23rd January, Fielding to Palmerston North via decent stretches of gravel !!
If you’re looking for a good local day out, with close up action of NZ’s top riders on an epic and novel circuit then you need to get along – there is also a “fun ride” event over the same circuit that I WILL be riding next year, looks too good to miss.
Check out the promo video – here – could be in Tuscany or at the Strade Bianche
We drove up, rode to the top of the major gravel climb and watched the “fun ride”, elite women and elite men driving themselves to the limit – you get to see A Gates, G Bennett, F Fisher-Black and co up close and suffering bad (they’re human, they looked just like us after 100km on the rivet).
Headed back to Ashhurst/Palmy and watched from a couple of spots as they successfully worked each other over. Those cross winds were seriously lethal.
It was a brilliant day out, an excellent circuit from a spectator perspective, great local riding and good cafes. Aside from seeing George Bennett completely tapped out as he rejoined the bunch in the cross winds, the highlight was having one of the trailing elites complain “@#$ that was hard, they put it in the gutter from the gun, I lasted 10km, then it went really bad” as he hauled up the climb, off the back.
Summary, great event and well worth the investment of a day out of town !!