This weekend saw the 16 year old 'Big Coast' family mountain bike ride head off round the Rimutaka Ranges again. Normally a two day ride, run just once a year, it starts near Upper Hutt, heads over the Rimutaka Rail Trail, down the side of Lake Wairarapa on a sealed road, and round the south coast on private 4WD tracks before finishing at Eastbourne about 100 km later.
John and I got permission to do it in a day, so I set my alarm for 6am, slept through that and was woken at 6:03 by Miro. John arrived at 6:30 and we were off. Took just over an hour to get to Upper Hutt, with only one homicidal driver enraged by our daring to ride two-abreast along a straight, near-deserted road. John was happy to hammer up the valley into a light headwind at 30 kph - I was happy to suck his wheel most of the way. That was the way of it for the sealed road sections.
About half the ride was on dirt, with some barely rideable sand and rock sections (and some walking) a fair bit of fast gravel, a few tunnels and some sweet singletrack. The scenery ranged from low native forest to coastal headlands with the odd seal lounging around. There were only a couple of hills of note - most of it was flat or rolling, which I was happy to suffer on as that's my weak area (hopefully for not too much longer). With John pouring the power on, there was no coasting.
We carried on past the finish to Petone where Sarah and Shona were preparing a magnificent roast dinner (with Christmas pud!). 150 km in 7 hrs. Toasted legs and a killer appetite. All in order.
2 comments:
Good effort last weekend. It's not like you to sleep through your alarm :-) You'll have to get that sorted before the GDR!
Anyone know of a clever alarm clock that I can programme Miro's cry into?
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