Road Club Nationals 2008

[RoadRaven]

Yup... its that time of the year again
These begin this Thursday... 23rd October... with the Time Trials.
The Road Races are spread out over Friday to Sunday.

My partner will be defending his gold from last year, and two of my sons will be riding again - this year in the U17 and U19 catergories - hoping to get a place in the time trial - but there are some very useful juniors this year.

Genders race separately as per usual, and categories are age grouped/graded:
Under15 (13-14yrs)
Under 17 (15-16yrs)
Under19 (17-18yrs)
Senior
Masters 1,2,3,4,5,6 (Masters are grouped in 5 years... Masters1 - 35-39yrs, Masters2 - 40-44yrs etc)

If any TE-ers are in Whanganui this coming weekend, please look out for me and come say hi. On Thursday (if the weather permits) I will be wearing a purple "Tremain Tri" tee-sirt, or an Amici Veloci long sleeved bike jersey. Our club is Ramblers, so just look for our signage and our jerseys.

All 3 guys will also be racing on Saturday and Sunday, and we'll probably be there for a while on Friday watching/supporting.

Would love to meet up with a TE-er if any of you are about.

We have the house-sitter, the dog-feeder and the water-checker all sorted, so will be heading over in time to do a dummy run on the TT course on Wednesday (yes, I am taking my TT bike so I can "pretend").

[MillieNZ]

gawd........... showing true Dorklander tendancy... where is Whanganui ????

[crazycanuck]

K..RR..Are Whanganui & Wanganui the same place?

MNZ, if so, it's in Wanganui.. down on the south west coast of da north island.

[MillieNZ]

He.he.he.... I should have just googled it in the first place ! But yep, down Nrw Plymouth way ! ...... too far away for me I'm afraid, staying in Dorkland for the long weekend.........

CC - Are you still coming over at Xmas ????

[crazycanuck]

Yep, we'll be in NZ from the 23rd-30th Dec. Will you be round on the 29th???

Can we rent a bike in Auckland?? If not, we can just have coffeeeee or go beach.

[MillieNZ]

I think we'll be at home then..........Just trying to co-ordinate going to Nelson at some point.................. we have a couple of mountain bikes (basic !) and a couple of road bikes too.............. I know Woodhill mountian bike park hire bikes out so could go for a blast round there followed by wine tasting nearby

[RoadRaven]

Ah... thanks for asking Millie
I had intended on getting back here on Monday, but after supporting "my boys" and then a full-on week at work I was just feeling too shattered to try and form a sentence here at the end of each day...

Yup, it was Wanganui - which I meant to write. The river is Whanganui, the town is Wanganui...
The weather was rubbish - but I think it was for most of the country.


The time trial day (Thursday) was really successful for us. My sons were not placed, but both rode personal bests. U17 son cracked 40kph for his 15km ITT, and U19son did over 43kph over his 25km ITT.

My partner successfully defended his gold from last year, in doing so he not only set a personal best (over 45kph for the 20km course), but also set a new Nationals record for his age group (26"29')

He really deserved this - he started training/focusing for this last November and the last 6 months have been very focused and disciplined in terms of rides/distances/nutrition.

The vet 2 and 3 men's road races were a real pleasure to watch. Tactics were discussed, and it all played out as planned! Amazing to watch and such a hoot to be in on it as a spectator and see how wrongly those racing against Ramblers got it. And a bit of planning and teamwork got us 2 golds and one silver in those two races alone.

After his TT, my partner indulged in lots of chocolate, some honey toast and a custard square. He's back with training again - base training and attempting to see if he can lose any more weight without compromising his power.

The 3 days of road races were also very lucrative - my sons rode well, though again not placed. I think they realised this was a possibility as they are each in their first year of their respective grades.

Overall, our club did really well... 9 medals - 5 golds (I think... pages wont load tonight for me to check - Dontcha lurve dialup?) and we were 4th on the Club Points Table



Full results here:
http://www.bikenz.org.nz/Article.aspx?ID=3671