Well... my Saturday Ride was the first in a four race series over two weekends... the East Coast North Island Champs. The first race was a circuitt race, with laps 6km each.

Disappointingly only 1 other woman in my age-grade (Vet 1, 35-44yrs) turned up, so we started with the 2 Senior Women (20-35yrs) and the 2 Vet 2 women (45yrs +).

I was really anticipating racing with a couple of other women but for some reason they were no-shows

So the six of us set out, and we dropped the other woman in my age grade early in the first of three laps. I stayed with the other women and was pleased because all four are much better than me in ability. I fell off on a tight corner and rode the last lap on my own, but still came in with an average somewhere around 33kph.

Adding a 10 km warm up, and a bike into town to use the loo and I clocked up 46km.

The weather was heavy showers before the race, and steady rain in the evening, but miraculously for the 4 1/2 hours of racing - no rain at all! The air was clean and clear and smelt good.

My partner, 2 sons and me were placed 5th, 2nd, 3rd and 1st in our respective grades.