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Red Zone 6

In what’s becoming a bit of a habit, I didn’t spend the day before this race relaxing or prepping my gear. I was getting up at 5am to go spend 12 hours in the middle of the waimak doing safety for the Coast to Coast. While I enjoy being able to still use my skills in a location I’ve spent many hours the last few years, I probably should have picked one or the other as I am wrecked today!

My waimak island for the day

I really wasn’t looking forward to this event, I only entered it as it fitted in nicely with my training plan and goals for the season. Nothing about 6 hours riding on footpaths around the Red Zone was very appealing. Add on the forecasted rain and I knew it was going to be a long day. In retrospect this mindset wasn’t a great way to start off the day when I was already feeling flat from the day before. My warm up lap of the course really didn’t do much to improve my mood when I realised we would be orienteering around the course as well!

For the third weekend in a row I got a good start. So good in fact that I realised as a solo competitor I really shouldn’t be going for the hole shot and intentionally let a few riders go by so I could sit on a wheel and wouldn’t need to make the decisions myself on what way to go. As it was we still had a few detours and loops around due to going the wrong way. The first few laps were certainly interesting as everyone settled into race pace with some massive crashes as people learnt where the corners were with manhole covers.

Fortunately (for me atleast) the course started to turn muddy and I was almost starting to enjoy myself. Specialized Fast Trak’s have really surprised me these last few races at how versatile they are. They were incredible in the muddy conditions and certainly don’t roll slowly like most tyres that are so capable.

3 hours into the race and my non-varied nutrition was starting to take a toll (that pre-race prep is actually important!) It’s going to sound terrible but a few pringles and hot chips later and there was finally a smile on my face. The next few hours were a bit of a blur. While there were other solo riders in view, both in front and behind me, I just wasn’t quite capable of catching up.

4.5 hours in I figured I’d only need to do another couple of laps…. I wasn’t the only solo rider to have had this thought and be disappointed when we had time to do three… If I thought last weekend hurt, this last lap really hurt. 1st place was insight and while I knew I couldn’t catch him now, 3rd place was catching me rather quickly so I couldn’t back off the pace. Just to add to the fun my legs decided to fully cramp up for the entire last lap.

Too wrecked to wash my face!


While Tekapo was battling for several hours, I didn’t feel the pressure then like I did at this moment. After almost 6 hours racing being only 20 seconds down on first, and 22 seconds up on third was far too close for comfort. In the end I finished very muddy, my bike in a wreck, but satisfied to have finished 2nd despite a far from ideal build up for a strong race. It’s certainly far more preferable to not leave things quite this close at my next race! 

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