliant test ride on this new rig.

The race started and we blasted off up the road. I felt a little sluggish climbing and there were a few reasons for this... Mainly I think it was the 7000m of climbing still hanging around in my legs from last weekend... As we reached Craters of the Moon, the wind seemed to pick up and as we entered the forest, we were greeted with the eerie sound of old pine trees swaying and cracking and groaning. As I looked through the forest, I could see branches dropping, trees falling and pinecones pelting riders in the back of the head (thank God for helmets!). On several occasions, we had to dismount and clamber over freshly fallen trees... It really was like playing Russian Roulette with the forest. We headed up Grinder trail and I really suffered. The bit of extra weight and travel on the bike was trivial compared to my tired legs, but I was pretty sure I'd wake them up at any moment. As we hit the top of Grinder, we headed out onto an open hillside... The trail was really sweet, but the wind caused the bike to thrust sideways as I was descending, making it tricky work. We climbed back up and into the forest again and my legs seemed to be starting to come right. We descended into the forest at this point and it was the first opportunity I'd had to give the bike some real stick. It was an amazingly fun ride... It stuck to the trail like glue and rolled superbly, making light work of anything in it's path. I actually think it's the fastest I have ever descended a trail like that. For once, I was catching people on the descents... I would hit little kickers and pop off them and the bike was so nicely balanced to land. I was highly impressed... And the geometry fitted me really well... It felt really comfy to ride (and when I got the photos from the event later on, I also LOOKED really comfortable on it!). If you haven't seen the "big balls" movie on YouTube, you should check it out here (it really is fricken hilarious!)... That's what riding this bike was like... Strapping on a set of "Big Balls" (although I hope I don't meet the same fate as the woman in this clip!!!)

We wove our way through the forest, still playing dodgems with branches and pine cones, when we finally came to grinding halt with a kinda frazzled looking guy in a yellow vest directing us off course and down the firetrail. He mentioned something about "too may trees down". So a group of us made our way (rather confused) down the trail to find a group of riders gathered at the bottom. We continued on the course as we were directed by the marshalls and then came to a stop again in an old carpark where word got around that they had pulled the pin on the race due to the number of trees falling and the danger on the course... Wow, that was a first for me! We were 27km in to the race, so I was pretty disappointed, although it was definitely the right decision for them to make... There probably wasn't much more they could have done, although you could argue that had they sent a lead moto out to check the course in the morning, they may have realised earlier that the conditions weren't good and re-routed the race before it started. The good thing was that they didn't send us straight back home... They rediverted us back onto the course into an area of the forest that was unaffected by the wind, so we had a bit of a "fun" ride, although the congestion on the trail with so many riders now in the same place was a tad frustrating. It also hadn't been made entirely clear to everyone whether we were still racing or not (although commonsense would prevail as we were all obviously pulled off the course at different points!). As we crossed the Aratiatia Dam, the clock there told us it was only five minutes until the flood gates opened, so now, being in non-race mode, most riders decided to stop and wait and check out the scenery, which was quite a nice and pleasant way to make the most of an unusual situation.

I arrived at the finish line, having ridden 55km (instead of the intended 80km) and absolutely in love with this Yeti 575... Maybe wouldn't be my weapon of choice in a race for climbing, but was definitely the sweetest descender I have ever ridden. A really nice all-rounder that would be a perfect fun little trail bike... John crossed the line not long after I got in and had come 4th in the Enduro (YAY!!!). I asked him out for lunch, but I think he was pretty cooked and ready for a shower and sleep!!! I headed back to my mate's place for a lazy arvo in the sun and then back to Palmerston North.

The following day, I cleaned up the 575 and rode it into work (mainly just to show it off cause it looks cool). We had Levi (Big is good man) at our store for the weekend and a bunch of us were shaving our heads to raise money for CANTEEN (I was one of these people). I had the option of taking the easy way out and doing a number four, but not one to do things in halves, decided to go the full shave (I think I rock it quite well!!!). Donations to CANTEEN can be made at http://www.canfans.org.nz/cause/Mitre10MegaShave. Other than that, my Summer riding tan lines are coming along VERY nicely. I have some nice big epic rides planned over the Christmas /New Year period to look forward to! Stay tuned!

