# RTL: Ken Looi's post-race report

**URL:** https://unicyclist.com/t/rtl-ken-loois-post-race-report/283913
**Category:** Ride the Lobster 2008
**Created:** [July 12, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/rtl-ken-loois-post-race-report/283913 "2024-07-12T11:50:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![onetiredluver](https://unicyclist.com/user_avatar/unicyclist.com/onetiredluver/32/104311_2.png) [@onetiredluver](https://unicyclist.com/u/onetiredluver)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/rtl-ken-loois-post-race-report/283913/1 "2024-07-12T11:50:19Z")

</div>

![LOOI RTL Day 3 Time Trial June 18 2008 Dawn DiCecco Flickr](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/1/2/1253c1c23818d9e29b8edc0af10d9db241e7a3f0.jpeg)  
" Final Team NZUNI report for RTL! Sorry it’s a couple of days late but  
we’ve been pretty busy partying after the race !

**Day 5**

We started the day about 10min down on the German team, so it would  
have taken either a super strong ride from us, or a mistake/mechanical  
from the German team for us to improve on our second overall placing.

Well, it became apparent that today’s course would be the same as  
yesterday…pretty flat and perfect 36" Guni terrain. The German team  
were really Schlumpf-ing it today! In the opening 20km’s only Team  
Smiles’ Sam Wakeling and myself from Team NZUni were hanging with the  
29/36 Schlumpfs in the lead peleton.

 ![PELETON german personal corbin RTL Day 5 June 20 2008 Dawn DiCecco Flickr](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/9/b/9b508e7b520d648fe010e32fad19682ca479628e.jpeg)  
(German Speeder, Personal Roller Coaster, Texacali)  
Without sounding like we gave up  
entirely, it was pretty apparent we were going to be outgeared today,  
so Team NZUNI settled in to enjoy the ride instead. We spent much of  
the day with Team Texacali and Team Personal Rollercoaster. These two  
teams were within 20secs of each other going into todays stage, so they  
were fighting it out hard for third place. We changed places for much  
of the day, until Texacali put on a burst of speed on one of the very  
fast flat sections and put about 2-3min on Personal Rollercoaster and  
Team NZUNI. Personal Rollercoaster was riding extremely well, but they  
were mainly a 29’er Sclumpf team (Roland and Vince), whereas Texacali  
had Corbin on a 36’er Sclumpf, which was big enough gear to power away  
from us on the flats.  
 ![RTL banner](https://unicyclist.com/uploads/default/original/3X/d/4/d42c5cdd6252c5573baa9862fb6c1133fe7b739b.jpeg)

There was a 20km section at about the 150km mark where the timing was  
stopped, because this had to be driven in our support vans. This may  
have looked a bit funny on the GPS tracking if you were not aware of  
what was going on. Basically, every team stopped at the checkpoint and  
then drove 20km to start at the base of a hill.

Finally, we had a decent (7km) climb to try and pull a little back on  
the GUni teams. Team NZUNI was sitting in third place, about 2-3min  
back on Texacali, so it was the only time we could get some time back  
before the course flattened out again. It was a really awesome  
climb…not the steepest or toughest but definitely one of the most  
fun. We don’t know how we did as Texacali had driven ahead and set  
their riders out long before us.

We did the final section with all three NZUNI riders drafting off each  
other in the closing few km’s to launch Tony Melton to the finish line  
in style.

We came in second in todays stage, sneaking in 23secs ahead of  
Texacali, and 12min ahead of Personal Rollercoaster. The German  
Speeders had a good day, coming in 7min ahead of Team NZUNI. We never  
really saw them after about 30km, but weren’t chasing them hard today.

We were 2nd overall in the General Classication, behind the German  
Speeders, and ahead of Texacali, Personal Rollercoaster and Team Smile,  
in 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.

Pretty happy with the result, even if it would have been nice to have  
beaten the German team more than once! They were consistently faster  
than us, but we learnt a lot from racing them. Hopefully we’ll have  
the same teams again for the next RTL event!

Big thanks to all the awesome organizers, volunteers, support crews (in  
particular our wonderful Don and Veronique for Team NZUNI), other rider,  
and all the communities in Nova Scotia for putting on a unique and  
wonderful experience.

See you next time!"

Ken Looi  
Team NZUNI  
All photos © Dawn DiCecco, support, Team American Mojo