A good day in the end...

Started the swim on the right hand side. Did not see Mr Doe so must have not been the best position. The sun was out most of the way so lots of sun strike and very hard to see where to go. The fact that the turn cans were being placeed while we were swimming was not great as it made it impossible to line up a land mark and sight off that.

Got to the second turn buoy in over 15mins so new I was not in for a great swim. Found a good pair of feet and tried to hang on. We did pass quite a few on the return.

Got caught by first team swimmer! Tried to hang on for a bit but was way too fast.

Out in 29'30" not too bad for me at the moment

About a 1 minute in T1, quite good.

Heading out on the bike, trying to wind it up!

There was a strong sou east wind from first thing in the morning so I tried to make the best of it early on in the ride...

Very determined to make up some ground.

The left leg was giving me a bit of trouble. I found siting as far forward on the saddle as possible was the best, but this did kill the quads a bit! Not to mention other areas ;)

Coming onto lake front still in 3rd place

The wind coming back was quite challenging, however at some parts of the course I found it was possible to wind it up a bit. But there was too much time spend under 38Km/h to get a great time.

I was still being hounded by one guy coming to the end of the bike leg, even though I made the most of the tail wind down the last part of Broadlands road and then Spa Road. I was in the 11 hitting 60Km/h and beyond regularly. He was up to the task.

Bike time of just under 2hr20m pretty good on this course and good enough for 2nd fasted overall (behind Mr Doe & Mr Milne punctured).

Just before T2 he went past (the bugger) and I never got close again. Time 1'20" got left behind. Putting on socks really cost me here...

Heading out on first lap feeling OK and tracking 3rd place...

3rd place was just 60m ahead at this early point on the first lap. I was feeling a little sore, with numb toes and a sore groin but felt that I was closing in...

It was not to be though as about half way on the first lap the left calf was tightening and I had to nurse it. He got away from me. There was another guy just behind me so was getting a bit worried he was going to catch me.

At the turn around another guy went past, fast. Dam it! I could not dare to run that fast. I was cooling the calf down with water at each drink station and that seemed to help. With about 7Km to go I gradually increased the pace and finished strongly.

Made it! A good second lap but not that happy.

Happy to finish (5th) but a little disappointed the calf was problematic. I had to hold back in the run and think that 2min quicker was possible if it was OK. Still less than 1 minute behind 3rd place, so I held the run together reasonable well if with the calf problems. 1hr 24 m 44s run split, 5th fastest and I negative split to too :)

Fastest Half on NZ soil, so not all bad!

Taupo Half Race Plan

Not going to get too serious about this race but will jot down stuff that I want to use and do here...

Gear

• Goggles TYR technoflex jr clear ,
• Will wear my 2Xu shorts and 2xu black top, familar and comfortable,
• Xterra wetsuit will be good,
• On the bike will use my aero LAS helmet and ZIPP 404/808 combo with Open Pro CX tyres and new wheel cover for the 808 to make it not entirely unlike a disk,
• Use the Orbea Ora TT bike!
  
• On the run will don a cap and glasses and my Nike flats,will take the time to put on a pair of socks.
• Areo bottle on the bars so allow lots of drinking easily...
• Spare Tub and CO2 and tyre leavers taped in cage behind saddle.
• Arm coolers/warmers available
• Polypro available

Food

• For the ride food I will use 4 GU gels.
• For drink I will use Cytomax one scoop per bottle. Two bottles.
• For the Run will take 3 GUs and have one every 20mins with water then,
• coke/water after that.
• Might have a couple of salt tablets first and second lap too.
  

Race Plan

Days Before

• Change pedals. Use ones on the Time,
• Change Saddle. Use on from the Time.
• Check wheels OK,
• Tape up the container to hold spares.

Night before

• Rack bike and cover it so does not get too wet.

Pre race

• Get bike together, tyres pumped up, shoes on right pedals, Put fluid into front bottle and,
• Other drink on.
• Put helmet on top of bars,
• put food in helmet,
  
• Put spares and repar kit on bike properly so they do not come out. TAPE IT.
• Layout shoes with socks in each shoe half inside out,
• put cap above shoes with glasses and with three GU's, salt tablets.

Pre swim

• Put on sun tan lotion,
• quick run warm up 10 mins
• put wetsuit on and body glide,
• zip up and get in water for a 5-10m swim warm-up leave no more than 5mins before race.
  

Swim

• Not sure make it up at the time, look for best spot and start there,
• Find feet to swim on.
• Go hard no hanging about!

T1

• As coming out water take off top part of wetsuit, unzip and pull off arms,
• take off googles and cap and carry,
• hit lap button at T1 entry,
• At bike, drop goggles etc,
• Pull off wetsuit,
• food in top,
• Put helmet on,
• unrack bike and head for exit.
  

