TOS Stage 2

Worst day on a road bike I have had for some time. At the start I was on the back trying to get my Magellan to work and the flag dropped, me and my team mate were getting swung off the back right away and after 10mins of red line off the back in the convoy we got back on, my legs were burnt up already. After 30 odd k there was a massive 40 rider pile up Myself and Nick mountain bikers modulated our brakes and stopped nicely a few meters from it, whilst the roadies skidded past and plowed into the pile up. 

Ackie went off into a barbed wire fence.

Quickly we boosted around the kayos and got back into the bunch, which then slowed and let most get back in. 

Latter down the road I hit a massive hole and a peace of 4 by 2 that was on the road and no one pointed out,  it blew a hole in my brand new tire whilst doing this my Magellan snapped off and I had a massive ride back through the convoy to get back on yet again and as I got back more cross wind action, 35km from Bluff off the back goes Carl again, this time people were getting shelled everywhere but the main bunch still pulled away.

Photo: Road Cycling FB page
After flat tire on the chase

Bluff hill is a steep wee hill but I was fine on it just a little tired, I caught others in front that didn't like it so much. I ended up losing a huge 11mins 45 and and 90th for the stage and now 90th on GC 

Very pist off about today but ill try get back in the action tomorrow, hopefully a better story

2 stages tomorrow with a 48km morning and 100km afternoon stage up to Te Anau where we stay the night.

The only picture I took today top of bluff. Stewart Island in back ground 

 

Tour of Southland Prologe and Stage 1

Tour of Southland, Here is my team

L-R Ackie, Me, Andy, Brett, Ben, Nick 

Team time Trail I started and started a little hard we were rugged as at the start and dropped Ackie strait away but we got into it by half way and work well together. We were ranked last as we were a rookie team 1st time meeting each other, but we managed to do ok we only lost 34 seconds and we were not last...

Stage 1 160km. Invercargill to Lumsden  

The stage had 19 sprints and 4 KMO's on offer but a break pretty much cleaned up the lot.

The first 20km was fast but very easy then the heart rate got spiked a few times while the break was going off the front, after this it was quite a relaxed day we were boosting along at 75kmph a few times in the tail winds but mainly a day of head and side winds and a very balmy temperature and a we sun burn. The legs still felt the day but are feeling good.    

140km tomorrow with the finish on bluff hill, I'm not sure how I will go up the hill but ill give it a shot if I'm in the right place

Carl  

Magellan Whaka100

Well what a huge week for the 2012 Magellan Whaka100. This track took a lot of marking out and seen as i'm the N-Duro track marker I was very busy boy from Wednesday, myself and Ra were boosting around the forest sort all 3 tracks, the weather turned it on for race day with a was perfect one. 260 entries and 70 ish of them were from Australia, it was all on.

Race day, I was primed and ready to defend my title, it was a frosty morning in Rotorua so I didn't really warm up but 100km is a long way to warm up, I started slowly watching a big group of guys sprint off I left them to be and just rode along at comfortable pace, the group was slowly dropping guys off and after a few km's I was 100meters off the back of them I stay there watching them do there thing for a good 10km after 20km I decided I would test them out and jumped on the front for a few strong pulls, they all seemed comfortable so I just sat back in and we just rode along with mainly myself and Mark Tupalski from Australia doing the turns, not stressing the bodies to much. The bunch was 5 of us 2 Aussies and 3 Kiwis on the 1st major climb up to No Brains I put the hurt on and strung everyone out the 2 other kiwis of Sam Shaw and Brad Jones jumped across to me and that was the last we saw of the Aussie duo. On the descents Sam and myself would get away from Brad and we would let him slowly catch back up but making sure he was working to get there, after the 60km mark I started to think about my race plan and on the long climb to the roof of the forest I slowly picked up the pace and the other 2 boys disappeared I still had 35km to go so I  tried to keep the heart rate as low as I could and the legs fresh as they could be but still attempting to get a lead, I had no one giving me split or anything this time so I completely in the dark to my lead over the last 35km. I ended up winning by just over 2 and half mins to my cousin Brad.