Le Petit Brevet - Climbing for Africa

When I decided to do this event, I thought to myself "I'm fit, I train, I ride my bike a lot... How hard can 7,000m of climbing over 230km around the Banks Peninsula be? All I have to do is just keep grovelling". It appears in hindsight, there was a little more to it than that, although luckily I saw it this way at the time I booked my airfares, or I may not have ended up in Christchurch on what turned out to be an absolutely stunning weekend.

Cape Epic teammate John Randal was also heading down for Le Petit Brevet, so we decided to do the event together for a bit of a team outing. I arrived in Christchurch on Friday afternoon with a fraction of the gear I was carrying at my first tour in Wanganui earlier in the year... For the next two days, I was living out of an 8 litre drybag strapped to my Freeload rack with bungee cords... I was using my little hardtail steel-frame bike, which isn't the lightest setup, but always reliable and comfortable, and I wasn't keen on a dual suspension setup for so much climbing. This was going to be awesome!

We rocked up at our starting point nice and early on Saturday morning. It was blowing a gale and raining. My preparation for the event had been a bit rushed. Ideally, I would have swapped my tyres out for something a little more fast rolling and set them up tubeless, but time restraints during the week had stopped me making any last minute changes to my setup (possibly a good thing!!!). As others showed up for the start, I felt quite comfortable that I was travelling sufficiently light for our little trip. We set off and straight up Rapaki Track (technically still closed due to rock fall hazard but appeared to be very well-used by all the locals). The first climb was a killer... John pulled away from me with ease and I found myself being blown about by the wind. I was desperate to get into some kind of rhythm, but it was steep and windy and I just didn't feel right. We got to the top and kept climbing up the Mount Vernon single track. It had been a long time since I had ridden with gear on my bike and the rear end bounced and clunked around over rocks making me feel like a complete bloody gumby on the bike. I finally found some rhythm and was able to settle in and enjoy the lovely flowing singletrack which skirted along the ridgeline with a full view of Christchurch. We continued climbing up the Port Hills to our first peak at 500m. I admit, it was bloody hard work, and it was really quite cold. As I descended the first hill, my nose ran and the wind blew in my face at the same time, making me feel like I had put my head upside down underwater in the pool, burning my sinuses. It was quite an unusual feeling. We hit the bottom of the first hill back at sea level... This would be the general theme for the weekend; Climb a massive hill from sea level, then descend right back down to sea level, then do it again... I quickly learned there is no room for undulations or gradual gradients here on the Banks Peninsula. It was hard choosing what to wear and for the whole day we found we were taking jackets off to climb then having to put them back on to descend so we didn't get cold in the wind.

A rather boring and long, flat stint along the Rail Trail followed, and I was quite happy to be able to sit in on John and get protection from the wind. We hit the coast and headed up our second hill... A gravel climb with a pretty reasonable gradient that just kept going up and up Kinloch road from Birdlings Flat... As we climbed, the weather started to fine up and the amazing views of the coast sprawled out behind us if we took the time to look back for a moment. To be honest, I was struggling with my climbing and I started to feel like maybe I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew. It was frustrating me and I tried to remain upbeat, but I was annoyed I was holding John up so much. The descent that awaited us down the other side of the hill at over 600m was a winding descent that we could see disappearing down the hillside. It reminded me of the sort of thing you would expect to see in Europe. As we descended through the clouds, the air warmed and we railed the corners snaking our way back down at speed into Little River for lunch.

