Round Lake Dunstan 96km Fun Ride 9th January 2012

3 training rides had precluded:
15km around Wanaka 2nd December 2011
50km from Lake Hawea to Makarora 17th December 2011
70km from Wanaka to Roaring Meg Power Station 27th December 2011
25km on the tandem Wanaka to Lugatte and return 1st January 2011

Unsurprisingly, a different bike was rolling for this year’s ride.
The Wilier with Ultegra/Dura ace has a new home, so with a new to me 10 speed Dura ace groupset on hand I quickly loaded it onto the nearest available frame: a 1985 Panasonic Raleigh built from Reynolds 531C steel tubing.



Luckily my prior to event day rides had settled everything down and resulted in a few subtle changes:
A shorter stem
Different wheels with Alex A23 rims riding on 28mm Conti tires
Compact cranks but with a 36 on the inside, not a 34
A quick tune up from Sheldon Sharman who no doubt shook his head over a few small insignificant details that I typically would have overlooked.

I watched the weather like a hawk for a few days before hand....wondering if booties would be needed ?
Event day dawned bright and sunny.
Transport with Leigh (new owner of the Wilier) and Mr Ed (former owner of Radio Wanaka) was filled with speculation of a rolling quartet in tight formation and various other tales of conquest.

The reailty was of course very different as Marc Sheldon Sharman and I ducked off for a coffee up the road and arrived back with two minutes to start.

Marc tried to quietly sneak down the side of the 200 hundred strong bunch and bury himself in the middle, I called him back and said we could jump right in the front when the whistle blew, which is just how it played out.....
So, big ringing it up the road and main bridge over Lake Dunstan, I was bouncing off the cat’s eyes withTom Skully just in front of me.
I pondered how I could gracefully slide backwards through the bunch when the hammer goes down in a hundred metres....

Lucky for me a small gap appeared as we turned and slide over to the inside we go and backwards in one quick manouvre.
I figured a nice bunch would arrive sooner or later that would match my pace.
The tailwind to Tarras passed without event, the cross/tail wind to Lugatte did as well.
The two hills on this leg were ok for me this year – I even grabbed the pre arranged bottle from Keighley on the last uphill....
Leigh & Ed stopped by the Lugatte pub, but got the bottles and their mojo all mixed up requiring a quick swap around with the assistance of the Radio Wanaka car.
I started to hit the wall with about 30km to go, but another hot squishy yoghurt coated muesli bar soon had me back in the drops and ready to fire for the minor placings sprint.
Just so we’re clear here – I ended up 114th out of 215 starters, so it’s hardly podium stuff.....
However it may well have been Boonen, the Schlecks and Vinakorov the way the bunch was behaving....
Or misbehaving.
Chicks were throwing in flyers, I got pushed into the pot holes and gravel to which I sat up and told the bunch they were about of get done over by a chick and they were a bunch of muppets.
Resuming the closing stages I found a small gap, slid through and fed it the jandel, unfortunately not leaving enough room to pass the lady in white shorts on a Bianchi with a squeaking dry chain.
However, a new course record for me of 2hrs 44.01 can stand for another year, while Marc, Ed and Leigh can only wish they’d sat on my wheel from the start.

Oh, I forgot: Joe Cooper smoked everyone with his hairy legs: 2hrs 14 mins

92km of yeah well, you know.....well "fun"

I think it only fair to say for starters I'm not really one for setting long term goals and whatnot - imagine the disappointment if you got run over tomorrow and you hadn't ticked them all off.

But I did say late last year that I'd (like) to do the "fun ride" round Lake Dunstan and then I promptly ended up on death's door before Christmas with a head cold/sinus thing that would have laid up even swine flu itself.....

So I kind of said yeah nah.

Right up till yesterday infact - even after I'd installed the new (wider) handlebars (check it out man, I'm riding a 31.8mm stem now.....), changed the seat, cleaned the bike, fiddled with the seat height a few times, took it for a test ride in the new kit and still, I was to coin a DB phrase - ambivalent about forking out $35 + 10 bucks late fee to ride round a lake that is only 30 minutes away and I could ride round it anytime I like!

So, fast forward to this morning: woke to rain - oh goody I can sleep in.....

Still looking for inspiration.........................................................

Found this on the interweb last night and after that I thought :

"If Andrew Meo can still lay the smack down at 47, I can bluff my way through a 92km fun rideat 40"

Rain stopped: bugger might have to go and do it - plenty of time to make it - yeah lets go.

Coffee x 2- check.

