As we did last year the plan is to schedule a series of training rides leading up to the Tour to help those of us who are short on legs and who would rather put the extra work in with a group rather than solo. It is also an opportunity to meet some of the group before the day if you are not a regular rider in the group.

The idea is to add in a Saturday ride on top of the usual Tarbabies Sunday ride, the focus will be on hills as the theme of this years tour seems to be hills, hills and more hills. Rides will start from the usual place at 8:00am on Saturdays and I have tried to plan these to compliment the Sunday ride programme.

As we get closer to the day there will be the option to plan longer rides, we can gauge the level of interest as the weeks progress.

By my count there are 8 weekends before the Tour so here goes;

- Saturday 23 August          - Southern Circuit
- Saturday 30 August          - Korokoro/Miro Rd etc
- Saturday 6 September      - Makara with the Opau Road, golf course and Makara Hill repeats
- Saturday 13 September    - 'Tuesday morning¹ hill circuit
- Saturday 20 September    - Pauahatanui/Moonshine/Akatarawa/Waikanae/Paek (90km)
- Saturday 27 September    - Southern Circuit
- Saturday 4 October          - Long ride TBA depending on weather
- Saturday 11 October        - Tuesday morning¹ hill circuit

It would be great to get a group together for these rides, the pace is steady with the focus on building strength, plenty of time for a blowout on Sundays.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Cheers,

Mike Phillips

Training Coordinator 4DT