Guest blog from the saddle!

Emirates Road Cycling Club Presents... - "The Percival Aviation World Cycling Challenge 2013".

Nathan tells his story:

10th December we climbed aboard BI097 to Dubai. Here we go! Early morning arrival into Dubai to be picked up by Flora Park transport.  (These guys would be invaluable over the coming days. Not only did they put us up for FREE!!! but they made sure we were transported to where we were supposed to be. A big thank you to Sidek and his team.) Didn’t quite make it through arrivals before we stocked up. Some of what got consumed before our pre-breakfast sleep...

First day there Linton came to meet us, it was good to see our old friend. Then Freddy came to pick us up for a little drive around and some shopping. Rush back to the hotel and then off to the Dubai Autodrome for a few laps. It was a pretty awesome place.

They open it up to cyclists for a few hours on Wednesday nights to whizz around. Fun for everyone from serious cyclists to the very beginners. Plus it was really nice to get to ride with Linton again, it's been a while and he has been missed on the long trawl down the coast road. Then it was back to the hotel and off for dinner. A few more ales and it was time for sleep.

Thursday was a rest day before the big event. some of the other teams went for a ride but we decided that rest was best. By now Will was recovering from his cold, and instead I was well on my way to one. Achoo!
I spent the day meeting up with Boel and the kids at Mirdif City Center, while Jeremy and Will went off to fine tune Will’s bike for the big day. We later had a team meeting before the Team Captain was supposed to meet the other Team Captain’s for final meeting. Roll call: Mike Lee? Present. Jeremy Saap? Present. Will Turner? Present. Nathan Watson? Present. Team Captain?….. Team Captain?…. Where is the team Captain?! A few frantic text messages it was revealed that he hadn’t even gotten on the flight over... Oh well. Jeremy sorted it and then cooked us a massive feed of pasta energy goodness. (When going on to a cycle event, always take a top chef!)

Early to bed and up at 0315. Aw god, that was early. Bit of a snivel and “Top Chef” had prepared breakfast. Nice. So a quick break and it was off to the bus again. We arrived nice and early. It was a little cool, everyone was wearing their undershirts. Mike Lee was a little chillier and rugged up!
Last minute pits stops meant we were rushing to get tot he start line. No rush needed though, as the start was delayed due to lighting issues. They also announced that the race would be shortened by about 10km.
We finally got away and it was on! In the rising sun we headed off towards the city, it was a spectacular ride. The roads were quiet and we were heavily protected by the local Police. A big thank you the Dubai Police force for keeping us all safe. The pace was pretty high, but not exhausting.

As we neared the end we started to ramp up the speed. There had formed a small gap and Will and I were closing on them quite nicely, but then we looked up and already saw the finish line?? They had shortened it by 13km, not 10km. Bugger!

We came up short, but just in the back of the main pack. It was a little disappointing on a personal level, but we had ridden a good race, and with an average moving speed of 40.9km/h for 2 hours we were pretty stoked overall. As a team Royal Brunei came in 8th. We had to be happy with that.

After the race everyone was invited to prize giving and lunch at the JW Marriot. A fantastic afternoon with all the teams.
Saturday saw another early start for breakfast and then a recovery ride to Bab Al Shams. A bunch of pilots (egos), and bikes on an “easy” 85km recovery ride. What could possibly go wrong??!! Off we set, a few gentle miles and then down went the hammer. Oh deep joy. But the breakfast was pretty cool. It was then time to head back and call a concussion. After a few pretty hectic days I finally hit the wall.  We all finally rolled to stop and I got to meet the legend that is Stephen Roche!!! Yeah baby, him!!

What a finish to a great experience!! Can’t wait to do it again next year. It was a blast.
Thank you Will, Jeremy, and Mike and a huge thank you Emirates Road Cycling Club. You put on an outstanding week, made everyone one feel very welcome, and set the bases for hopefully an annual event. Well done.

St Patrick's Day Run

Every Tuesday without fail, if I'm in the country, I do the Hash. This week it was my 137th run - and Mormor's 1st! (The Kids Hash counts separately).
I didn't think after Sundays escapades in the jungle, that she would actually agree on coming along again, but I promised we would only go 10 minutes in, and then turn around and go out again, so it was ok.

