TWIN PEAKS TOUR - MAY 2008 - A chill in the air and my legs were flying....
Looking back, if I had realised how hard this tour was going to be when I had entered, I may not have been so enthusiastic on the start line of stage one.
Twin Peaks is a one-day tour in the Manawatu, which consists of 3 stages that literally have you gasping for air all the way. You climb the Paihatua Track, Saddle Hill and then twice up Valley Road! Fortunately my legs were having an exceptionally good day, and for me, all pistons were firing...
Stage one rolled off at 8.30am, the temperature was about 8 degrees (i am sure I could see my breath). I wanted the bunch to reach the Paihatua track as quickly as possible in order to warm up, however once we got there and the hammer went down, it was a matter of hanging on for dear life. A bunch of about 10 riders got away, including Kerri-anne Tockler, and I trailed just behind the next small group where I could see Sonia Hill just in front. They had a small margin of about 30 seconds on me untill we reached Halcome, where I lapped it out with a vet rider to catch back on. At one stage, we had the leading bunch in sight, but once we reached Saddle Hill it was like an ant trail as we grinded up what i can only describe as a 'wall'...where's the harness and rope when you need it? However I had good stage to cross the finish line as 4th women, but quickly had to recuperate for stage two (the 6 km tt).
In the past I have lost valuable time due to poor time-trial performances. I have put a lot of effort into time-trial's in the past two months with training to rectify this, as well as teaching my brain that ''Time-trails are fun!". Although I didn't win this stage, I was really wrapped to put in stong effort and not lose my overall placing.
By the afternoon, there seemed to be general consensus amongst the riders of 'lets get this over and done with as quickly as possible'. Everyone's legs were totally shattered, it was getting colder and we still had 78km to go....
The pace was like a Sunday bunch ride untill we reached Valley Road. There were a few juniors in B grade that seemed uber energetic and made an attack on the first sweeping bend. I was placed well to hold onto this for the first half of the climb, and had a small but strong group to climb with as we got to the top. There were only a few women in the pack at this point, and as the race wore on over the rolling hills I discovered that Suzanne Charles and myself were contesting for 2nd place overall, as the next bunch back was a good 3 mins back.
Suzanne and I both got dropped by the guys as we approached lap 2, but spent the rest of the race lapping it out together. The course had absolutely no wind cover and it felt like whatever way we rode, we had a tornado coming at us! I was certainly in the 'hurt box' at this point, but had to remind myself that letting Suzanne get away on me, would effect my General Classification. I was relieved to hang in there, crossing the finish line with Suzanne, but holding onto 2nd overall. Suzanne finished 3rd, with Kerri-Anne Tockler taking 1st place.
I have to say that the Marist Cycling Club did a great job to host Twin Peaks. There is an amazing amount of 'behind the scenes work' that goes into hosting this type of event, and we are really lucky to have clubs willing to entertain us with these races. It was also a great initiation race for The Tour of Taranaki in 3 weeks time...very similiar to Twin Peaks, but it lasts for three days!
If you want to see results, have a look at www.maristcycling.co.nz
