Last November I entered the Wattyle Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge and completed the ride in approximately 11 and a half hours. I told myself then that the round the mountain was compulsory since finishing the 100 mile ride was so rewarding, and Mount Taranaki is something I love most about my home.
On Saturday the 27th of January I entered the Dutch Mill Taranaki Cycle Challenge, 150km around the Mountain.
3 weeks prior to the race I did lots of off road riding when Tony Melton visited New Plymouth. The next week I was supposed to train but I mostly slacked and my biggest ride was up to North Egmont where I cleaned up the broken glass from the smash and grab in which Tony’s bag got stolen the week before. On Thursday the 25th (two days before the race) I got a Bowen treatment from Martin at Kowhai Clinic. I’m not sure all the details but it is supposed to make athletes perform better making lactic acid drain better or something. I looked it up:
On Friday I put the 700c x 28mm tire on that Peter Bier gave me (and I rode around Lake Taupo on it) but this time I decided to try 5 more psi than the recommended minimum and inflated it to 120psi. A few minutes later the tire started to make a noise and I took a few steps away from it before it folded off the rim and exploded with a huge blowout. I put on an old tire and tube and rode to my friends house to get last minute sponsorship. Reuben from www.Modz.co.nz sponsored me- his business specialises in modifying Xboxes and Playstations. I had a slow flat tire from the old innertube that I didn’t fix, so by the time I got home and fixed it and prepared for the race and went to bed it was 3am. It was my intention to wake up at ten to five, and ride into town by 6, but I woke at 6:20am and got my flatmate to drive me to the start by 7am. I think Bruce (who entered the race on a Coker) was intending to start at 5am but I’m not sure exactly what time he left.
I took off at 7.02am, glad of the extra sleep, wearing Camo pants with pre-worn holes in the legs. I had my MP3 player (with speakers) sewn onto my bag for sounds along the way- Joe Satriani can be quite inspirational for pedalling fast. The Elite riders left at 7:30am and they came swooping past me sometime before Oakura- I remember a breeze following their pack, the whirring of chains/gears and a handful of encouraging comments directed at me. The view of the Mountain was awesome- the weather was fine! At Okato the people cheered as I stopped to drink water- they chanted as I skulled it (I had my trusty 1.5l plastic soft drink bottle rather than the standard camelpack). I swore as one side of my broken zip came off putting the bottle away- leaving me to rely on four safety pins and one broken zipper to hold my bag together. I rode off one footed to the amazement of the crowd.
I found the course to be relatively flat compared to the Lake Taupo race- and I made quite good time over the first 50km to Opunake. I caught up with Bruce at Opunake and stopped for a bit to chat, drink, and smoke, but that was the last I saw of Bruce because I rode off before him. I should have stuck around to ride with him for a bit but I felt compelled to set the best time I could while still enjoying myself.
The skin started wearing off from my inner thigh areas (that is a good reason to wear non-holey trousers when racing) and the discomfort started setting in. I persevered and kept my wheel spinning. The comments from bike riders would always give me motivation- “You’re my hero”, “You’re amazing”, “Unreal” and “You deserve a medal” were some of the most popular remarks. A few people commented on my “Cool sounds” or “Good riding music”.
I noticed the lack of rubbish compared to Lake Taupo- but that was a much bigger event so the rubbish was relative. Among the strange things by the side of the road that I remembered were a rubber mallet, a plastic gun, rubber gloves- and a lot of other non-cycle related crap- heaps of old CDs (I wondered if any of them were Tony’s- stolen from his CD wallet and ditched by the side of the road). I passed the half way point (Te Kiri) without even realising.