Bike

• hit lap button, 
• jump on bike with left pedal forward, stand on left shoe push forward and get right foot onto right shoe,
• get up to speed and then put left foot in first, then get some more speed on,
• then do right shoe, now go!
• settle in and have a drink...
  

Bike Tactics

• Start strong... put in a bit of effort until 30Km,
• steady on the hill but do not kill yourself,
  
• wind it up on the flat/down hill/tail wind parts,
• do not over do it into the wind,
• At turn around evaluate where you are - how far back,
• maybe another steady - hard session.
• do not go too fast on hill on the way back.
  

T2

• hit lap button,
• Rack bike
• take helmet off,
• put sock/shoes one one foot at a time,
  
• get glasses/cap/gus/pills and run to exit putting glasses and cap on,
• put GUs and tablets into pockets,
• hit the exit hard at full speed.
• press lap button.
  

Run

• settle into a good fast pace perhaps faster than ususal sub 4m/km,
• take a GU at first drink station,
• first lap drink carbo drink and water, take salt tablets, at each aid station,
• 2nd lap take coke if available.
  

Run Tactics

• 2 lap course out and back want to average about 20mins per half lap,
• check splits at each end,
• take splits against anyone in front, try to catch earlier i.e. lap 1 or 2
  
• Hang on for last lap!
  

Finish

• Have a drink!
• Party, party, party...

3:49 at Taupo!

I cannot believe it. I think this is about my 6th time 'round the lake and for the first time I plucked up the courage to enter the classic race. I almost did it last year but chickened out at the last minute. 

This year dawned a really nice day, perfect weather for riding. It was cool with no wind to speak of., but with $20K in prize money up for grabs this was not going to be a picnic!

Right from the gun we I was on the limit! Not having warmed up it was really tough. I was glad I started at the front of the bunch because by the time we got to the left turn at the top of State highway 1 leaving Taupo I was almost on the back and out the ass! 

Thankfully it got a bit easier from there, but still plenty of climbing to go and everyone was still pretty much together.

At each chance I got I would try to sneak up a few places. There was over 100 riders so it did make for a big group and it was well spread out. Being down the back was a bit of a worry if a split happened up front, not much you could do about that...

The classic course is slightly different to the solo ride, where we turn left and roll down towards Kinlock. This makes the race a few Km shorter but adds another 200m of vertical climbing into the mix instead. Heading down into Kinlock was an amazing experience I was hanging on the back within about 2 minutes and the pace was close to 80Km/h, then 40 then 80! Do not know what was going on but you could always smell the carbon break pads melting before you needed to slow!

As soon as we hit the bottom we were climbing again. This was the hardest part for me. The climb was quite steep and very solid. Not much more left before I would be going AT. There were quite a few getting dropped here and I had to ride around them and be very careful of not getting dropped.

After this things seems to ease off a bit. I suspected that some of the contenders had gone off the front (not that I could see any of that from the back!). For the next 20km I got myself further up front and even did a turn or too.

Another group got away at 50km and this made life a bit easier again. Coming up to Kuratau Hill I put myself right on the front setting the pace. Matt went flying past early on plus one or two others and for a moment I was worried that the whole bunch would fly past! Thankfully they did not and I was able to stay in the first 15 or so quite close to the front...

Nothing much happened after that. Until Hatepe although I did get myself caught in the wrong place for the big descent before Turangi A bit scary in the middle of the bunch.

At Hatepe I put myself on the front right from the bottom with the hope of staying in contact. It turned out OK as only about 10 or so went past. I was beginning to think I could stay with them and put in a effort, passing Mr Sheldrake but he went past a few seconds later and what was only a 15m gap turned into 50m, then 100m very quickly and I soon realised I was not going to get on easily. I tried for about 5mins but it just was not happening. I eased off and waiting for the main group again.

At the airport hill I again went off the front at the bottom. This was not received very well at all! Various amounts of abuse was fired my way! - Go champ - go for the win - etc! All I was thinking of was not getting dropped as that legs were gone! Sure enough about 3/4 up and I got swallowed as the steep part of the climb bit.

I tried to stay close to the front though and along the lake front put in a effort to get to the front. Only to realise that I had gone to soon and again got swamped just before the right turn onto the finish line. I had to go 'round that bend with a least two on the inside and one rider on the outside.  Hold your line I shouted to myself! 

A few put up a good sprint Matt Yates got it I think, but really there was no point so I just rolled over. Pretty blood amazed at the result I could not believe how fast we went. There really were not that many people pushing the pace on the front. The pace was always high though, and other than the first 30km the hills were not too bad. I was very stoked with the ride! Just one small thing, not getting onto the Sheldrake bunch on Hatepe - which stayed away to the finished - was just slightly a bummer.

Now waiting for the contract offers to start to pouring in... ;)