Bacon and egg sandwiches fall into the same category as pies for long rides like this... They look good and seem like a great idea at the time but your heavy stomach soon tells you otherwise. We set off after lunch and up Mount Fitzgerald on a steep, loose gravel climb. I felt pretty ordinary and was taking delight in sucking down my Powerade (red flavour ended up being my drink of choice for this trip). We passed a couple of other riders, which perked me up a little... Maybe I wasn't climbing as slowly as I thought I was. We turned off onto the Fenceline track up towards Waipuna Saddle. The scenery was magnificent... And so it should have been on our highest climb of the trip at a mere 820m. It was nice to be offroad. It kept things interesting but there were sections of the track that were not easily negotiated carrying gear and required walking. As we crossed the saddle, we had been warned to look out for a shortcut we needed to take so we went down a rutted firetrail as opposed to an overgrown walking track... We missed the turnoff and ended up halfway down the walking track (not ideal with bar ends!!!). I got the impression that John just wanted to bash on through, but as a female, my commonsense kicked in and I talked him into walking back up and taking the turnoff (in the end, it turned out to be a good decision). The whole day I had been lagging behind John on the ong climbs, but as we descended the rough off-road sections, I found I was able to hold my own, which I was quietly stoked with.

We then climbed another small (200m) hill before descending towards Akaroa. I was ravishingly hungry and couldn't wait for a good meal, the prospect of which seemed all too far away as a couple more small "bumps" reared their ugly heads before reaching Akaroa. We bumped into another couple of guys doing the tour who explained that we could head down to the fish and chip shop or join them for dinner at their mate's restaurant for some pasta, which sounded like too good an offer to refuse. It was lovely sitting in the sun and having a good meal, but the food took quite some time to arrive at the table. I was pretty keen to not sit down for too long, very aware that we were running short of daylight and that the longer I sat down, the less likely I was to face the next hill. Our intended half hour stop stretched itself out to over an hour (the pasta was lovely though) and we found ourselves rushing around to get food and snacks for our supper, breakfast and next day's riding before heading off to smash another two hills out before we reached our overnight stop in Okains Bay.

We headed off up towards Purple Peak via Purple Peak Track... Until I saw this, I hadn't seen steep (downloading my data when I returned home confirmed we had been riding up an incline at more than 30 percent gradient!!!). The road section was tough, but then we hit the track and saw a long, steep, winding, grassy slope menacing before us. We got off our bikes and started slogging up the hill on foot. The weight of my bike and gear just seemed to get heavier and heavier and my legs seemed to get shorter and shorter (like that was possible?). John was striding up the hill with what seemed like relative ease (although I know he was working hard)... He started walking his bike up, putting it down, then coming back down to carry my bike up while I walked next to him. I felt terrible... I just felt like a huge burden to him and it was really eating me up inside. At dinner, he had told me to have a think about whether I seriously thought I was up to the two massive hills we have left in front of us before Okains Bay. We had three options... 1) We could continue as we were, but it would mean we would get in to our accommodation really late and hamper our recovery for tomorrow morning. 2) We could both cut out the descent into, and climb back out of LeBons Bay and head straight to Okains Bay, but John was pretty keen to finish the full course after not being able to fully take part last year due to injury. 3) We could split up and John could complete the full loop through LeBons Bay and I could continue up the road direct to Okains Bay (which would be about 200m of climbing as opposed to 600m of climbing), but we only had one phone, one map and one set of tools between us, so if anything happened, we would have to be prepared to be very resourceful. As I pondered these three options, Purple Peak Track continued to loom before us... We would round a corner at what we thought was the summit and then see the fierce green trail disappear further up around another corner. We finally hit the top of the track, over 600m up and looked out upon a shimmering ocean... This had been worth it. John lifted my bike over the stile and I said "Hey John... Thanks"... I even felt a little tear come into the corner of my eye... He then recited his favourite line out of the movie Pulp Fiction, which was a little bit rude, but highly appropriate. What an awesome team mate. He was so hell bent on making sure his strengths contributed to the overall team result and I thought that was pretty cool... I felt much better, but I knew I was in no real shape to continue on with the next climb out of LeBons Bay. I was loathed to short cut the course, but I knew it was for the best if I were to have any chance of recovery to get out and do it all again tomorrow. I sent John on his merry way to smash out the LeBons Bay part of the course and I continued straight up Summit Road and down into Okains Bay. As I was riding, I felt much better... Much stronger, like my legs had finally got it and realised "oh hey, we are doing some climbing here... Time to wake up". The sunset was spectacular and I descended into Okains Bay right on dusk and headed to the Double Dutch Backpackers.