Before the run:





In the jungle, the mighty jungle..:









Nearly out again:



At the on-on, the hares getting their down-down.



They are dressed in green since it was the St Patrick's Day Run. Only one of them is Irish, one is married to one and the last one - I guess she was in it for the fun!



And here is Mormor and the other first time guest of the night (coincidentally also our new neighbour, they are moving into the Roses house soon!), getting their down-down:



For some reason they didn't have any water on the Hash last night, so Mormor got a Baileys..! :)

Race Day - Granddad's story

"What a GREAT DAY!

The "fast guys" - Nathan, Will and Colin launched from home at 6:30 as they had a 7:15 start time. No punctures this year but Colin had to return too base as his Garmin had packed a sad. The two Bruces left at around 7:30 and Michael at a leisurely 8ish!!









The "fast guys" were still on the line when the Bruces arrived, once again the main drag in Taupo was end to end bike riders. The Fast Guys launched at 7:45 and the two Bruces jumped the queue into the 4:40 too 5:10 group leaving at about 8:05. The plan was that Bruce Martyn "Donkey" was going to ride with Granddad and Granddad was going to unleash him at an appropriate time! BUT Donkey being Donkey was last seen by Granddad at the top of the control gate hill on his aerobars 10 meters off the front of the bunch "smoking"!

Conditions for the ride were perfect. Everyone had a good ride.
Unofficially the times were:
Nathan 4h45. That's SMOKING and a really good effort. That's MY boy!
Bruce "Donkey" Martyn around 5h10
Granddad 5h15
Will around 5h16
Colin Kyster 5h20
Michael Under 6 hours

So a good effort by all.
Post ride Bruce M and Colin partook in a massage while the hardy Kiwis cycled home up that Goddam Marpara Hill. We made it too the garage and when the others arrived home the Kiwis were sitting on the garage floor drinking beer - that's as far as we got.
Prize giving was a little drawn out this year and blimmin' hot!
After that we retired to a bar in Tuwhertoa St for a few pints of Tui, then dined at the Lotus Thai where Bruce's wife Nucha ordered up a fine Thai meal.
As per last year the noticeable weariness amongst the combatants set in around 10 so early bed.

Today has dawned another fantastic day so we will do the scenic thing today for our visitors.
Yvonne is planning a Kiwi roast lamb dinner and breakfast this morning will be accompanied by the All Blacks playing Wales.

From the Cycling Capital of the World Cheers -

Granddad"

Today's the day

"Well today's the day. Great day here, no wind, cloudless, a little chilly right now at 6:30. Every one up. All fit and well. Report Later on the event." [Gran Dad]









(Tihi, I really like this guest blogging! Makes the blog so multi dimensional, you get to see what's going on both here in Brunei and in NZ, at the same time! Thanks Gran Dad)

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"

Report from Gran Dad

I've got permission to publish the story of another guest blogger - Gran Dad!
All the boys are having a great time at the moment down in NZ, gearing up for Saturday's big race. Here's a taster of what they are up to, from yesterday:

"Day one. Will arrived today so we set out on a 44 mile ride up too the highest point on the ride. Bit demoralizing as several of the 8 timers passed us going up the road!!! One guy, an American, only had sandals on. Nathan commented that he was going to do the Jesus thing and walk across the Lake at some point.
When we got back Colin had arrived so we assembled his bike and Yvonne cooked a huge roast; as Colin doesn't eat meat we had a huge dinner of mussels, scallops and roast pork.



Our photographer needs lots of prodding and reminding to get the camera out. Perhaps Bruce's wife will be better!

Big day tomorrow, we have more bike tuning to do at Craig's bike shop and a ride down over the Hatepe Hill.

Great weather here.
Cheers from the cycle capital of the world."

The HSCB Cycle for SMARTER - Nathan's story

"Will rocked up at the spritely hour of 0410 for a day of fun and sun. We put the bikes on the back and off we headed to JJ's to pack our bikes up and drive to KB to the start. John was there very soon after, and by then the bikes were all packed up, driver was there and were ready to go for a our planned 0445 departure. One problem, we were missing 2, Moza and Fakhrul had over slept and JJ made the call.
Jimmy drove us down to KB. Why he would volunteer a day off to drive JJ and his mates to KB in the orange bus I am not sure, but thanks. After a small delay to the schedule we were outbound.