Time started dragging on and I just wanted to reach Stratford- since that is a place I had ridden to before. I was a bit disappointed to only reach Eltham but the next leg was very short so I kept going with the thought of Stratford being 2/3 of the way there. Along the way a bike rider seemed to recognise me and stopped to chat. It turned out she met me when I rode to Stratford in my training for Taupo. She had a flat tire (back then) and I stopped and talked to her and offered help which she didn’t need. After she said where we met I remembered her and it was kinda cool cos we had our training ride in common even though our vehicles were so different. I stopped in Stratford for another well deserved smoke break, and calculated that I was in good time for finishing before prize giving.
I was approaching a bridge near Midhurst when I decided to take the side-path to keep out of the way of traffic on the narrow bridge. As soon as I left the road and went onto the gravelly footpath, I heard air rushing out of my tire, I pulled over and sat down slightly disappointed that my prophecy had come true. Well it was not quite true- I had thought I would get punctured by the sea of broken glass that fills the shoulder of many Taranaki roads, but it was an old glass wound that had left a gaping hole in my tire. After 120km of riding the road just rubbed it’s way through my inner tube. I fixed the hole in both the tire and the tube. I pumped up the high volume tire for ages with my little Pocket Rocket pump- knowing that without decent pressure long rides suck!
It started spitting a bit and I put my MP3 player away in my bag- the battery almost dead. The support van came up behind me not too long afterwards and followed me for the rest of the ride- I think I was the last rider who hadn’t given up at that point. I stopped at an Inglemud petrol station for a dump, and tried to use their stupid digital air compressor but it kept turning down the PSI when I calibrated it to 70. I filled my water bottle at the last support stop, got out my MP3 player and headed off again, enduring the stinging pain of sweat in my leg abrasions.
Egmont Village came soon enough where I was able to put a few more PSI into my tire to see me through til the end. It was the home stretch!!! Familiar territory. There was only two small hills which they saved til the end, and they didn’t manage to make my legs tired. I put on a burst of speed over the finish line and they showed me my time of 9 hours 24, which just now as I think about it could have been 10 hours 24 or something. 7:02am til 5:26pm. The crowd cheered loudly when I arrived. I went amongst the riders gathered for prizegiving and I was inundated with people congratulating me, shaking my hand, and asking how long I took (to which I replied 9 hours 24 which they showed me on a digital screen when I finished). I claimed my free Ham Sandwich and Low-carb beer, and handed a few Modz cards out while I waited for prizegiving. I got no prizes and wasn’t even acknowledged for coming in last- they claimed a Japanese rider did.
I rode to Burger Fuel and got a free burger before doing a bit of a victory lap in town to visit friends who were not home before riding home (slowly, painfully) to Bell Block. It was good to get home and have a shower and all the other luxuries that come with being home. My legs were not too sore- more saddle sore than muscle sore. The muscles in my back and legs were sore a bit, but nowhere near as sore as after Lake Taupo. Back then I could barely lift my legs, but this time I could do knees up mother brown without fuss. The next morning my calf muscles cramped up one at a time after I woke up. 30 seconds of pain each leg. My flatmate told me afterwards that walking on cold linoleum fixes cramp- maybe I’ll try that next time if I can walk when it happens.
Two days have passed and I’m feeling fine. A day of rest put all my aches and sores behind me, and I went into the Midweek (a local free paper) to tell them my story today. They took some photos and hopefully I’ll appear in Wednesdays paper with mention of my Sponsor. Apparently there was nothing about the race on the national TV News on Saturday. I did a rolling interview during the race but I think it was footage for the event organisers to play at next years event.
It might have been Te Kiri when Hugh Johnson took a few photos of me and I gave him my email and the wrong phone number (my mind was foggy), and he sent me the photos of which I have attached a couple. I hope you have enjoyed reading my long winded writeup- the writing is short compared to the race. Everyone who likes long distance unicycling a lot should try a bicycle race event- it’s surreal! The unicycling world is so relatively small compared to the bike world that you can be a champion of your class even if you are what you consider to be a mediocre rider.
Thanks to my sponsors- Modz, Missing Link, and Kowhai Clinic!!!
