Le Race Christchurch to Akoroa  (mostly 100km of hills joined up by short flat bits)

Graeme Young and I got ourselves into the first wave which is for the optimistic finish time of sub-3.

It’s always a bit frenetic dodging traffic islands and the cones that dot Christchurch streets. From a drone’s perspective, it must look like laminar flow with patches of severe turbulence as we neck and weave around the obstacles down Columbo St towards the Port Hills. After the Brougham Street intersection, the neutralising car pulls away and it’s game on to the climb up to Dyers Pass. It’s prudent to move as close to the front as possible as some fast riders hit some imaginary block wall at the first hill and wheels clash as riders seem to go backwards.

Graeme and I both made good progress in the steep section of the climb before we hit the main false flat that takes you up to Dyers Pass. Here the pace really picks up and if you’ve been burning too many matches it’s a struggle to hang on.

Thankfully, there was a group of five ahead of the main bunch hell bent on the KOM points so this calms the horses and I got onto the back of the main bunch. Graeme got caught out with the increase in pace and did not benefit from my chasing group that was keen to surgically attach itself to the main bunch. However, I was not in great shape as we turned right at Dyers Pass and clearly others felt the same as the bunch split up further and we got highly strung [out].

We sort of coalesced together to form a fighting fund of ten riders and got into the serious business of arriving at the descent down “Bastard” in a coherent state as the descent is wickedly fast. I practiced some passive rear wheel steer on one of the faster corners which was a salutary reminder how little sideways grip you have trying to twist and turn at 70km/hr+. Graeme reports that his bunch had a rider peel a tyre off his front wheel so down that rider went along with two others who braked too hard and lost traction. Graeme had the presence of mind not to brake and somehow steered through the carnage. We learned later the rider first down was knocked unconscious and got helo’ed to the hospital.

The really brutal section was the flat haul to Little River with howling NE winds producing terrible cross winds so there was little shelter once you’d done your turn on the front in the pace line. Our bunch, split up on the descent to Geddes Pass, got back together for the flat haul and we worked well, continuing to bring in riders spat out from the front bunch. Graeme reports he spent a long time on his own in this section which would destroy lesser riders.

The climb up Hill Top [to 490m] was actually conversational as the real race starts thereafter. I’d worked out that my bunch contained last year’s [M55-64] age grade winner but I don’t think he clicked I was in his grade and I felt disclosure was not helpful.

As we cleared Hill Top I dug deep on the rolling sections and gapped to the next bunch and encouraged them into helping me get a good gap on my [age grade] competitor who was riding on his own to catch up. It’s the sort of rolling hill climb that suited me with little pinch climbs of no more than 100 m followed by fast rolling sections. I got to the top of Duvauchelle Peak [690m] at the front of that bunch then got a helping hand from a local rider to get the good lines down to the saddle. Here we hit terrible cross winds, to the extent some riders where blown over. (read more on that poor sole) rider we were seeking to catch suddenly was blown across the road into the fence line on the other side. He managed to stay upright and should consider cyclocross as a sport given we were all travelling faster than 50km/hr. It’s pretty much all over from then with a series of light climbs until you go down Long Bay road to sea level. Bunches are non existent so you ride alone or in 2-3. The cross winds were so severe I was not prepared to go too fast on the last 500 m descent

Arrived in with a time of 3 hours, 4 minutes, putting 4 minutes on last year’s grade winner to grab the age grade win. The only real damage was to my back which shows how brutally we fought the wind. You clenched the bike to fight the wind’s desire to blow you over. I got a great massage from the Skoda team and the free beer and food was welcome too. Graeme Young did a sterling job to finish fifth in the M45-54 grade. The total climb is around 1800m and with the fast descents, you need to be constantly on your game with little respite.

It’s one of those races your cards are dealt pretty early on, and the winds punished small groups or solo riders.. Perhaps being a bit faster up to Dyers Pass may have helped us stay within the main bunch but you also face the prospect of being completely blown with 90 km to go.

More photos here

ciao

Ian