We tried to catch up on some sleep on the way down, but it wasn't much good. Liyana had very graciously made us some cheese and tomato sandwiches that morning. Wah hey! Thank you Liyana.

In KB we rushed to unpack bikes, check tire pressures, sync cadence and HR monitors (there were a few Garmins around so things were getting a little confused) and down to the start line.

Will, John and I decided to blend nearer the front whilst JJ and his domestiques were happy to sit it out near the back. Pehin tooted the horn and led us off. We mooched out of KB and onto the highway heading up the coast to our first stop 40km away.




(John, and my shoulder..!)



It took us some time to catch up to Andy Scholar, he obviously tried to set up some early KOM (King of the Mountain) points. But we teamed up with him before our first stop and the chatting joking continued.



First stop was at Soon Lee, S. Liang, to top up the water bottles, take a bathroom break and John to be reacquainted with his old jibbing buddy from last years ride, Pehin Yahya. Funny how he remembers, "that orang putih" John!



From there the next stop was only 30km away but the sun was starting to tell. It was a beautifully clear day, but that meant the sun was out in force. Hot day.
The pace continued at a sub 25km/h very easy for anyone to maintain. Once at Taman Sungai Basong another pitstop and lunch! Well received and gladly eaten.



With bottles topped up were were ready for the next 30km to HSBC Jerudong. On the second to last "hill" of the day Andy launched an attack to secure the KOM crown. He left the pelaton standing and blistered up the hill. He was caught just after the summit, but the damage was done and Andy could now relax with the KOM crown firmly in his pocket. Good effort mountain man!



After a period Will and I had curiously noted that the marshals at the front were inclined to go faster up the hills than they were down. This led to the poor souls behind us having to break at the bottom of the hill then use extra effort to get up them again.



Once at Jerudong HSBC there was some last minute top ups and we collected the kids and 8km challengers. The last 8km was a bit spread out, but the marshals and police did a fantastic job of keeping all the children and other riders safe. The traffic was very calm and I thank all the traffic we met from KB to HSBC Sengkurong for the patience and considerate driving. Thank you.

We didn't collect any prizes, but we had completed our 108km. It was a very long day in the sun, but it was fantastic to be out with 400+ other cyclists in Brunei all the way from KB to BSB. A little cloud cover might have aided but it was better than the constant rain that hung over BSB the day before. (I now have tan lines on the end of my fingers from where my cycling gloves stop!)



After the prize giving we had to return to JJs about 8km away to collect the car and return home. JJ came whizzing past John, Will and I and told us to keep the pace up. He pulled his time at the front and then promptly fell off the back! Will got caught out waiting for JJ to slot in and missed John's wheel. JJ made an appearance once the shoes were off and bikes dismantled, but his new Giant did look very smart.





Thanks guys, had a great day. I look forward to riding with you again soon and hopefully next year HSBC might be able to organize the event as more of a timed challenge!"

Please welcome my first guest blogger!

Nathan: Started about 6 this morning, into town to sign in and wait for the start. 350 of us headed out on mass from Yayasan to The Empire. This was the first of 4 pit stops. As it was a "ride for all" with the slogan being "Burn fat not oil", the pace was very relaxed.
After stop at The Empire it was 40km down to Taman Sungai Basong for another drink stop. Approaching the turn off I got a flat in my front tire and had to walk it in to make a quick change. After this it was 15km to Bukit Basong to turn around and go back. On the way back we managed to fool the "officials" into upping the pace for a while before the whistled us back in again.

Once back at the Tmn Sng Basong pit stop we lost about half the field to the bus as they were transported back to The Empire. On the way back we worked out that the "officals" had not calibrated their speedometers so their idea of 25km/h was in fact closer to 21! At The Empire we hung around for about an hour as people sat around and counted daisies. From there back to the start where Linnea and Boel had given up the kiddie hash to see us home! Was good to see them and climb off the saddle!

All in all it was a good day and covered about 130km. The organizers had set a target speed and cut off times for getting away from the pit stops. Neither were managed and the day did tend to drag out a lot more than was needed. But I won a free water bottle so there was a bonus to a sore a**!