R4

The R4 is a 100km race from Rotorua to Whakatane and its a race I have never done but had heard good and bad things, so I wanted to check it out as I have done alot of training on the course.

The race started out rather slowly as the neutral section rolled into the race course without any change in pace, I think the heavy clouds over head had a lot of people feeling a bit negative. It didn't start to rain about 20kms in which further emphasised just how many muppets were in the race as the bike handling skills were atrocious, and coming from me that is saying something.

The paccours are made up of rollers until half way where there is a 5km climb and then a 10km twisty decent and then flat into the finish. I made it over the climb without too many difficulties, well thats a bit of a lie as I was in the box, but I still was in the wheels of the front group which for me means a lack of difficulty. I sanbagged the decent as in the rain I was more interested in keeping on 2 wheels. At the Bottom I was in group 3 with 7 guys up the road and a group in the middle, so when the road levelled off I rode across to the second group and watched them try and organise a chase.

The 7 out front slowly came back and broke up a bit so with 15km to go there were 3 guys at 30 seconds, so when the chase lost a little momentum I took the opportunity to ride across to them...lonewolf. I made contact but they were pretty stuffed so ended up pulling them a bit til we got to the outskirts of town where I had to leave them and press on solo. This wee move come unstuck about 3km from home...still too weak to make this kind of move stick.

The last 2km had 6 roundabouts, half of which had cars banked up, 2 sharp left handers into on coming traffic and the best bit was with 500m to go the road covered in cones directing us left when we could see the finish line ahead...all this in the pouring rain. Needless to say it was a sktechy sprint with too many muppets taking silly risks to try and move from 7th to 8th, so I rolled in at the back of the front group. Probably the most dangerous last couple of kms I have done on a bike.

Gallipoli Cup

This is the traditional open race that Counties runs each Anzac day. Its a 82km handicap over 4 laps which takes us up and over Twilight Rd each lap....fun times early in the season.

Our group was working pretty well especially after the climbers calmed down after the first time over the hill. There wasn't a lot of action except for avoiding the wheel in front of me kissing the pavement, it was a pretty close call but as I was on the back of the rotation and saw I saw it happen early I managed to sneak around but it was still a close call.

As we got to the hill the penultimate time I heard the dreaded Pssssssst! a rear wheel flat. It was probably the worst place on the course for it to happen. I did manage to get a change and get back on by the top....it was a daredevil accent, if that makes any sense. I was pretty pleased for the quick change from the wheel wagon :)

Anyway in the last 5km the whole race came back together and I had been weighing up the option of sprinting vs attacking late. At 2km to go there was a wee lul and I took that as my leave pass and hit out. It was always going to be a long shot but came up 400 meters short, which is really a country mile but it was worth the risk...too many cagey clubbies who had obviously been saving a fair bit for the finale.

A good day all in all as its the first time in 4 attempts that I have got over twilight with my mark each lap.