Fifteen Chosens/Tarbabies were among a field of just under 200 entrants in the 3rd year of the Gentle Annie Fun Ride – this event has been running since the road was fully sealed. We woke up to a day with perfect riding conditions. The day started with 15 degrees and finished with 25 - thankfully there was some cloud covertowards the end of the day! (some Photos)(more Photo's on Facebook)
We took advantage of the excellent organisation of event organisers, the Ramblers Cycling Club, and went with the optional bus & bike transport to the start while ex-Wellingtonian and now Hawkes Bay local, Greg Woodham chose the optional early 9:30am start making his own way to Taihape. This meant that we checked our bikes at registration the day before, and hopped on the bus at 7:00am for the 3 hour journey over the route that we were to climb (& descend) over the remainder of the day. This was an eye opener as none of us had seen the route from a cyclists point of view and the last couple of hills (including the Gentle Annie) looked insurmountable!
We arrived at the start in Taihape to find the bikes all laid out on racks & the pros & "guns"all warming up with their carbon hoops spinning away. It would be fair to say that there were a higher proportion of participants with a BMI considered dangerously low by health professionals than our usual fun rides - so we didn't look out of place! Svelte Mike Faherty looked in fine form but his recent exploits on the "white telephone" the night before were to soon prove his undoing! This put our race plan and tactics in disarray so plan B had to be executed.
The General (Dave Levick) attacked early on with the Americans (Colin Crosby & Geo Snelling) who had been on the Lance Armstrong training plan since being introduced to the good doctor - they used the Avanti Pro Riders as their domestiques in the leading bunch. Kevin Lampden-Smith and Dave Flynn thought they would join in on the action and the early short sharp attacks by Flynny took it toll later on the ride with Geo taking a more conservative tack wondering why the General and Flynny were burning their matches so early. The plan to use the Tims' (Cookson & Blackmore) to slow down the peloton didn't quite work out. So how did it all work out? The field split up on the first hill with most of us riding either alone or in twos or threes for most of the way.
The first 42 km was characterised by the beautiful Rangiteki countryside with gradual repeated hills and comfortable gradients. The first big hills came following a big rapid descent down to the river - it was a gnarly sustained climb with sharp large coarse chip which took out Gavin's back tyre as he caught up to Mike Faherty walking up the hill pushing his bike with one hand & clutching his tummy with the other. As agreed beforehand The Apprentice, Catherine Millar carried on with Mike hooking onto her slipstream. Kind words of encouragement ( 'bad luck') were heard as Gregor & Gillian Bruce & Gill Gray raced past Gavin expertly executing a tube change.
From this point on, it would be fair to say the riding was the most difficult. The strength in the legs were now diminished, back ache was a common symptom, hills were given names & distances, summits were reached, fast downhills followed, repeatedly, all reminiscent of the movie "Groundhog Day". At 72km Gentle Annie (2 km long) was memorable - not to be recommended on a standard crank (53/39) and 12/25 cassette which I had. One other big hill followed the Gentle Annie (if that wasn't enough to hammer your legs to submission) then at around 90 km on, it was mainly downhill with more modest climbs for the next 50 Km. This was when most of us were just hanging on for dear life, managing cramp (yours truly) if you were able to find a riding companion or two. I had no shame drafting behind The Apprentice, Esko and several others to the end! Flynny and The General had crawled past the finish after some solo riding just before us both vowing never to do the ride again.
Geo, Kevin and Colin had excellent rides with some good times. Gregor, Gillian, Gil all had steady rides and Mike showed great mental strength doing well to finish the ride. Some consolation for our mixed overall team results (which included 3 DNFs) was a bit of a clean up in spot prizes at prize giving.
Results to follow