Bin full of stuff - check

Bike - check

Shoes - had to stop 10 km down the road: to....... - check.

Forked over the money, much relieved that they did this:

-instead of pin holes thru the new jersey.

Got changed, went for a roll to suss out the finish - like I'd be featuring, but at least I'd know when to slow down...and then the wind changed to a Southerly and it rained.

Crap.

Money down, must ride now.

It's been a while since I've turned up at a "fun ride" seems that the guy who invented carbon must be laughing all the way to his big fat bank.

Even in the deep south, the fashion setters make an appearance:

Then we lined up, started rolling and it rained.

Riding, riding - it rained heavier.

Riding riding then it really rained a lot and we weren't even out the neutral zone.

I knew we were out the neutral zone because Scotty from Outside Sports got things going in the tailwind at 60km.....

My grupetto was a little more sedate, but the big ring it was in and before I knew what was happening I was bridging a gap and moving through the field and feeling ok - well I wasn't puking at least.

Thanks tail wind - you rock.

And no one was in toeclips !

A couple of old steeel frames, but I was on my new to me but 5 year old carbon Trek, so no time to mix and mingle discusing friction shifters buddy - I've moved to nine, yes nine of the finest on the bars !

Cross wind section from Taras to Maori Point Road; I was the man and pulled the bunch on through - I thought I was just riding on the front, but some guy said "nice work there" and he looked like he'd conservatively done about a million km's in his day - same Sidi shoes as me too.

I commented of course that I thought I had the oldest shoes, but no, we had matching it seems.

"Got them in '94" he said.

I replied that mine had been riding with Johan Museew when Smile Upton owned them.

Anyways, Luggate came and went 50 km's from the start in 1hr 20 mins...........pretty good.

Then it was head wind to home (42km) and rain and a bunch that couldn't really organise a piss up in a brewery.

So I sat in, had lunch and then it rained - a lot.

Like if you were driving in your car, you would have slowed down to 60km/h and put your lights on too.

It was the most wet I'd ever been riding my bike.

Then we had thunder and lightening as well. Wicked.

At least I didn't have a mortgage payment of carbon wheels out there in the deluge.


I was pretty glad I had my knee and arm warmers on...and my vest on under my jersey, and a merino 1st layer - ah, I can hear Andrew Meo's words now "always wear a woolly layer even in summer - can't go wrong"

This was true as it was indeed summer and fortunately the sheep have become softer and market themselves better these days.

Andrew was also reknowned for issuing red cards for infringements over incorrect sock length, missing a turn on the front, letting a gap open up.........once when the boys were racing in the Top of the South Tour, we spent a whole afternoon driving around Blenheim looking for a good coffee.

We'd do a drive by then send in a scout on recon, filter machines earning a "no way in hell" and a dirty machine a similar response.

But I digress - do check out Slims blog tho, he had quite the day today.

Somehow I ended up last wheel in a beautiful echelon of five riders spread across the road past the Cherry farms - it was a thing of greatness as everyone else was strung off my wheel unable to organise another line.

Ah, it was the sort of thing even the Ariostia team time trial would have been proud of.

Shame my sodden gloves and hands couldn't feel the bars or that my ankles were part of my body at this point....

We even collected up another small bunch - life was good.

The finish line was looming after a left hander in the industrial area, 4 guys jumped, I didn't.

Well until two bloody school girls who had wheel sucked their way around the whole way tried to roll me on the line - I don't think so.

"Stop riding like a pussy" was all I could hear from Slim at that point, so I fed it to them and finished 4th in our bunch of maybe 30 riders.

Stats:

Race distance 92km,

My time 3hr 1 minute.

Winning time 2hr 20 minutes by the young junior who won 3 golds at the Track Worlds in Russia last year.

I finished 29th overall in the 35-44 year old age group and 79th overall out of 243 riders, so just squeaked into the top 3rd off the field.

I ate 2 bananas, 1 muesli bar and drank 1.5 bottles of water from my bottles and must have swallowed another 16 gallons of wheel spray.

1 cup (more or less) of dirty water emptied out of the frame when I got home.

90 psi in the Conti 700 x 28 tires made the big chip that much more comfortable - poo poo the nay sayers.

At prize givinh I picked up a flyer for another race in 2 months time from Queenstown to Wanaka and return over the Crown Range and thought yeah that wouldn't be so bad....

Which is good as I've finished other "fun" rides previously and wanted to sell the bike.

Didn't get a spot prize, but never mind that's racing.