I didn’t have any real expectations going into this ride and
wasn’t at all nervous as I’ve ridden this course 4 times before. The last time
I rode the Flyer was in 2012 and at the time I was recovering from a fall which
resulted in a pulled groin. But even with only 6 weeks recovery from injury I
managed a time of 2:56 so I assumed that a time of under 2:50 should be my
target this time round. And also knowing that the course is relatively flat, my
Xmas excess shouldn’t slow me down too much (I’m still around the 76kg mark
compared to the 72kg I was at Taupo).
Weather conditions were forecast to be fine, maybe overcast
with a light southerly, so sounded pretty perfect for a fast ride. The actual
day turned out very similar except the light southerly wasn’t so light which
meant we had a headwind for pretty much the entire ride.
Mondo and I lined up near the front of the 2.45 – 3hrs group
and I think we got away in the 2nd wave. Having ridden this ride
before I knew your starting bunch really dictated your race overall so was keen
to get in a large bunch early. After making the turn onto the main road, I
could already see splits happening so I turned to Mondo and said “let’s go” and
proceeded to try to get on a good looking bunch (that was the last I saw of
Mondo ;-) The bunch I did latch onto wasn’t terribly large (maybe 20 -30) but
once I was on there was already a 50mtr gap to the next one, so settled in with
my lot. We were working reasonably well from the start and they seemed to be a
group similar to my ability. The first 15kms are largely uphill but nothing
steep, just a constant 2 – 5%. Felt like I was working pretty hard from the
start but also knew that once you’ve finished that first 15-20k you get a good
15k of mostly downhill and then 50-60k of rolling flats, so I pushed on.
Nothing special to report in those next 60k, bunch worked
well for most of the time, not too much surging etc, picking up a few
stragglers and probably dropping some but I just stayed near the front, rolling
through for my turn when required but nothing heroic ;-) I remember at
about the 55 – 60k mark feeling really good (even though my HR seemed to be
constantly in the high 150’s). Then around 65k a massive bunch caught us from
behind.. and all hell broke loose. Riders were passing up the inside, outside,
over the centre line, basically they completely swamped us. The pace might have
increased but I was just concentrating on keeping out of trouble. I went from
being constantly in the top 10 wheels from the front, to being 30 – 40 wheels
back.
The next 10ks was very edgy, lots of surging, braking, close
calls, yelling.. and eventually the inevitable happened, CRASH! Luckily for me
the crash occurred over towards the centreline and I was riding on the left.
Don’t know what exactly happened (it was 3 or 4 wheels in front of me) but 10+
riders must have gone down, in a pile of carbon and bodies with tyres going off
like gun shots.. I had to unclip to get around the mess and then took up the
chase to get back on the remaining bunch. Probably took 1 to 1.5k to catch back
on (working with a couple of other guys) and this sent the HR into the 170’s
and with the final climbs coming up soon, I don’t think the HR saw much under
170 from then on. The final climbs are very similar to the starting ones,
nothing steep, just constant 4-5% but long drags. As soon as road started up,
the remainder of the bunch blew apart and I just tried to keep on any wheel I
saw that was going forward.
All I remember at this stage was lots of pain, just working
as hard as I could, following any split but happily the legs were responding,
only issue I had was a bit of cramp in the right calf. I do remember the wind
being quite strong at this stage and whenever you hit the front of the bunch it
felt like a brick wall and was great when someone else came around ya. The
final couple of K is downhill and we were flying along averaging about 50kph. A
couple of guys sprinted past me at the end but I prefer to let them go than to
risk crashing, but still finished quickly (and safely).
So in reflection, I don’t think I could have done anything
else to get a faster time except from starting further forward on the grid, and
was happy with the result in the conditions (even though I didn’t break 2:50).
In comparison when I did the race 2 years ago, 2:56 was good
for 390th place out of 1573 finishers, 362nd of 1204
males and 99th of 292 age group (35- 44).
This year 2:57 got me 152nd of 1087 finishers, 145th of
845 males and 43rd of 183 age group (35- 44).
Seems like an improvement to me? ;-)
