Coromandel to Home

Thursday and Friday were 'rest days', good job too! as Saturday was our planned ride from the Coromandel back home to Auckland, an expected 180k plus.  It will be the longest ride yet.

From left, Nana (Julie), Gusy, CM, Graham (married to Nana), Liza

We had a posy of 4 riders (Camp Mother, Gusy, Nana and myself) and 2 support persons (my Liza and Graham), each in control of a SAG wagon. We all headed to Coromandel Town on Friday night, stopping into Thames for a few beers and a feed of Thai (see photo).  By the time we got to the cottage motel is was at least 10pm, and well past all our bedtimes.  Unfortunately for poor Graham this is when he realized the padlock securing Nanas bike to the car had NO known number.  Secretly I think Nana would have been quite happy to have sat this ride out, but its OK Graham headed to the local Servo nice and early the following morning and after a bit of explaining managed to get the lock cut off.

In our team kit, from left CM, Nana, Me and Gusy

On our drive from Thames to Coromandel Town we had decided a) we best get moving asap in the morning to avoid the traffic on the narrow roads and b) them hills looked nasty!. So on Saturday morning when I finally decided to take a look at the time and declared to Liza it was already 6.30am, well I have never seen her move so fast, as she sprang out of bed running round the cottage to wake everyone up.  We had planned to be on the road by now .... oops.  Remembering the purpose of our ride (time in the saddle and on the aero bars) I made the call to beg and pled Graham to drive us over those hills at the start.  After all I certainly didn't need to splat myself on the road and I sure didn't see any hills in the Ironman course !! we will comeback for those hills when we are training for K2.  We headed off around 8am ....

Coffee and Cake Stop

In true Camp Mother style she had printed instructions for our SAG wagon captains including where to meet us and with what supplies, for the riders we all had a laminated check sheet to ensure we didn't make any wrong turns along the way.  Our first stop was a cafe approx. 50k out from the start point (see photo) where we enjoyed a nice coffee, cake and as it turned out, the only required toliet stop of the day.  Soon back on our bikes,  I discovered that in our haste to get underway I had the wrong front wheel on my bike and the brake was undone, lucky we didn't attempt those hills eh!. "Lesson one: make sure you take the time to check your own gear! "  I had CMs spare.

Cycle Surgery

After a few more hours down the road we had to make our first official text to the SAG wagon.  A back wheel puncture, despite being well prepaired and skilled! we fixed the puncture only to have it go down again. Yes take a closer look at the picture CM is wearing a rubber glove :) So we opted for the quick wheel interchange, I also took the opportunity to swap over and get my front wheel back. Liza did a great job !!! Thanks beautiful :)  Our next stop was at some place called the "castle" which was approx. half way.  This time it was a quick refresh of bottles then back on the bike.  Not long after Nana waved goodbye and headed home with her personal SAG wagon driver, Graham.  I heard she did a run after her ride, well done! and thanks a million for coming along and keeping us company :) And thanks Graham for the lend of your team top.  We did look pretty awesome in our matching gear.

Liza was awesome and would drive ahead to the intersections so we would know which ones to turn down, no need to slow down and refer the check sheet.  She even kept the bottles of fliud topped up for quick transitions.  Camp Mother, Gusy and I continued on, a mixture of head and side gusts.  Nice!  I can confirm there was no dopping, but there was some major pill popping going on ..... bad backs and sore knees ..... and thank goodness no pains for me, not even the soft tissue of the you know what :)

Ice block celebration

Our final stop called for a wee celebration, at Clevedon we had all surpassed our longest ride so shouted ourselves to a lemonade ice block, nothing better :) other than some of Liza'a hot chips which we stole.  Cheers for that ..

And yes I enjoyed one too

Unfortunately a 4 car accident resulted in a road closure and for us a sudden reroute, thank goodness CM came up with the goods by phoning a friend.  Turned out to be an easy detour, Yay!  As we hit the city, traffic lights and numeerous cars etc... hindered our progress as we watched our avg speed continue to drop.  It was a slow weave from South Auckland to the CBD.  We made one final call into a local servo to refplace the water.  "Lesson Two: Always take the opportunity to refill, I had finished both bottles by the time we we got to the CBD". The team was so dedicated that we even did a lap of Tamaki drive to make up for some of the ks we had missed by not doing them hills at the start.

We started our adventure around 8am and caught the ferry from the CBD at 5pm ish.  A 9 hour day, but in reality our ride time was a sweet 6.5hrs, on track for Ironman day.  I even managed a wee run off the bike once I got home.  Got to be happy with that :) "Lesson Three: Keep up the nutrition until the very end, I had no issues with cramp etc... and felt ready for a run, where as Gusy had stopped drinking only an hour from the end and felt herself fading in the final stages"

Thanks Gusy and Camp Mother for sticking out the full distance, you certainly kept me honest and I would not have done it without you both!!! Thanks Liza and Graham for your SAG wagon support, we did need you both, so well done !! And Julie as mentioned cheers girl!. "Lesson Four: get an awesome support team around you, fantastic mates willing to help you clock up the miles, great coach and masseuse and a wonderful wife and family"

Only one more 100% week of training ahead, then we start to wind down and make final preparations for the day.  2 more days of work (Monday and Friday) and then it's full annual leave until mid March, allowing one week to recover.  It is all starting to come together !

Now, unfortunately my Garmin didn't play ball, so here is CMs data, and since we rode together Im sure they are very similar.  Cheers

The ride stats