Hi From New Zealand!

Hello everyone! My name is Rose Clark and I have been lurking here on and off for a few months now keenly digesting all the great info you have as I am rather new to cycling! I am not quite 50yrs old (9th Sept) and live in a seaside town 40 mins north of Auckland City.

I started my new passion back in Oct of last year and to say I am well and truly hooked is an understatement :) I used to cycle a bit as a kid many years ago and remember what fun it used to be back then as well. Over the years I started to gain weight and become very unfit so in June last year I joined our local Curves Gym and promptly lost 22kgs over a 6 month period!

Having all this new found energy led me to take up cycling and I am so glad I did. I have so far entered a Duathlon, 2 x 25km SUB Womens Events (Sarah Ulmer) and placed 3rd and 2nd consecutively. I have also entered the Auckland Cycle Event 25km and came 1st Woman and had an absolute blast along the way!

My next event is in Oct and is a 50km event in south Auckland.

I mostly ride around my home area, 20, 30km rides 3 times a week with longer rides of up to 100kms once a month. I ride a basic Specialized Dolce but my dream is to own one of the new 2010 Specialized Amira's! Or maybe a Pinarello FP3! I am desperate for a lovely light carbon bike!! Where I live is quite hilly so my rides give me great workouts :)

I look forward to getting to know you all.

Regards,

Kiwi Rose.

Hi Rose
Nice to hear from you! There are a few of us Kiwis around. I was going to say I started out in a similar manner to you, with a Special K duathlon (now the SPARC series), but I have no hope of ever coming first woman in anything! I'm from Auckland originally but live in Wellington now. I got in to cycling about a year and a half ago, and have done the Grape Ride twice, Taupo and Taranaki once each, and a heap of other local races. I'm also a runner. I ride a Genius, the Cleo Ultra 105. I've had her a year, after selling my old, heavy Diamondback. My dream bike ride now has to be the delicious Scott full carbon TT bike sitting my local store. She's white and pink and thankfully a size too large, though I'm assured they could order one in to fit. Just don't tell my husband!

Yo Yo Rose! HOwdy from accross the ditch :). I used to live in AUckland (mt albert) & remember some of the hills :eek:. I certainly don't miss the traffic! I do miss the mountain bike scene though :cool:

Good to hear you've become involved in cycling events, keep up the good work.

There are a few Auckland chickadees round (millienz & kiwi stoker) sorry kiwi stoker..was trying to remember where all of our kiwi ladies live..

C

Hi Rose,
Welcome to the board offically! I too am an Aucklander but mainly ride in south Auckland (in fact the Puke Pulse is riding some of my normal routes).

Ahh yes the dream of upgrading. It doesn't really go away even when you hit carbon.

Cycling is heaps of fun and you make a lot of friends along the way so keep riding!

I'm in East Auckland...... until the end of the year :)

I'm a active reader and love this site

I've done the Auckland, Cambridge, Albany SUB rides and even did a two day workshop with Sarah which was fantastic ! Well worth the $$$ if she and Meishy run any more ;) Currently training for Lake Taupo so trying to find lots of hills to ride up....... i have new Scott Contessa CR1 which I love and currently trying to find a suitable mountain bike to start hitting the local park before moving to Hawaii ( I suspect I'll be safer on the trails out there until I get use to being on the 'other side' of the road !:eek:)

Likwise I'll be out in pukekohe in October, prehaps we could all met up and say hello ?

Are you coming down to Auckland to do the Peoples tri series ?

RoadRaven is another Kiwi poster from Hawkes Bay ( lucky lady!)....

Nice to see another Kiwi on the forum :)