This place was a treat in itself... It is called a backpackers, but really, it is a house with three "dorm" rooms, a lovely modern living area and a selection of music to unwind to. It seemed a shame to have this beautiful haven descended upon by a bunch of dirty, smelly mountain bikers. I looked after myself... Had a shower, made sure I ate well and stretched and recovered and by the time John arrived, I felt like I was ready to head out and start all over again. He told me how much I would have hated the last climb and he was on a real high... I was glad we made the decision we did. I was a little disappointed I missed out one of the climbs, but I didn't feel like it had detracted from my experience at all. I was feeling quite philosophical about it. I knew I'd had a busy time at work and home over the last month or so which had been quite draining and maybe this had contributed to some sluggish legs. Asides from that, though, I had realistically underestimated where my training was at to take on such a mammoth task as what I had this weekend and I was pretty well aware that I had maybe bitten off a bit more than I could chew... But it was good because it showed me what work I needed to do. I was pretty determined to put in a good effort the next day. I had the best sleep I'd had in months that night.

We woke at a very civilised time in the morning to prepare ourselves to leave by 7am. The other riders staying there had already left and we found that some of the faster riders had finished half way through the night. John and I both agreed that we were glad we had decided to overnight it somewhere comfortable because it meant we got the opportunity to enjoy the experience and the views... There were some amazing sights that would have remained unseen had we ridden through the night. We climbed into our smelly, used riding gear (nothing is sacred on these sorts of trips!) and our breakfast consisted of two minute noodles, fruit toast and fresh scrambled eggs (thanks to the owner of the backpackers!)... I really had reservations about our mixture of breakfast foods. I was almost certain I would be seeing it again on the side of the road within a hour... How wrong I was... It sat really nicely in my stomach and kept the energy levels up for a surprisingly long time. We climbed out of Okains Bay on a stellar morning. Calm and cool with a bit of high cloud... Perfect conditions for riding! The first climbed disappeared beneath our tyres and I felt really bloody good. I felt better than the day before... Much better. Even John commented that I seemed to be stronger (YES!!!). We started our second climb and I remember half way up saying to John "so this is the climb that joins up to Saddle Road, right?"... Wrong... Our first climb had been a "warm up"... A mere 200m blip on the map... Bummer! We undulated around the hills, which was a bit of a tease, but quite refreshing to get the legs going. We had various wildlife and farm animals pounce in front of our bikes on occasion and then we rounded the corner to be faced with the view of Little Akaloa, this gorgeous little bay full of turquoise water. It really was a special sight. We had been told the climb out of Little Akaloa was "not too bad... Quite gradual"... Whoever told us that had lied... We grovelled up this endlessly steep sealed road (the fact that it was sealed didn't seem to make it any easier). I zigzagged across te road, trying to relieve the pressure of the gradient in a pretty futile attempt. I considered getting off and walking, but I knew once I was off, I wouldn't get back on... I was in my easiest gear, up out of the saddle driving my poor body up this horrendous climb. I was so pleased to see the end of it.

Backtracking along Saddle Road, we then dropped down a steep, corrugated 4WD track... Great fun to bomb down, but the inopportune meeting with the 4WD on the corner was a bit of a shock! Along the waterside at Pigeon Bay and then back up another climb. This was another gravel climb, but to be honest, it was a pretty pleasant climb (all things considered). The gradient was pretty reasonable, the sun was out and there were views for miles to distract me from the pain. I had developed a bit of a saddle sore the day before which I was nursing and being on a climb where I could comfortably get out of the saddle in a good gear to preserve my legs and my bum was a very simple pleasure. At the top, we stopped for some hard boiled eggs (oh man, this was the BEST morning tea of the whole trip... YUMMY!) and then bombed down the other side on the loose gravel track. It was a really sweet descent that I was able to let loose on. It was warm enough now to not have jackets on and I savored every moment of the wind rushing over my body and the tyres skating across the gravel surface as my bike skipped from side to side on the road taking the inside corner each time. It was one of those moments where you just feel so connected to the bike and so aware of just how fricken cool it is to ride... We had one last sealed climb after that before coming down into Port Levy to catch the ferry across. We accidentally-on-purpose missed one ferry, which allowed us time for lunch, ice cream and coffee (poor John had been caffeine-deprived since little river at lunchtime yesterday!!!).

