Novice in the 'Kune Climber'


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Published: April 26th 2009
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Happy AthleteHappy AthleteHappy Athlete

Well into going 4 a fun ride. Oh jeepers, it's uphill!
On saturday morning I left Peak Motor Inn & biked along the road to where the registration bench was for the 'Kune Climber' bike race up to the finish line at the Tukino ski area carpark. It started at 697m altitude & progressed 17 km to get up to 1780m altitude. There were about 40 competitors in the race which started at 10:30. I was also being filmed by an ATV camera on a motorbike the whole way up. Most of the competitors were on racing road-bikes with flash cycling shirts, tights, gloves etc worth up to $20,000 & I was on 1 of just 5 actual Mt bikes! That gave my ATV crew a good incentive to be cheering the one young reborn cripple to beat as many of the competitive riders as possible...

I started off well being in the top 5 for the first 500m, then I was overtaken by almost all of the others. I was enjoying the scenic setting on an almost fine day when considering that the forecast was 4 a storming rainy day with gail-forced NE wind which would make it really hard for us to ride uphill! The bush setting kept it
Racing equipent on showRacing equipent on showRacing equipent on show

Just an interesting comparison of myself to the rest...
relatively wind free and it was also pleasant to be cycling through native NZ bush setting.

As I kept cycling at the same rate without an intention of winning I found that others had had it in mind to do really well & were starting to fall back with big energy loss. From about one third of the way up there were others back with me. I got into a habit of talking to them about my traveling around the world, my intention to do the Pole to Pole, my death ski-crash and my progress of recovering. They really loved hearing it & were amazed that I could talk to them as I had done very little training for this. After about halfway up people were getting more & more exhausted from the steep hill gradient. I actually spent about 30 minutes having a conversation with one dude until he dropped back behind me.

Then when I thought I was about 3 quarters of the way I crossed the actual finish line! It was a little testing, but because I finished so much sooner than I had predicted it turned out much easier than I thought it would
GO!GO!GO!

Start of the uphill speed challenge
be. I had predicted a good time of about 90 mins.

Actual result; finished in 77 mins, average speed 13.25 km/hr. WOOHOO!!


Additional photos below
Photos: 8, Displayed: 8


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Biking in the bushBiking in the bush
Biking in the bush

Enjoyable native bush setting of the cycle
Enjoying beautiful bushEnjoying beautiful bush
Enjoying beautiful bush

This was just one of the days highlights
High altitude sceneHigh altitude scene
High altitude scene

Arrival with a clear view near the top
Race to the finishRace to the finish
Race to the finish

Still not aware but I was still cruising
Satisfaction at the summitSatisfaction at the summit
Satisfaction at the summit

Nice 2 get a cuddle from my #1 in the world!


Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0271s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1mb