idleidolidyll
27th April 2008, 18:04
I didn't get a motorbike ride in this weekend.
True, my KTM is for sale and I'd have had to uplift it (again) to go for a ride. But that's beside the point: I didn't want to ride a motorbike.
ANZAC weekend featured the very first NZ Singlespeed Championships in the Redwoods at Rotovegas.
I entered knowing I had as much chance as a snowflake in a firestorm of winning a prize. No problems though, it was about supporting an event for singlespeed mountainbikes; yeeehah!.
I guess it's not a surprise that I also love single cylinder motorbikes. It's kinda the same; always the underdog but with the power to surprise.
Not this time though, my personal target was to not get lapped by the elite riders twice. And I would have succeeded had I not followed a rider into the wrong pit lane at the end of the first lap (14kms a lap). It turned out to be the 'shortcut' lap. Drink a can of Speights and you get to take a shortcut. The shortcut turned out to be a hoax and all those who indulged lost time! (I'd planned to shortcut at the end of the 3rd section of the figure 8 at the 21km mark).
It was all downhill after that: I stopped deliberately on the next section and had another can of Speights and then, in an exhausted drunken stupor (there's always an excuse), I turned right on my lap instead of left and had to do the hard section again without the awesome but relatively easy Diamond Back section in between!
This meant a fair bit of pushing as the hills were almost unclimable in my state and the technical sections were also hard as exhaustion set in.
I came out of my 4th section (28km) and decided to take the long cut and miss out on the next beer but the winner had already crossed the line and the race was over.
Awesome event with about 230 riders. I was in the Old Buggers Class and somewhere at the back of the field. We partied and had a prize-giving and the whole thing went off!
In the end though, I lost and won: because I did the hard section twice in a row, the elite riders were out of sync with me and ONLY PASSED ME ONCE!.............SUCCESS!!!!!
Roll on the next one, I won't miss my motorbike that weekend either.
The male and female elite winners could only claim their prize if they were prepared to be tattoo'd with the winers 'logo': the very same logo that gives them entry into the World Singlespeed Champs in the US later this year.
and here's my ride for the weekend (but fitted with suspension forks):
True, my KTM is for sale and I'd have had to uplift it (again) to go for a ride. But that's beside the point: I didn't want to ride a motorbike.
ANZAC weekend featured the very first NZ Singlespeed Championships in the Redwoods at Rotovegas.
I entered knowing I had as much chance as a snowflake in a firestorm of winning a prize. No problems though, it was about supporting an event for singlespeed mountainbikes; yeeehah!.
I guess it's not a surprise that I also love single cylinder motorbikes. It's kinda the same; always the underdog but with the power to surprise.
Not this time though, my personal target was to not get lapped by the elite riders twice. And I would have succeeded had I not followed a rider into the wrong pit lane at the end of the first lap (14kms a lap). It turned out to be the 'shortcut' lap. Drink a can of Speights and you get to take a shortcut. The shortcut turned out to be a hoax and all those who indulged lost time! (I'd planned to shortcut at the end of the 3rd section of the figure 8 at the 21km mark).
It was all downhill after that: I stopped deliberately on the next section and had another can of Speights and then, in an exhausted drunken stupor (there's always an excuse), I turned right on my lap instead of left and had to do the hard section again without the awesome but relatively easy Diamond Back section in between!
This meant a fair bit of pushing as the hills were almost unclimable in my state and the technical sections were also hard as exhaustion set in.
I came out of my 4th section (28km) and decided to take the long cut and miss out on the next beer but the winner had already crossed the line and the race was over.
Awesome event with about 230 riders. I was in the Old Buggers Class and somewhere at the back of the field. We partied and had a prize-giving and the whole thing went off!
In the end though, I lost and won: because I did the hard section twice in a row, the elite riders were out of sync with me and ONLY PASSED ME ONCE!.............SUCCESS!!!!!
Roll on the next one, I won't miss my motorbike that weekend either.
The male and female elite winners could only claim their prize if they were prepared to be tattoo'd with the winers 'logo': the very same logo that gives them entry into the World Singlespeed Champs in the US later this year.
and here's my ride for the weekend (but fitted with suspension forks):