Road Trippin', Bike Ridin', and Turkey Eatin'

FRIDAY

As The Red Hot Chili Peppers once said...

..."Road trippin' with my two favourite allies

Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies

It's time to leave this town

It's time to steal away"

So I hit the motorway after work Friday (along with 11, 300 other cyclists) for the long drive to Taupo. I stayed at a sweet campground with a thermal pool, hot tub, and full kitchen facilities...

...where I had this card-loaded feed before bedtime, hoping it would help me survive what was to come the next morning...178 solo kilometres in the saddle.

SATURDAY

The next morning my phone starting buzzing at 5am. The race started at 7 but I had to drop off my roadbike at the checkpoint where I would switch bikes. I had my breakfast, delivered my roadbike, jumped on my mountain bike and rode the mostly downhill 2.5 kms to the start of the race.

"So what did you do today?"

"The combo."

"Really? How was THAT?"

"Ridiculous."

The above conversation took place after the ride between me and someone I just met. That was the only word that came to mind when describing what I had just done. Maybe because that's all my mind could come up with as it focused solely on finding food. Or maybe because it really was ridiculous.

Again this year there were only 9 entries in this category. My goal was 6 hours. I finished in 6:05. The 156km road section took me 4:40 and it was entirely solo, aside from the last 20km or so. Myself and two other guys started working together and ripped it up to the finish. Despite the cool temperature, overcast skies, wind and rain, it was a beautiful day. I felt great the entire ride and ending up winning the solo combo category.

After the ride, I had to ride back to my campsite (mostly uphill) which was probably the worst 2,5kms of my life. My ass was done with being on a bike seat for a while. I showered up and went back to town, only to find this queue that I had to wait in to collect my mountain bike. Luckily it was there and in one piece. This cycle event is absurdly large. There are so many different categories that require people to start and finish at a few different points on the course. This neccesitates large transport truck loaded down with easily 300+ bikes and a makeshift storage like you see above. Pretty impressive. The UCI has labeled this ride/race as a Golden Bike...one of only 7 in the world.

After feeding myself for 4 hours straight, I went to prizegiving area. Before they started to draw names for sponsor donates prizes (including amongst them a few bikes and a new car [I am not one car richer, I'm sorry to say]) they put on an airshow.

Only in Kiwiland would an airshow take place directly over the crowd of spectators, as you can see above and below. Gotta love this country.

Grand Finale.

SUNDAY

Sunday rolled around and I found myself almost falling down the stairs as my quads were refusing to work any longer. My Canadian friend, Kate was throwing a Thanksgiving Dinner (yes, we're Canadian but any excuse to eat a massive meal is good enough for me) and I was helping. Below are some pictures of the brilliant dinner, including my japanese friend, Ko teaching me how to roll sushi, our massive spread, and the ceremonious gathering of the males in the backyard to fire a few rounds out of Dan's ridiculously oversized paintball gun. Enjoy.