A great little event out west Auckland, the Rodney Rabbit changed its date this year to give people the opportunity to use it as a sharpen up event prior to Taupo.
Kinetic Edge athletes who took the challenge were
Sam Horn (4th overall)
Gary Groves (13th overall and 1st Vet)
Nicki Squire (5th in her grade)
Lynette Arnold (1st Supervet in the 40k event)

Nice work team!!!

With only 10 days to go to New Zealand’s biggest event I can feel the tension building! This is a big event for a lot of people - not just riders, but event organisers, and the charity it raises money for. Between now and Taupo remember to instill into your minds the following things:

- Get your bike checked this week, not next! It is good ride it after a service.
- New tyres on now, if you were planning to replace them.
- Wear any special kit this week that you might on the day.
- Plan your nutrition for the ride, for your breakfast, and your dinner the night before. Don’t count on Taupo having what you like. Take food with you just in case.
- Avoid using the products you get in your entry pack. Save them for training - unless you are used to using that exact product and planned to use it on the day.
- No crash training! Your training homework should all be done by now, so now is the time to gently ease up, not flog yourself and be tired on the day.
- Have a plan for your tactics and strategy based on your strengths. What are your strong at on the bike? Ride to these.
- What are your fears for the day? Think about them now and get your logic going now for solutions, instead of waiting for the panicked response on the day! There are always solutions, so think of potential problems and solutions now to save energy on the day.
- Most importantly: you’ve done the work. Trust that, and enjoy the day.

Aaron and I will be at the Expo, so be sure to pop by our wee stall and say hello! Otherwise see you on the day - we will be the ones yelling at you as you come across the line.

By this stage of the tour sleeping well becomes a problem. The legs have so much fatigue in them despite nightly massages that they are very restless in bed and sleep is difficult. I had a really poor sleep and woke feeling like a bus had run me over. No-one had witnessed it, so what can ya do, but get dressed for racing and get ready for ground hog day.
Once riding today I was quite surprised how good the legs felt, maybe even recovering a little after the rough time on day 3. So when riding through Nightcaps at about 40km I decided to have a go at the hill-prime and see how I was really feeling. I got 2nd over the top and picked up some points and money for the team and felt obliged to continue on with the acceleration over the top and see what happened. A very promising group of us got clear and for the next 30km lapped out pretty hard. We only got to about 40s ahead of the peleton though and when the wind picked up it became clear that we weren’t going to maintain the advantage. That brief effort warmed me up a bit at least. Soon afterwards one of my team mates attacked (Mike Northey) with a small group and the peleton seemed less motivated to chase that group down…typical. Another of my team mates, Elliot Crowther decided to attack later in the stage too, taking a couple of guys with him. Again the peleton weren’t too worried. These guys were all well down on GC, so they didn’t warrant a hard chase. I thought Elliots attempt was futile. He had to bridge a 4min gap, but he impressed me immensely by joining that front group after only 20km. This left me in a great position leading into the only real hill of the day - Blackmount. I wasn’t obliged to chase at all, so got a pretty free ride. Over the hill the pace hotted up and 12 of the strongest guys in the race got clear of the rest. I managed that easily enough and then just spent the rest of the stage covering attacks and getting a free ride.
We caught Mike. Elliot stayed away with a small group and rolled in 4th. I lost no time to most of the main contenders and didn’t have to work too hard for it. I finished 9th on the stage. Tomorrow I should have some reserves to try something.

Widely considered as the Queen stage of the tour, this is certainly a stage where the race can be won and with the tough uphill finish the time gaps are more pronounced. I won this stage back in 2005 and would have really liked to have repeated that sort of performance today.
We set off in snow for the 2nd day in a row and the dilemma really was exactly what to wear. A few years ago we encountered similar conditions at the start, but by the time we travelled the 138km to Crown Range it was 26 degrees. If you have too many layers on that can’t easily be removed then you cook. Too few layers and you freeze at the start.
Thankfully this year it didn’t really warm up until the last 30mins. I still felt overdressed at the finish though and just couldn’t seem to climb as well as normal. After the usual flurry of attacks in the first 30km a group got clear of the peleton and established a lead that the team of race leader Gordon Macauley were happy to control and not let get too big. Everyone is in radio control so this process isn’t too tough. The only real threat to the overall classification in the break was Jeremy Yates and after his poor stage yesterday morning he was over 8mins behind. After my detonation the previous afternoon I had only one choice, to sit in the group and try and recover sufficiently to come right for tomorrow. This plan worked pretty well. I didn’t have to face any wind for most of the stage. In the last 30km the pace of the peleton heated up and I had enough reserves to cover most of the attacks.
My team mate Elliot Crowther took up the pace making for the last 10km leading into the climb to try and bring back our deficit to the breakaway a little. I hit the climb hopeful that I had recovered enough to have a good ascent. Immediately Roulston attacked and was followed by Chadwick and a couple of others. As I tried to follow their pace I knew it wasn’t going to be one of my trademark climbs today and settled back into a more conservative rhythm to try and limit my losses. By the top I had lost about 20s to Rolly and finished 4th of the peleton up the climb and gaining about 20s on the yellow jersey of Gordon Macauley. Overall I finished 10th on the stage, about 3mins behind Yates.
I was a little dissapointed, but its not surprising how I felt after how deep I had to go yesterday. The good news is how little I had to do on the stage should mean a little more gas in the tank tomorrow.
That leaves me 8th on GC, but scarily only 2s ahead of Yates now.

