Le Race

After the NZ MTB series and Oceanias I had some time off the bike. Le Race was coming up and with Kristie working at the finish in Akaroa for Coffee Culture, I thought why not ride over!

I entered to race the 100km in the MTB catergory for some fun! My goal was to see how close I could get to my road bike time of 2hours 54mins (crap weather)...

After picking up the race pack Friday the fun began! The number went on the handlebars like a true XC racer, an 11-27 cassette went on and the knobblys went to 40psi.... Turning up on the start line got some funny looks and some good response, it also got the attention of some uptight roadies who thought when I rolled up into the sub 3hr start grid I was taking the piss....(for the record, I never saw them or there 15k+ bikes until the end)

I started next to Justin Sims (also riding in the MTB catergory) and I just followed him up the first climb, across the top we had a good little bunch of maybe 10 riders, I attacked to get to the decent down the bastard first, but got my hill wrong! I ended up being 4th into the descent. Passing the two roadies, it was Justin and me setting the pace...... he started to freewheel away from me. This is when I knew I was going to suffer, his 35c slicks at 90psi rolled a lot better than my 2.25 knobblys at 40....

We regrouped and set about knocking out the flat section of the race to Little River.... although my biggest gear was only a 38/11, I was comfortable with the 42-50kmph we where doing legspeed wise, but the big tires did their damage, I red lined with an average HR 10 beats higher than my threshold to Little River...

The bunch rolled away from me including Justin and 1st place... I recovered up the Hill Top climb and set a sustainable pace across the tops to the finish. The day was awesome weather wise, and the views were stunning. I fininished 8mins back from Justin with a time of 3hours 8mins.

Super happy with that time! It was a long, long ride after the short sharp XC rounds I had been doing, and the hills were a lot longer, so with no real long rides under my belt, I did what I set out to do... skids, wheelies and finished with a massive grin!

Time to get out and enjoy the riding with ligths and bitterly cold nights!