---- Ride Report ----
This year's K2 arrived in April, having been postponed from March, having been postponed from October.. due to the Covid 19 virus. The forecast for the day was terrible, high winds and rain.. and unfortunately the forecast was correct. The rain didn't really get heavy till after lunch but the North-Easterly wind was strong from the start. Our build up had been great, with lots of long, hilly, Summer rides and a recce ride in Feb, and I'd also recorded my best 20min power in an FTP test, also in early Feb. However, I had been finding it hard to knock out the hard interval rides in the last few weeks and felt like my form had peaked for the March ride date. BUT, having said that was still confident I could have a good ride and had really rested the last 2 weeks to freshen up.
Lining up at the start, you could visibly see the numbers were way down (unsurprisingly) and after group 3 they started putting groups together and releasing them.. so it wasn't long before we were off. Carl and I quickly moved towards the front of the bunch and the first major climb of the day, Pumpkin hill was upon us. Our rough plan was to stay with the bunch at least till Whitianga, then take the hardest section of the race, from Kuaotunu to Kereta at our own pace, then catch whatever groups we could from then on. The pace up Pumpkin was hardish but not too bad, I averaged about 258watts and 159hr (according to Strava) and Carl and I crested at the front of the bunch. Descending was slow due to the weather but our group reformed reasonably quickly as we moved onto Coroglen. We made good time through to Whitianga despite the head wind and a pace line would form on the long flat sections which we contributed to.
As we approached Kuaotunu is said to Carl we might as well stick with these guys as the pace seemed good and not too hard (first 41km @ 29.7kph avg, 181avg watts), and I was feeling fine. The climbs come thick and fast from Kuaotunu, followed by Myundermans, Gentle Annie and Whangapoua. We sat in where we could, ate and drank, and generally tried to conserve energy while still sticking with the bunch. Carl and I climbed Whangapoua together and as "easily" as you can, as the bunch split to pieces. We had had a cross tail wind from Kuaotunu so our pace had been good for the Whiti to Coro section (42km @ 24.7km, 178avg watts, 150avg hr), again going along nicely. Unfortunately on the Whangapoua descent we passed a crash (Joanna Sharpe) but we got down safely. We went past the Coromandel town turn off at 10.44am and must have missed Trace and her K1 bunch by only minutes.
Our bunch was in one's and two's now, so Carl and I took turns on the front, clicking along the flat land before Manaia, without pushing the pace but unfortunately I already had the all to familiar feeling in my legs that cramp was on the way (and we were weren't even halfway around 😕 ). We got up and over Manaia and Kereta climbs holding reasonable power (around 220watts for me) but on the steep first section of Kereta, we had an incident. We were catching some slow K1 riders and as we passed one REALLY big guy, he started to wobble.. Carl was in front of me and the big guy started to veer dangerously across the road and clipped Carl's rear wheel.. he was definitely going down.. the problem was, he was falling directly into my path! I'm not sure what exactly happened next but in my efforts to avoid him, I ended up on the other side of the road, unclipped and laid the bike down. It wasn't a bad crash, but if I wasn't wearing gloves my right hand would have been a mess.. as it was, I only had a light graze on my thumb and a bruise on the inside right knee which had smacked the top tube. My initial thought was "WTF! you bastard!" but I quickly realised it was just an accident and out of his control (once he'd lost control). I was back on my feet and asking the big guy if he was Ok.. but he obviously wasn't.. he seemed dazed and was walking backwards, carrying his bike to the road's edge.. and despite a few of us yelling "stop.. watch out.. " etc he had toppled over backwards off the road hard shoulder and down into a ditch. "Luckily" he was stopped rolling any further by some shrubs/bushes breaking his fall and a couple of other riders that had stopped when we crashed, jumped down off the road to help him up. I decided that he was getting all help he needed so I jumped back on my bike and carried on with Carl. The whole sequence of events only took around a minute and I didn't feel any worse for wear after.. only the thumb was a bit sore.
Once we descended off Kereta we began the long coastal section to Thames.. our pace was still Ok (around 25.8kph avg) but with all but one of the major climbs behind us, a tail wind (down the coast at least) and plenty of flat road to come, we were still on track to break 7hrs. Carl and I worked our way solo for the first 10 - 15kms, passing small groups or solo riders but eventually we got caught by about 4 FFC riders (and a couple of others) and as we rolled turns with them our pace picked up. Unfortunately about 5kms from Thames, one of the FFC guys dropped his jacket out of his back pocket, so 3 of them turned around to get it.. but this split our little bunch and Carl was in the front at the time. I tried to chase and bridge the gap but they steadily pulled away and Carl hadn't noticed (concentrating on the wheel in front of him) so I had a 10min period on my own but Carl's group was always in sight up the road.
Carl and I regrouped in Thames but without the FFC guys taking turns our pace had dropped, however we had made good progress.. making the turn to Kopu our avg speed was up to 27.2kph. BUT as soon as we made the turn into the wind and started the Kopu climb, I knew it would be a struggle.. I just couldn't get any reasonable power out of my legs, cramp was a constant companion and I definitely had a few bouts of tourettes 🤬 watching my avg speed slowly dwindle down. 50 punishing minutes later we finally crested Kopu, which gave us just over 50mins to get to the finish, about 27kms away.. again, by itself, that equation from the top of Kopu should have been doable but every time the road went up (those three or four forgotten rollers after Kopu) I would slow to what felt like a crawl.. and then the heavens opened in the last hour, just to finish us off. Ironically, my legs found some power again with about 10kms to go, so I did some stronger turns on the front (which Carl was probably hating me for..) and we'd picked up some other riders who were taking the odd turn but the 7hr time ticked by with 3km still to go.. final time 7:07 (avg 25.9kpm, 166w, 145hr).
So I guess I should be happy to have completed another K2 (my 10th) in horrible conditions and staying (mostly) upright for the day but I can't help but be disappointed with the result. There's lots of different excuses I could try.. but sadly I just didn't have it on the day. Looking forward to just riding my bike now, without targets or intervals for quite a while.. next race for me is TDR in October.
And a big thanks to Carl for being the ultimate wingman on the day.. a true professional as always 👍