I was pretty sure the race record was 4h.43 but wasn't sure, I knew the track was super fast and when Ra said it maybe a record I look to Scott in the timing caravan and I held up 10 fingers and he said yip, I was stoked as I knew there was a $500 bounty on that bad boy, and I broke Scott Thorne's 4 year old record by 10 minutes in a time of 4 hours 33min. 59.

Massive Thanks to Ra and Paris and Tony from Magellan for supporting me and the Whaka100 event I have some very cool new toys. Everyone that broke a record yesterday got a gps from Navman worth 450 bucks each, bloody good of the sponsor if you ask me, If your interested in a Switch up or any GPS for that matter (They are very good for chasing strava records as most of you know ;p) or a very flash little liquid image camera check out their website or a store that stock their product they are off the scale of cool.
I had an awesome day out boosting around the redwoods with Paris the Magellan poster boy, Scott Green and Steve Turner (while his bike lasted) in the rain today followed by 3 hour of laxing out and eating a mean lunch at the newly renovated Zippys.                 

Off to the deep south on Saturday for the Power net Tour of Southland wish me luck, I think i'm going to need it down there, Ill keep the blog updated every day hopefully, I might even make a video diary of each day with my new little liquid image ego camera :)

Cheers
Carl

Motu 160

I haven't been keeping up with the blog updating, but here is a write up on the Motu 160 raced last weekend.

The 2 times I have attempted Motu 160 alone I have just come off resting from the international season, had no form, and its been snowing and I have pulled out after the mountain bike with hypothermia, not ideal. Last year I teamed up with Katie and we won the mixed. I got a lot of shit leading in as she finished individual 2 years in a row taking the win once and second the follow time and then finishing off our team race so everyone was on my case about finishing.
This year I was ready for it, Im in full swing of training for the tour of southland so 160km wasn't a hard ask. Once again the weather was average 130kmh gusting winds and rain in the forecast and warmish not snowing...

But you never know when you’re up in the motu, so I kitted up leg warmers, jackets and thermals.
On the first climb is where things usually happen but the flat road leading to it was really rough and very hard going so the bunches formed early and I was relaxed into the climb, I’m usually the one to attack on this climb 1st every year but I held back till half way up, everyone knew it would come but again tempo was enough for Cabin, my cousin Brad Jones and myself to roll off the front. On the 2nd climb Brad attacked from myself and Cabin I chased for 30 seconds, worked out he was going pretty quickly, we were all doing different races, and I had 130km togo... so I sat up and ate a banana and watched him disappear form here I was on my own the hole race.

The final decent on the mountain bike was a block head wind and very hard just about harder than riding up the hills I rolled into the transition the freshest I have ever rolled into motu but with 100km still to go it was still a long day.

The first 15km of the road bike I had the 130kmh winds behind me no complaints but as soon as it went side wind my new deeper than normal rims were pushing me all over the road.

The ascent up Trafords hill was straight into the wind, I was on my heart rate threshold thinking shit should I walk up here. I latter found out over 75% of people walked for a part of this hill. Its not a very hard hill but the wind was incredible.

The decent was just as bad I have seen people been blown off over the top, and I was one of the riders to be taken for a ride out of control all over the road into on coming car only for the wind to let up with second to spare throwing me back to the other side. At the time I had my legs up as high as my ears trying to get back to the right side of the road.

Once in the Waioeka Gorge I pinned my ears back and kept the hammer down. The driving rain and wind wasn't worrying me anymore and I was feeling very strong, until 5km to go I blew pretty badly and the gaps were closing fast with 3km to go a rider shot past me very fast, I was gutted 157km alone to be past with 3 left, but I had to keep fighting as there was another rider closing fast.

Luckily I finished 2nd as it could have been worse everyone was bunched up and chasing me down. Peter Murphy was the guy to smoke me is a Vet roadie and very good at Time Trailing where he is nationally ranked and one of the best in the country, I will be up against him again down at the tour of southland in a few weeks.

This weekend I will try defending my Whaka100 Title and then start a tapper for Southland starting on the 28th

Thanks to Wilson and Katie, Evan and Mum and my grandparents for supporting me they drove at 30kmh behind me for 70km haha