Source to Sea - 8th Nov

Well our team (Chris C, Rob Searle and myself) did quite well.  Here's the offical report:

Perfect conditions for Source to Sea 
CYCLING
Nelson | Tuesday, 11 November 2008
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The second Source to Sea Cycle Challenge was held in perfect conditions on Saturday.


On Thursday the start area at Nelson Lakes National Park - the source of the Buller River - was a picture of winter with 5cm of fresh snow at lake level. By Friday, hail and rain was still thrashing the region but the forecast held true to a calm, cloudless day on Saturday as the 760 participants were greeted to a superb day for riding.

The Source to Sea course is held over 100 miles (160km) on the riverbanks of the Buller River. The course drops 620 metres in elevation from the start at Lake Rotoiti to the Carters Beach finish at Westport, offering individual and relay sections.

This year also included the pro elite class for A grade and licensed riders, which was made up of 3-rider teams, with the fastest women's and men's team each racing for $750 cash.

In the pro race, Stoke Cycles fielded two teams, Asterix and Obelisk. While these teams included New Zealand cycling legends, Chris Nicholson and Nathan Dahlberg, they were expected to have some competitive racing from Nelson Alarms and Village Cycles.

Despite some aggressive riding from Dean Fulton of team Village Cycles and a strong performance from Nelson Alarms, the Stoke Cycles teams controlled the event and rode well as a combine to take first and third positions, Nelson Alarms claiming second.

In the women's pro teams, Village Cycles was also expected to be a contender but 2007 female winner Karen Fulton was leading the Toxic Coffee Femme team and on paper looked the favourite. By the end, the three Toxic Coffee women built up a collective 20-minute buffer to take the title.

On an individual level, Chris Nicholson (Stoke Cycles) won the race in a sprint from Nick Batt (Nelson Alarms). Dean Fulton (Village Cycles) attacked from the start and was soon joined by Caleb Hill (Stoke Cycles). The pair rode a hard pace down through the upper Buller Gorge but started to slow down after Inangahua, over 100km into the race.

With 30km to go the main bunch gathered speed and Nicholson and Batt punched off the front to catch and pass Fulton and Hill. The Stoke Cycles team then worked together to get pre-race favourite Nicholson clear and although Batt managed to stay in contact, the experience and power of Nicholson proved the winning edge taking 4hr 7min 14sec for the trip. Batt took second with Fulton in third.

In the women's race, Jeannie Kuhajek and Karen Fulton maintained contact with the main bunch and covered each other for the entire journey. Fulton positioned herself well for the sprint and pipped Kuhajek on the line to win the race for the second year in a row. Cathy Hamer of Greymouth took third place.

A major bunch of 50 riders arrived for the mass bunch sprint in the open men's race, with Cantabrians taking the top three spots. Craig Loveridge won from Aaron Hooper with Michael Ferigo third.

Christchurch-based Elizabeth Roberts won the women's event from Amanda Minty, also of Christchurch, with Eileen Searle of Nelson third.

In the Corporate Team section, the mixed teams section was won by NZ Police from SBS Banking with Pizzacarto Prima third.

The Men's Corporate Team was won by Pattle Delmore, AW Interiors Racers second and Works4U in third.

The 2009 event will be held in November with the date still to be set. For full results visit: www.sourcetosea.co.nz

Rotoiti to Renwick - 2nd November

A quick call to Pete saw me transported to the start of the Rotoiti - Renwick.  It had been some time since I had done this race and my first challenge happened even before the race started.   As I went to sign in one of the legs of my glasses broke.  The thought of racing with limited visibility didn't really appeal.  Thankfully with the assistance of Paul D and an endless supply of insulation tape we managed to create something that while not initially taking the fashion world by storm was hopefully going to hold together until the end.

There had been a rumour that we might be hitting it hard from the start which proved to be completely true.  Very quickly the field that had been pretty small to begin with (maybe 20?) was reduced to about 11.  I was feeling a bit tired from my escapade the day before so found it all a bit hard until we got to the 60km mark where I started to feel quite good.

The group worked together haphazardly with no real purpose but ended up catching up with the Intermediate group at around the 80km mark.  We tried to blow through them but the tandem in the group brought them all back to us.  Normally I don't get involved in the sprint and given that I was now shoulder to shoulder with riders from a different race that were eager to mix it up with us just reinforced my intention on keeping out of trouble.  As we got towards the end I saw a gap appear in the middle of the pack and said to Grant Jones that I was going to go straight through the middle and did he want a lead out.  Just as I was about to go it closed up but I found a space on the right hand side and went for it.  Grant was ready for it and we managed to get a good gap on the rest of the group.  Grant launched as I faded and managed to make it to the line.  He was pretty pleased and there was an element of satisfaction in pulling it off.

The meal back at the pub with Pete, Ritchie and Karl etc was great.  They had all had good rides so it was a good day out for all of us.

Wakefield & Coastals - 1st November

It was wet - very wet... In fact I'm not sure that I have raced in quite as much rain before.  It was also very windy.  While it hadn't been raining during my ride to the start I had been alarmed to see my HR on 88% while the speed I was doing was only 30kph.  Just as I got to Richmond the rain started and for once in my life I opted to wear a vest (although given the sail like nature of my vest I chose to wear it under my shirt).

We did a quick pace out towards Brightwater.  Not wanting to be dropped going up Heslington I figured that the best defence was to drive the pace up the valley.  I could see someone just behind me so I figured that we couldn't be going that hard but at the steepest part of the climb I saw that it was only Mike Anderson, Rob S and myself with the others further down the road.  We worked together and established a reasonable gap however in the strong headwind it was unlikely that we would succeed.  

Tom H caught us up Maiseys and then as we turned into the old Stringer Strait we were joined by the others.  Chris N attacked on the  Appleby bridge and I managed to get across but was exhausted when I got there and could see that the whole thing was going to end a sprint outside the A&P Show Grounds and so I eased off the back and rode in with a couple of C grade riders which we had caught - I was too exhausted to do anything else anyway!