Congratulations to Kinetic Edge athletes who took part in the 100km event at the weekend.
Hamish Osborne won the event overall!!!
Todd Eichbaum - 3rd
Kenny Chia - 18th (7th in age group)
Don Landsbergen - 6th in his age group

Good preparation for Taupo guys, nice work!!!

Well done to everyone that participated in the Bike the Lake event in Rotorua yesterday. In particular to:

Lynette Arnold who came 2nd in her age group
Felicity MacDonald, 5th
Mike Henton, 5th

Nice work team!

The weather continued to worsen and safety warranted the stage to be shortened to 66km. With the direction we were heading it meant a tail and cross wind stage. After the brutal conditions of the morning stage I wrongly assumed the afternoon would be a bit calmer. That was my first problem. The flag dropped and we were off at 60kph. Take into account that the hail had kept us inside the van until 2mins before the start and it was a painful start. After 3km the field was all over the road and there were already huge gaps, then we turned along the coast and the wind howled in from the ocean. The pace hadn’t eased and everyone was scrambling. I was already too far back but close enough to see a select group forming. I quickly noted that it was full of NZ champions and Olympians and knew I needed to get to it. No-one else around me seemed capable, so I hit out with everything I had up the long 1km drag away from the coast. By the top I had picked up a few who had been dropped already from the front and spent the next 8km trying to get onto them. I did, but it almost killed me. That group continued to attack itself for the next 30km and Roulston, Mcauley and Chadwick finally got clear. Our group of 6 worked well together, but the early pace was taking its toll on me and I knew that I was riding with them on borrowed time. I tried to eat my food quickly, but it wasn’t quick enough. I was cooked and spent the last 30km drifting back to chasing bunches and then not being able to hold onto them. I crept over the last 10km by myself and was starting to black out when I crossed the line. I did better than some on the stage who lost loads more time, but the damage I think its done to me for tomorrow is a bit of a worry. Still sitting in 8th on GC, so could be worse.

Yesterdays blog must have jinxed the weather. Today was horendous. We started in strong winds and after a few minutes there was the first of 12 hailstorms that would hit us on the stage. Within the first 10km the race went absolutely nuts. The stronger guys love these conditions as they can really hurt everyone more. As the race was blasting down the gutter at about 50km into a really stiff cross-head wind I thought I’d better try and move up closer to the front. No sooner had I moved up to about 15th in the line than a hard attack went and everyone was strung out in single file, riding that 2cm on the edge of the tarmac before hitting the gravel. The next 4km in a straight line was like this with every pedal stroke feeling like it was the last I could turn at that intensity. I didn’t dare look behind and instead focused on the wheel an inch in front of mine and hoped like hell he wouldn’t let the one in front of him go. As it turned out, I was the last one to make it on to the leading group…around 15 of us. Finally, once we had broken clear enough of rest of the field, the group started to cooperate nicely and I got to get out of the gutter. The next 55km saw us building up our lead. Behind us the race was splintered into many groups, all scrambling to make up lost time. Major contenders to miss the split were Jeremy Yates and Glen Chadwick. This is why the rest were so motivated to go hard.
With 20km to go I made a bid to break up the remaining 12 riders in our group on a hill. The hail at that stage turned to snow and there was a brief spell of relief, until the realisation occured that the snow had brought with it a 5 degree temperature drop. My double gloved hands went numb to the elbow and I couldn’t change gears. I got caught and in that panic, Heath Blackgrove and Hayden Roulston attacked and went clear.
Huck and Rolly stayed clear until the finish, where they held on to a 40s lead. We sprinted for 3rd and I managed to grab a 5th. Pretty happy with that, but the effort I had to put in to get onto the break to begin with may hurt this afternoon. We had a 2hr break to defrost and get into more cycling kit for the afternoon stage…good times.

Love the rush hour...
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