On the other side of the harbour, we headed off from Lyttleton and up Dyers Pass Road... This was our last climb of the trip. As we approached the climb, my rear derallier decided to stop working, although, conveniently, it was stuck in the largest cassette ring, so wasn't really a problem for the climb... As we came up over the top of the hill, though, I had to spin like crazy to get anywhere, which was highly frustrating considering I should have been able to whack it in the big chain ring and smash out the flat and downhill back home. I was also really sunburnt (I had kept forgetting to ask John for the suncream out of our team kit) and I just wanted to get off the road and into the shade. We flew back down Rapaki track and then finished our journey where it had started yesterday morning (before riding the 12km back to Tim's house!). We had clocked up a total of 236km and 7000m of climbing... To put this in perspective, as John pointed out, it wasn't that far shy of starting at sea level and riding our bikes up Mount Everest. It was a bloody good workout and such a cool opportunity to spend some time with John on the bike and work with each others strengths and weaknesses. It was also a really good kick in the bum for me to get out and into some solid hill training. Cape Epic is only a few months away, and whilst it was very reassuring that in two days, we climbed half of the total vertical that we will climb in eight days at the Cape Epic, it was a good indication of what I need to work on... So I have some cool trips planned over the Christmas and New Year period before smashing out some shorter races over January and February. Looking forward to it!!!

PNP Final Race - The Mostest Fun I Have Had In Ages!

I've just finished having a great weekend on the bike. Friday evening I headed off to the gym for my first weights workout in a month... I knew it would hurt (and it did), but I was happy that I was still pushing the weights and reps I was a month ago. Saturday was a bit of a drizzly morning and I headed out on a road ride on one of my favourite routes up the Pohongina Valley and then up Valley road to Colyton and back via Ashhurst with a series of hill repeats on Valley road (lovely hill for it!). I really enjoy this route because it's quite scenic, the roads are good quality and there aren't many cars (or magpies for that matter)... My legs felt quite heavy, but surprisingly strong. It was quite a warm morning, but with a little bit of rain to keep the heat off. Very pleasant indeed.

This morning (Sunday), Sasha and I headed off to Wellington for a day trip and a little jaunt around Makara Peak for the last race of the PNP series. My legs were pretty stiff and sore, so I wasn't holding much hope of a smashing performance, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was still able to push my heart rate quite high, despite my fatigue, which is something I have struggled with previously, so hopefully that's a sign that my cardiovascular system is recovering more quickly post-ride (now my leg muscles need to catch up!). I took the GoPro with me and strapped it to my chest to get some footage (once I figure out how to edit it, I'll post some to my blog... For now, though, you'll have to make do with photos!). The course was spectacular... We started and headed straight up a 400m climb off the start line, which was hard work. As we climbed (and climbed and climbed), views started to poke into view as we made our way up Hawkins Hills. On the right was this random castle thing with a Brazilian flag (huh?? I don't get it) and as we looked down to the left, we could see the treat that awaited us at the top of the climb as line of ant-like riders descended the switch backs down with the wide blue ocean as a backdrop... Breathtaking (just like the climb).

As I hit the descent, it took me a bit to get into a rhythm after having climbed for the last half hour, but the trail was just as sweet as it looked... It flowed and wound it's way down the side of the hill. We were right next to Wellington but it felt like we could have been hundreds of miles away from anywhere. I was quite surreal. For the most part after this point, we were descending, but there were a couple of really nasty little pinch climbs (some up to about 30% gradient). It was totally worth it for the ride and the views, though! The last little piece of singletrack was super slick and sooo much fun to just hoon and slide around on... I ended up in 4th place in senior women's and also took out the 3rd place Masters series (I thought I disowned my age in round 3 when I changed divisions???). It was certainly the most fun I have had on my bike in ages... Looking forward to next weekend now... Le Petit Brevet, a 230km (add or take a few kms) ride around the Banks Peninsula... Really looking forward to hanging with John and working on some team tactics!!!

