The DUAL 2010 - Pain to follow...

Despite a distinct lack of post-christmas funds I have gone and entered The DUAL for it's second running. At NZD$145 it's a bit of a rip-off but the organizers have to shuttle several hundred bikes and a couple of thousand competitors across to an island in the middle of the gulf, so it is a logistical nightmare. 

Supposedly some of the profit goes to the Motutapu Restoration Trust which is a very good cause after all. Motutapu means "Sacred Island" in maori and it's a special place with lots of maori and european history. It's also unique in that it's joined by a natural causeway to a young volcano and they both have quite different personalities.

I'm doing the 50km race again but they've added a 30km event this year for casual riders. The terrain is very hilly and you spend the second half of the race climbing in and out of valleys on farm-land. Very energy-sapping as a lot of this is on grass, not a trail as such.

For this reason I plan on taking the Cross-Check. I'll be much slower on the down-hills and will get beaten-up on the skinny tyres but can make up a lot of time if I can ride the whole course. A 36lb singlespeed fatbike was not the best option for the constant climbing involved last year. Most of the riders around me on much lighter geared bikes were walking the steep sections as well, but I reckon with a bit of training they are doable and I won't be stopping to take photographs this time! 

With this in mind I threw the knobblies on the Cross-Check yesterday to get a feel for riding it on rough terrain. My main concern is whether my hands and wrists can take 3-4hrs in the drops at speed. It felt decidedly more plush riding a 45mm tyre @50psi than the usual 35mm/70psi combo. Only time will tell on this one. 

Phat...

...Phatter

Mountainbike?

My DUAL nemesis across the waters. Motutapu on the left and Rangitoto on the right. I can see that damn volcano from just about everywhere I ride!

I'm loving these Paul brakes but the Fire-Cross tyres are painfully slow on tarmac. Practical for off-road only.

Last ride of 2009

I've been really enjoying riding the Cross-Check recently, even more so since I tweaked my cockpit. I'll use any excuse at the best of times to run an errand by bike but if there's any distance involved the Cross-Check is now the first choice as it's so much faster. 

The last day of 2009 involved a trip to the local library to return a (cycling) magazine before they repossessed my library-card. The library is only a fifteen minute ride away so I continued on to Devonport using the mainly off-road Devonport Cycle Route which I've been riding for years but is now "official" and has subsequently been sign-posted and had sections upgraded. 

I'm often blown-away by the stunning countryside some of my internet cycling friends get to ride in, but you don't always appreciate what you've got in your own backyard. Most of the roads I ride have sea views and you're never more than a kilometre or two from the coast. 

I borrowed my son's camera and attempted to capture some of my suburban riding environment on the way. 

We start at Campbells Bay Beach about 400m from our house. There are lots of well-off types on the North Shore of Auckland and by the number of people on the beaches on a warm (but overcast) summer's day they are all off at their holiday homes or out on their boats.

This is up the road at Kennedy park. I come here a lot with The Midget Assassin as it has a wonderful playground. The funny looking building is an artillery observation post from WWII disguised as a house. You can just make out one of the gun emplacements in the background which is about 10m back from the edge of a cliff overlooking the Waitemata Harbour. The North Shore is full of decaying military defenses but the majority were built to protect us from the Russians in the 1880s and the Germans in WWI. This stuff is a bit more recent to repel the evil Japanese. Now we spend all our time encouraging these people to visit as tourists. 

I then pass through Castor Bay. Not a soul on the beach today. Hard to believe there are over a million people living in Auckland.

Over the next headland is the Milford Marina. It's on a small tidal stream that exits to the sea at the north end of Milford beach. It's actually pretty scungy but does scrub up okay in a photo.

A couple of kilometres down the road is Takapuna. I was born and raised here but it's a bit of a shit-hole. Full of rich wankers and bars and cafés full of rich wankers. There is a move to rename Takapuna "Takapuna Beach". How wanky is that? Maybe London could rebrand as "London River"?

This photo is taken at the northern end besides the boat-ramp. The owner of this beautiful titanium and carbon Serotta prefers to drive it around town rather than actually ride it. Roadies... Doh. 

Takapuna beach again. Taken beside the yacht club. Rare sighting of an Aucklander actually on a beach in the Christmas holidays. 

I finally got to the library (which overlooks the beach) and took the bike inside with me as I was in a bit of a hurry after taking all these bloody photographs. Amazing how loud a White Industries freewheel sounds in a library, but I found that by avoiding all eye contact people could not see me at all. How convenient.

Past Takapuna on the way to Devonport is my old stomping-ground of Hauraki Corner. This photo is taken at a new and very impressive section of boardwalk suspended above the mangroves that enabled the cycleway to get a bit further around the coast and avoid a particularly nasty hill. I dread to think how much of my rates were sunk into these next 200 metres but it is a great resource and well used by walkers and cyclists alike.

Mudflats are a great place to play as a child. I used to frolic in the foreground mud with the crabs, smoke dope and ride my motorbike along the shell-banks at the waters edge and paddle canoes out there in the bay. Pollution, Life-jackets and helmets had not made it to New Zealand in the 1970s ;^)

This foot-bridge takes you across yet another mangrove swamp to the Belmont cemetery. It's build over a sewer pipe and really is as long as it looks. I found out today that my bike-trailer has one inch of clearance each side and that I wobble three inches each way when I tow it ;^)

Somewhat ironic that the cemetery is next to this lovely new bike path and not situated beside the main road where it is required.

Not far past the graveyard is this fantastic grassy downhill. This is where I proved my new handlebar set-up is perfect for flying down hills over bumpy ground at speed. I can even bunny-hop in the drops.

