Friday 26 November 2010

Day 2 from Taupo

"Day two was spent completing an easy ride over the Hatepe Hill (the biggest climb in Saturdays event). No demoralizing encounters with the 8 timers this day! We saw several of them going the other way on their 3rd or 4th lap, considerably subdued they were.



On top of the Hatepe Hill Will decided to go into leg saving mode so Granddad happily obliged and volunteered to ride back towards Taupo while Nathan and Colin (Colin is an Korean Air colleague of mine who hails from the US and lives in Honolulu. He completed the Florida Iron Man recently in around 11 hours, no mean feat believe me) decided to ride on and "look" at Saturday's accent of the Hatepe Hill. They must have been smoking on the way back as Will and I could not see them on the rise up too the airport when we could see a good mile back down the road, and then the next thing they were right there. 5 hours or under I think for those two boys!

We spent the rest of the day dealing with Craig. Nathan has changed his gearing (Craig has lent him a 11-25 Dura ace cassette) and he has been having trouble with the gear shifting, finally sorted at 4 pm!
We visited the Great Lake Center where there were bargains galore but supposedly closed until tomorrow morning. We did get a peek though at the new Avanti Team issue of Nathan's bike - $16000!

On the way home the new NZ pro cycling team Kiwi Black were on a training ride up "our road" all decked out in their very NZ black strip riding the new Avanti bikes that we had just seen.
Of course we then had to have another tactical discussion, reload the beer fridge and in Jeremy's absence Granddad cooked seafood pasta.





Tomorrow is a big day.
Sign in day, the "Donkey" arrives. Then the criterium racing around the streets of Taupo tomorrow night. The weather is fantastic, cool in the mornings although it's 7 am now and quite pleasant. About 24-26 during the day. Lots of sun block will be the order of the day tomorrow.



Here are Granddads picks:
Nathan and Colin 5 hrs or just under.
Granddad 5:20 -40
Will bit of an unknown right now.
Donkey... Well "What are you doing now Donkey?"

Cheers
Granddad"

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