taupo ride report
here is my ride report for my 640 bike ride doing 4 laps of lake taupo
(there may be the odd thing that i have not got right or got mix up here as there is a lot of the ride that I don’t remember well)
up at 5:30 am and ready to get on the road about 6 am I ride the 12 km into town at a easy pace knowing the next few days will be a long ones getting in to town around 7 am I get some food and a few last min things like a spear break cable before heading to the great lake center(GLC) where I pick up my riders bag and gps tracker (the gps is so people will know where I am as I do the 4 laps around the lake (the gps was not that good this year it stop working some where between lap 1and 2 )
tim and Lis give me a hand getting ready I have a 10 min look around the bike expo then onto the ride briefing where I get a lot of pepole asking about the bike -even the radio people want to ask me suff tim ends up having a chat to the radio for me (I don't do talking radio because of my poor speech ) - if you what people to have a chat to you ride a bike friday. then it time to get on the road and at 10:30 we are off (there were around 12-14 people doing the 4 lap ride ) as I climb up the hill (the first of the many hills to climb over the ride I see my heart rate monitor has stop working after a bit of a play I give up on it - I was going to use it so I knew when to not go so hard up the hills (I like to keep my heart rate below 180 bmp when doing long rides) It's a windy day with some of the riding start into a strom head wind and going down some of the hills I lean the bike into the wind to stay upright (riding in the wind is some thing I am well used to living Palmerston north though it don't make it any easy to do) some where around the 16 km mark I look back and down only to find that I have some how lost my tail bag( I had 2 bags on the bike a hander bar bag and a tail bag that sits on the rear rack) the bag had my rain jacket , bike tools ,spear parts and tubes ,first aid kit spear tire and a few other things like my soft toy pony that had been on my bike trips for the last 6 years. after a chat to tim on the phone I keep riding as tim and Lis will be going for a drive to try and find it .after they chach up to me with the news of no luck of finding the bag I bowre a few things off them and get back on the road .
after going over some of the many hills of the course I past the sing that says 80/80 (80 down with 80 km to go) there are sings that say how far you have done and how far you still have to go also there are sing with fun saying on them after waihi hill the road is flat for the next 40 km at turangi I met up with my mum (with the bike)and ride with her doing 25-30 km/h until hatepe where she puts the bike on the car then up the hill that I get easy (doing all that hill work when bike touring around east cape pay did off) after some more riding I get into taupo and stop at the motel where tim and lis are staying and where my food and spear gear is .after I full up my food and drink bottles and replace some of the gear that was lost with the tail bag (I never did find the tail bag )with lis giving me a hand I had back on the road until I get into the bp ss check point where I sing in after doing a 9:30 lap
lap 2
as I head of in to the sun set I take one last look over the lake before getting back into the hills
some time around 11pm I find a place out of the wind between 2 trees on the side of the road for a 15 min nap (spending about 45 min off the bike) before getting back on the road near tihoi I see a bus stop so have a 20 min sleep inside then back on the road until I got to about 25 km out of turangi where I had one last sleep on some gravel just off the road just after sunrise- being able to sleep anywhere is a skill that I picked up on my life on the road. the hard part for me was I was not tired well mental I was but my legs was fine - I never had sore or tired legs on the ride getting back into taupo around 10 am I restocked my food and water before heading to the bp to sin in and to start lap 3 There is a lot of lap 2 that I don't remember
lap 3
it’s still windy as I head back into the hills at tihoi I stop to get a ice cream and some food to help stay awake as I was having a hard with the heat (hot weather and me don't mix well) I must of look perry bad when my mum and her boy friend came by in the car by the look they give me after some food and water i got back on the road and keeped riding until i got to turangi at about 6 pm where I stayed with my mum in the time shear for the night until 5 am when I got back on the road to taupo (doing the 50 km ride to taupo on a pie from the only shop open on the way) getting in to taupo around 8 am before going to the Enduro Breakfast that was a good get together before getting back on the road at 11 am for the last lap
lap 4
as I rode over the hills (for the last time!! : ) I had a good think about the ride -what went well ,what I still needy to work on why I was doing the ride and what I will be doing next for fun - if it's not fun why do it (of course some people have said my idea of fun is some what odd : ) its a hot day for a ride with no wind the tar is melting on the road all I could hear at times is the sound of the bike going though the hot tar - a popping sound at tihoi I stopped next to mums car for some real food - a nice change from the hammer food in the drink bottles after that I get back on the road
and head over a few more hills and some more bottles of water until i get to turaing where mum joins me for a ride so I had some one to talk to for a change(I had no one to ride with for most of the ride because of my slow speed and the time I got into taupo for lap 3 )to hatepe where she put her bike on the car and I went over the last big hill of the day then along the flats and some rolling hills in to taupo getting to the GLC (the starting point) at 8 pm on sunday
time on the bike was around 40 hours
