Continental Tandem Tour (18th - 20th September)

After a 2 year hiatus from the tandem I was back in the saddle again for the Continental Tandem Tour. Basically Mike had told me that I was entered with Dean so there wasn't much discussion about me returning.
With absolutely no preparation we were going to have to wing it. Thankfully (from a competition point of view) Chris and Bob were not racing this time as Chris was sick but there was still some real competition with Tristin and Anja and Vaughn and Mitchell along with a number of other out of towners. We struck problems early on at the Prologue with 2 rims cracking even before we had started. We ended up using the rear wheel of my road bike which was not designed for tandems at all.
The prologue was 6 laps of the Trafalgar park track. We were 2nd to last to race. At the first corner I really doubted that we were going to make it around. Dean later admitted that he was struggling to keep us on the track at the corners. We got the fastest time by 10 sec and averaged 50kph.
Stage 1 was a 13km TT from the Moutere to the Riverside Cafe. We started first which was unusal for a TT and made it hard with no-one to chase. We finished 7 seconds down on Tristian and Anja but 3 seconds ahead of Vaughn and Mitchell.
Stage 2 was a 45km road race. We broke away with the our main competitors and an R&R sponsored team from Massey. In the end it came down to a 3 way sprint which we won easily.
Stage 3 was going to be the hardest for us with a climb over Neudorf and then down the valley to the Mot airport. We came unstuck on Neudorf with a combination of problems. Firstly my handle bars kept twisting around so that when we stood there was nothing that I could brace against to get the power out and secondly my road wheel on the back was showing the reason why tandem wheels are normally 36 spoke not 32 and was rubbing on the frame. T&A & V&M got a small lead on the climb and we had to stop at the top to get the seat sorted out. We chased hard out down the valley but barely saw them again in the twisty valley road. We slipped into time trial mode and just hoped that Vaughn and Mitchell would win the sprint which would still leave us in first place overall. We came across the finish line and could see the others just turning around from their sprint further down the road - so we weren't that far off. Thankfully we were still in first position overall and so had won the tour.

Riding a tandem is quite fun but is also a lot harder that I thought it was going to be.

Tasman Champs TT - 13th September

Well it was a really nice day for a change. As my TT bike is still being constructed I was back to the EMC with clipons - not the most aerodynamic position but not bad. My legs were pretty tired from the day before so I was a bit unsure how things would go. I was also unsure about what to ride. It was a bit breezy and with my tiredness I couldn't decide between using a disk or just sticking with the 404's. In the end I opted for the disc but in hindsight I think the 404's might have been better (the rear is almost 1kg lighter). I started out well but the breeze was turning into a head wind on some sections and a cross wind in others. I caught the guy in front before the turn which was encouraging and watched in awe as Conway Taylor rode past me (thankfully after the turn). I finished in 0:36:33 which wasn't that flash but was good enough to give me first place.

Tasman Road Champs Road Race - 12th September

At this stage I'm getting a little tired of the Woolastons circuit! This time the M1 & M2 riders were together which was a nice change. I attacked on the first climb which meant we lost a couple of riders early on and then put in a number of attacks at different points to further try and thin out the group. There was a crash on one of the middle laps which I narrowly managed to avoid and then Ross attacked with about 3 laps to go. This thinned us out to about 7 riders remaining. Murray dropped off on the last climb. In the sprint Ross went early and was not going to be caught. I just didn't have the pace and got a bit boxed in which was unfortunate so I ended up as the 2nd M2 rider with a rider from Blenheim just beating me at the line. Shankers! (as Sophie would say).

SG Winter Series Race 11

Well here we were at the final race for the series and there was only a single point separating the 2 top riders with David just ahead of Caleb. We all knew it was going to come down to the final climb up Aniseed but an early break from Chris N meant that nothing was ever going to be completely certain. I had briefly joined another earlier break attempt with Chris but that had been brought back. Any attempt from me to bridge over was chased down so I took turns with Dean in keeping the pace high which we waited for the climb. Dean and I brought the break back on the last lap at the last possible moment. On the climb I rode from the back of the group and ended up finishing 5th just behind Tom Ashleigh.
I ended up placing 8th overall - the results show me in 11th position but if you actually add up the numbers I finished 8th. Not bad for an old guy.

SG Race 10 - Mot - Central - Moutere - Ranzau

With race 9 being canceled due the recent heavy rain we were quickly making our way towards the end of the series.  With race 10 Dave made an early break (after Dominion) and was joined by Tom Ashley.  The two soon had a reasonable lead with the remaining riders happy to let them go for a while.  I tried to get away a couple of times along the start of Central road but was soon caught again by the bunch.  A sudden increase in pace along the Central road climb put a few riders on the back foot but it all came back together as we joined back on to the Moutere highway.  It was here that we got the message from Malcolm that Dave and Tom were behind us.  This caused some initial puzzlement as we hadn't actually passed them.  It transpired that they had taken a wrong turn in Mot and had effectively been riding a course of their own making ( and entertaining report on the whole affair can be found here: http://sqwheelers.blogspot.com/2009/08/star-and-garter-winter-series-goes-down.html?zx=db76758523f3e63c

I attacked on the Moutere mainly to see if I could get anyone else interested and also to see if we could thin the bunch out a bit.  There was no response although Dave bridged on the descent but was soon joined by the rest.  Tom Hodges attacked along the end of Waimea and was let go.  We chased a bit from Brightwater but as usual there were a large number who were "saving themselves".  I attacked again along Hope and was joined by Henry who was unable to take a turn.  Once the group caught us I rode on the front to try and keep the pace high for Dave.  Along Ranzau I rode as hard as possible to give him a good lead out.  Thankfully I managed to get 2nd - we were too far off to catch Tom who did really well.