Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Manawatu Country Road Cycle Classic Ride 2012


The Manawatu Country Road Cycle Classic Ride


ride report for 160 km fun ride

getting up nice and early to get ready and at the start line by 6:30 am I have a chat to some of the other people doing the ride (nice to have some other people to ride with for a change as 98% of my riding is on my own ) and doing a few last min jobs like mixing up the food for the ride (for food I’m using hammer perpetuem in 3 drink bottles (2 750 ml with 6 scoops in and one 500 ml bottle with 4 scoops in ) I add water only just before the start of the ride so the perpetuem don’t spoil and full up my 1.5 l camel back with water. at 7:30 am the ride gets under way.


enjoying the ride though town riding though the red lights (getting wave though in one big grop of riders. a few km into the ride after the first hill of the day I note that there is an odd sound coming from the bike looking down I see that the bb cups have come a bit unsecured I try riding a bit more but the drive side cup comes out to the point the  cranks will not spin anymore. looks like my ride is over only 12 km into the ride - not what I was looking for word to for the day after about 20 mins suck on the side of the road one of the ride motor bike stops to cheek on me .after saying what was wrong I got the phone numbers of the 2 bike fixing vans - giving the first one a call I find out there don't have the tool I need (about the only tool I don't yet have for the bike) I give to other van a call - its seem that they have the tool i need only to find out 20 min later when they drive up  they don't have the tool.after playing with the cranks a bit I work out a way to screw the cups back in ( the idea of having to walk back 14 km is a good incentive to try new things to get the bike running) so after spending an hour on the side of the road I get back on the road keeping a eye on the bb cups. at ashhurst I have a chost of A. ride back to palmerston north by S.H.3 ? and have a DNF or B. to keep doing the fun ride making up lost time when and where I can - well to me there is no real chose so it B. for me( I don't take the easy way out )  


keeping an eye on the bb cups as I ride over the many hills that make up the first 80 km of the ride having as I fly down some of the hills staying to my plan for food and drink I even start passing a few of other rides its a nice day for a ride riding down some nice back roads to the mid way point at atipe? where I have a hammer bar just for some thing to eat. siting at around 25-30 km/h from atipe all the way back to Palmerston north only slowing down going up a few of the hills going though fielding I pass a few more riders (yep there are time I like to go fast on the bike )some of the looks that i got from some of the riders I passed were fun about 15 km from the finish i had to do a bit of map work to make sure I was on the right road (as the ride signs were being taking down around 2:30 pm) getting to the finish I was some what surprise that there were still people behind me (about 5 or 6 riders came in about 15-30 mins after me) nice not to be last rider in like I was last year .after heading to the squire for prize given (no i did now win any thing this year : ) before riding back to the place where I was staying

this ride went well as even think in the ride plan work out as planed 

the food drink plan I did for the ride work out as I planed it - as well as the hammer perpetuem in my drink bottles I had 3 gel’s to help with the hills as well as a hammer bar(some thing to eat at the 1/2 point)

part of the ride plan was to ride the 2th 80 km faster then the first 80 km what I did - its the first time on a fun ride that I have been able to go faster then most of the riding I do - with my dyspraxia I can only ride at one speed but I can do that the speed all day as I don’t get sore legs but I have not work out how to get my legs to change gears so to speak-ride faster for a shorter ride time -on the ride was the first time I got my legs to work like this (more speed on a shorter ride so it's a big deal for me )

the weather was nice with only a bit of wind near the end (where did the head winds come from?) no rain on this years ride

ride time-
my ride time was around 7:50 with the hour lost on the side of the road with lose bb cups that makes an on bike time of 6:50 - about the same time it took me to do the round the Mt ride that was 10 km less. it took me around an hour less to  the ride this year (somer thing to do with being fitter then I was a year ago having just come off a few weeks of bike touring around the south island)    


break downs

I had no flat tires this year the only proline I had was the bb cups being lose -I had change the main frame over a few days before (as I had creak the frame down the south island) -It would seen that I had not got the bb cups tight - as I was looking over the bb cups a day latter the drive side cup fell apart in my hand (i'm some what surprise it laster the 150 km of the ride after i got it back in on the ride )i did note a small wobble?in the cranks as I was riding a few days after the ride I swapped over the bb cup from my old frame and picked up the tool that I needer for the bb cups from the bike shop is it's a tool that I will use some times (as I do a lot of my riding in the middle of no where far from any bike shop I take some bike tools with me on the bike)

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