In the distance is Mount Victoria. Smack bang in the middle of Devonport and the half-way point where I turn around and head home.

"King of the Swamp"

The Sky Tower is behind the trees on the left and the Auckland Harbour bridge on the right. 

If you can't train your eight year old to pick up his dirty underwear he's never going to charge a camera battery so this is where our journey must end, with all the good photo-opportunities still to come. I'll take those on another day as the scenery in Devonport is really quite something.

I managed to coax one more shot out of the Sony when I got to the top of Mount Victoria. I got married right there in front of us in this "mushroom patch" by a TV anchorman. It was like a cross between a Tarantino movie and Alice in Wonderland. 

The volcano in the background is Rangitoto Island. I'll be racing the Cross-Check over there at the end of March in The DUAL 50km mountainbike race. Must get fitter!

The DUAL - Race Report

It was the start of a very long day! My alarm went off at 4.45am and I gulped down a quick breakfast of muesli washed down with a cup of tea before my ride turned up at 5.15am. We got to the ferry terminal in Devonport in plenty of time and the excitement slowly built as more and more competitors arrived. Eventually the ferry made its way across the harbour from downtown Auckland and we clambered aboard to join the rest of the racers. 

The trip over to the islands took less than half an hour on a very calm sea and after disembarking we wandered off in near darkness to find our bikes and prepare for the 8 o'clock start. 

I am not competitive by nature but was a bag of nerves before the start. I have been having so much pain in my ankle since the operation (especially after riding on bumpy terrain) that I wondered if I had 50km in me. 

The start was very slow as 600? mountainbikers of varying abilities climbed up a long and winding farm road heading over toward Rangitoto. Most riders were in their granny-gear and I was barely turning the pedals on the Pugsley as overtaking was nigh impossible. 

This procession continued up to the summit of Rangitoto where the cautious riders slowed down even more and the skilled and impatient (me) finally had some room to move and took off like madmen down the other side. 

My new Barbie racing mojo did the trick. 

No cramp, no crashes and no flats.

The Rangitoto part of the race was over very quickly and we then crossed over a bridge to Motutapu again for the remainder of the race. At this stage we were mostly on farm roads (double-track) and without the impressive views the riding would have been a bit boring. I was feeling really good up to the 35km mark and would power past geared riders uphill only to be overtaken again when we reached the flat parts. 

Motutapu and Rangitoto islands could not be more different. Motutapu is now mostly covered in farm pasture but 800 years ago it was minding its own business when a volcano erupted out of the sea right next door to it. They are almost touching and while one is covered in grass on top of rich soil, the other is a mass of volcanic rock covered in native bush.

The last 15km was a real grind as the terrain changed to riding the ridge-lines of farm paddocks. At least the grass was dry, but it was still energy-sucking to ride on up endless hills. I was walking a lot of the steeper sections by now as I didn't have anything left in my legs, but I was not alone. The sides of the track were littered with cramped-up riders doubled-over in pain or rolling around in agony. I must have also passed 15-20 people fixing punctures. 

With a light bike and a granny-gear 99% of the course was ridable. I might put two chain-rings on the Pug next year and double my gearing options. A slightly lower gear to make the hills and something a little higher so I don't lose so much time on the flat sections.

It was with great relief when I crested the final hill and looked down on the finish line far below me. One last burst and a wheelie over the line and the pain was over. 

I was mainly aiming to finish and hoping to get under 5 hours if I did, so I was really pleased with my time of 3:54. If I get a bit fitter, alter my gearing and don't take any photos I reckon I could break 3:30.

As soon as the race was over I hobbled into the cool sea to stop my ankle from swelling too much. At this stage I was thinking the last thing on earth I ever wanted to do again was a 50km mountainbike race on a volcano, but after a sit down, something to eat and a cool beer with my new riding buddies I was making plans for the next one...

Why wouldn't you?

When we got to Motutapu it was well before 7am and we had to walk from the wharf to the start-line in near darkness. This was the view looking back east to the ferry as the the sun was coming up. 

I borrowed a set of friends for the day from my mate Dale. A good bunch of guys and I enjoyed their company both on and off the race-course. I'm the tall old one at the back.

The race briefing. I should have been listening properly instead of taking photos.

This was taken on Rangitoto half an hour or so into the race. You can see the jagged volcanic rock to the right, much like parts of Kona in Hawaii. 

I was flying downhill from the summit of the volcano as the Pug's tyres were ideally suited to the fine loose gravel. I passed a ton of riders on full-suspension bikes and was even catching some air on the bumps. 

When we reached sea-level and the road flattened out a singlespeed was not the ideal mount to have and I thought I may as well stop and take some photos. If I passed 50 riders on the way down I swear 100 rode past me as I was taking this shot!

About halfway through the race on Motutapu I saw a guy ahead taking a photo of the view so I pulled over and we did the camera-swap-bike-portrait thing. My home is in the distance somewhere in the East Coast Bays.

The run to the finish line was down that hill in the background (steeper than it looks) and through this chute. By that stage the marathon runners were sharing the same track and it was really rather dangerous but the pug just loves downhills and I was scything through runners like a slalom skier. Great fun!

Bike and rider resting after the finish. I was so exhausted I actually felt a little light-headed.

We had to wash our bikes after the race and they came back on separate boats the next day for collection in downtown Auckland.

It was a long line for a locally bred lamb-burger but well worth it.

The event was very well organized but there was a bit of a wait for the ferries as lots of people were leaving at the same time. We just missed out on this one and had to wait 45 minutes on the wharf for the next but everyone was still buzzing from the race and the time went quickly.

A last look at Rangitoto sitting on the back of the ferry enjoying a another well-deserved cold beer.