Tour De Manawatu - Roadie For a Day

After a hectic stint at work (the new store is open now!!! Visit us at the new Mitre 10 MEGA in Featherston Street!), I decided I needed to get out on two wheels... ANY two wheels. It just so happened that the store had sponsored the Tour De Manawatu bike race, so what better opportunity to go and thrash my weary legs?! Not one to do things in halves, I decided on the long course, which was 116km (noone seemed to believe me when I told them it really isn't THAT much of a long day!). So we were standing on the start line in the drizzling rain and cold and as I looked around me, I realised that it was possibly quite evident that I was a mountain biker... My carbon Pinarello road bike was dirtier than most mountain bikes would be, I had SPD pedals and my helmet was still covered in mud splash from my last foray on dirt (something which a number of other riders kindly pointed out)... I also didn't seem too bothered by the rain, which was a dead giveaway that I was a mountain biker. At the race briefing, I was quite stoked when they mentioned our new MEGA store that was celebrating it's opening weekend, and let out a giant "YEEEEOOOW!" which caused the entire field of riders to turn around and look at me... From that point on for the day, I was known as "MEGA GIRL"... "Best I take care not to snot on anyone, swear at anyone, crop dust another rider or lecture anyone on dropping their rubbish if I am to maintain our company image" I thought to myself.

We headed off in a fairly civil manner, and after an impressive save when another rider fell on me at the start line whilst trying to clip in, we were off... I axed myself along Napier road... Mainly to keep up with Sasha, but also to try and get into a large bunch to protect me from the rather nasty wind that was blowing my small 50kg frame all over the road. We finally caught quite a sizable bunch and settled in to be protected from the wind... Being a smaller rider, there is rarely any chance that I will get stuck splitting the wind at the front of the pack (Sasha and Mike inadvertently took that role), but it also means that very few riders want to sit behind me (I've been told I am like drafting off a twig), so it's fairly standard fare for me to get spat out the back and spend the entire length of the race hanging on for dear life, or chasing down the bunch I just lost (I don't think I've quite figured out this roadie thing yet!). Today was no different, and although I managed to work my way into the middle of the pack a couple of times for an easy ride, I found myself working quite hard... The bunch we were in was also fairly disorganised and wasn't rolling through or making much sense to me at all, so it was rather hard to get a drink/something to eat whilst hanging on to the back because chances are the pack would suddenly accelerate or slow down or someone would change line in front of me the moment I chose to try and eat or drink, so I didn't really keep myself very well-fuelled. This actually wasn't too much of a problem when I was with the bunch. I was protected from the wind and didn't have to expend a great deal of energy.

At the 90km mark, however, we descended this big sweeping bend... I backed off the pedals because it was off camber and looked really slick in the wet... I was right... It was really slick. The guy in front of us slid sideways and hit the deck sliding along the asphalt on his bum (OUCH!)... By the time Sasha and I checked he was ok (because that's what mountain bikers do), the bunch had moved on. With very little left in the tank to give chase, I got dropped and my speed nearly halved in the wind... I took the opportunity to slow down and refuel a bit instead of burying myself and got back into a bit of a rhythm by myself. I only had 25km to go, but I was pretty keen to get some food in my belly and a hot shower. As I passed through Feilding, a group of four riders who had been dropped from the same bunch some time ago came past and I jumped on the back. I felt really bad that I had nothing much left to cycle through with them (even though I wouldn't have offered much protection from the wind, I did feel obliged to earn my turn). I held on to about 5km from the finish and then dropped off again, but didn't have far left to go (thanks number 41!!).

I crossed the finish line in 3 hours 47 minutes, only a few minutes behind Sasha and about 7 minutes behind the bunch I had been dropped by (it makes a huge difference being in a bunch!). It was a good day on the bike and when I checked the results after, I found I had come 9th in the overall women's ranking and 3rd in my division... Not bad for a mountain biker on a dirty road bike!!!