TDM ride

TDM ride

after waking up 15 min before my alarm went off (better then seeping thought the alarm)

I get ready to go putting my handle bar bag and tail bag on the bike (the bags are so I have some where for the extra food and spear folding tire and a few other bit and pieces ( as I cant drive I have to take my extra food and some other suff with me as  I do the ride unlike the others who can leave suff in they cars) having a look at the weather forecast i see its going to be a long and wet day out on the bike so i put on an ice breaker top .after fulling up my water bottles i head out the gate and down the road stoping after about 5 km to take the sleeves of my jacket (it's a vest/jacket) back on the road I head though town at one point as I’m wanting for some light to change about 10 drunks from a near by bar start yelling abuse at me and start coming my way so i should down the road at about 25-30 km/h to get away- I can still get up some goods speed at 2:30 am (should of gone the other way into town) at the gull service station i met up with the other riders who are doing the 2 laps and at 3:30 am start down the road .

lap one 

 siting at the back I see the tail lights of the other riders as I ride down the road .after a stop to take my rain jacket off I slowly cache  back up with 2 of the other riders  passing then a few km on the other side of Ashhurst? at the start of the rolling hills  at Cheltenham I take a 5 min break and say good bye to the 2  riders that I had passed as they are doing to 80 km loop because of the weather I keep doing the 115 km loop going over more rolling hills At one my knees start getting sore (some thing that I have had to deal with over the last few years I know what it is and it's not going to get worse so I keep riding) near h i start having some food issuers (I work out whats going on and add a few things to the to do list for taupo) as I get back to the start and mix up my food for lap 2 I take a 10 min break  before heading down the road for lap 2  

lap  2 

lap 2 is a lot like lap ones was with more wind and rain some where along the way i decide to just leave the rain jacker off and see if the ice breaker top will keep me warm (i have a spear top cycling top in my hander bar bag if I start getting cold) between the rolling hills the ice breaker top I stay nice and warm on the ride after fielding I start to pick up some speed having the ch f (that was the ride bag) to give me a some extra energy after getting back to the gull 

all up the ride was 256 km long (taking about 14 - 15 hours (I’m not sure what the time was as myheart rate comper don’t like the rain and played up) with lots of wind and rain so it was a  long day out on the bike and a good test for taupo