Festival of Cycling, Harbour Bays

The Harbour Bays (long Bays) cycle race had never really interested me as a race as I have ridden it so many times as a training ride. But I must say that I really enjoyed the race and pushing myself that much more than normal. As I am not a registered rider I had to enter the recreational grade, not that it is very recreational at the front of the field though. As I got to the start line a bit later I had to squeeze into the crowds towards the front but I did find a good spot about 5 deep. Before you knew it we were off and we were already doing 50km/hr with in the first few hundred meters. We were heading out of Heathcote Valley when I heard the noises of a crash behind me, the first of many for the day I was sure. The ride out through Tai Tapu and on to the Gebbies Pass all went by pretty quick as we were doing speeds from 45-50km/hr and at that speed in a bunch you really have to watch what is going on around you. There were probably 100 riders or so taking up the whole left lane and some so it sometimes is a place for disaster especially when someone (….) drops their drink bottle in front of you but luckily this did not create another crash. Heading up Gebbies Pass I managed to stay with the front bunch over the top and down the other side but from there on no one was really committed to riding too hard as they knew that Evans pass from Lyttleton to Sumner was going to be the telling story. So somehow I found myself at the front a couple of times and wondered what I was doing there although I felt strong but not strong enough to try and go by myself. We were now onto the last climb up and over Evans Pass, I felt quite good up two thirds of the climb and then it really started to hurt and I had to tell myself quite a few time to try a bit harder and hang onto the bunch, I couldn’t quite manage this but I had a great downhill into Sumner and passed a few people and the main bunch was only about 150m ahead, somehow me and a few others managed to rejoin the main bunch, so it was all going to be on for the finish line sprint. I slowly worked my way to the front and we were doing 53km/hr across the causeway and into the last corner at McCormacks Bay I was in fourth place and held this until about 300 metres to go when the pack started the sprint and I was unprepared and had nothing left anyway. I went from being in fourth place to 23rd just like that and 5 seconds down on the winner. It was a great day out, 2 hours and 1 minute for the course, passed a few elite riders along the way, had a blast.
Thanks again to Brad and the Halswell Butchery and Delicatessen.
Thanks to Merida bikes for the Scultura Evo 907 in the photo.