Rice Mountain Classic

"White Horse" calls out Craig Loveridge. I think "What the hell is he talking about?" before he laps through and points out the white horse in the field on the right. Two climbs, Millers Road and Kourarau (7kms at 5%), over and two to go, Limeworks (1.3kms at 5%) and Admirals Hill (11km averaging 4%), and he's picking up bonus seconds on the road!!

Carpool over with Backy in the Peugeot stopping for a coffee at The French Baker in Greytown on the way. Pickup race numbers and get prepped. Lawny uses the pump and looks in good shape. 

We have the women in B grade and I did notice that their times where better than mine in Christchurch at the Long Bays Classic/Harbour Ride which is not as hilly, but hey nothing ventured/nothing gained! 

A grade roll of and we line up in B. Have a look around and notice the Rabid Dog is a no show, so who will do the early move? Rolling out I notice cones on the centreline. The pace is slow so roll up to the front and attack! Get up the first rise and Craig Loveridge and a guy from Palmerston North Marist come across. We start to work but then someone drags the whole bunch across. We sit in and Craig then mentions that he hit the cones at the start and has broken the buckle off his shoe!

At the left hand turn towards Ponatahi I have another go to get a move started as its downhill but there is a southerly blowing so something might stick. I average 40 easily but no one comes across. Have a look back at the left hander after the Ponatahi Hall and the bunch is chasing and strung out so sit up and wait.

We dawdle though to Millars Road with the major action being Mike the Bike almost taking Jeff Lyall out by pushing the big ring at a cadence of 30. Some Pennys plonker wearing woollen gloves also comes back through the bunch in the big ring and fails to heed my advice that he should use the small ring.     

Next assignment Kourarau. I have a gel, sit in and spin an easy gear. Roll up to the front at the right turn into Te Wharau Road. Unfortunately riding a steady tempo on the front doesn't deter anyone even after I asked them to ride slower and Lee Evans gets on the front and starts cranking it up with LPG on his wheel, which was not what I wanted.

We are half way into the race and I'm off the back after being dropped on Kourarau in a small group of five lapping it out with the main bunch of twenty up the road and out of sight and Craig’s looking for white horses! I did say we could stop at Limeworks and try and get some tape for his shoe, but he says not to worry. I do worry because I am losing points to a man peddling with one leg!

I look behind and there’s another group of ten just behind so on the next rise I tell people to take it easy and we wait. Robbo and Hawky are in the group chasing and the merged group works well although there are a few sitting on.

Surprise! Surprise! We turn left at the school and we see the tete de la course just up the road!! By Limeworks the gap is down to 150m so looking good for a regroup just after the descent.

Nail it down Limeworks knowing we've got the tight lefthander into Lees Pakaraka Road at the bottom. No marshals or cones and Emma Crumm and Richard Sutton have gone the wrong way and are coming back towards us. Heaps of loose gravel on the corner but get round safely. 

Richard Sutton gets on the front, so sit in and we get towed up to the bunch passing Tank on the way. Bunch only has about ten riders and we then find out that Malcolm Allen is up the road and everybody else went the wrong way at the bottom of Limeworks. This includes the two leaders who end up following the lead car to Masterton! Rule No 1 is to know the course!

Eventually the bunch regroups apart from the two leaders who are still following the lead car. Once we turn onto the main road heading back to Gladstone we hit the slight southerly, so the pace slows. Robbo starts launching off the front to gain some time before Admirals Hill and he and one other eventually get 10-20 seconds and pick up Malcolm Allen. We turn into Admirals Hill Road and once the climbing starts its everyone for themself.

I almost get back up to Robbo just after "The Wall" (34x23), but he grabs a wheel and stays 100 metres up the road. We pass Malcolm Allen getting of his bike as I ride my own tempo with a couple of riders sitting on, including Dominic Green on his ex Giovanni Lombardi's Team CSC Cervelo. 

Craig also gets back on as we reach the first summit and we lap it out through the valley. "How far to go?" he asks. 300 metres I reply, and he then proceeds to sprint up to Robbo's group of three and then sprint them over the line! The end result is that I lose another 30 seconds to him in addition to the "White Horse". Robbo does mention to Craig that he was sprinting for twentieth! The good news is that Alan Rice's truck is loaded up with cold cans of coke so have a couple off those while we wait for the big boys in A Grade.

JC has another great result, third behind Jeremy Yates and George Bennett from Nelson, but more importantly first MeoGP rider. Davis outsprints Lawny for 11th and almost collapses over the line. Next time perhaps he should take Backy up on his offer of a 12x25, although he did show a sign of weakness by fitting a 23! Backy rounds out the MeoGP riders with fourteenth.

After we all recover, Alan Rice kindly gives us the property section out of his newspaper for the descent back to Gladstone where we load up the cars and head off to Greytown for a pizza and coffee. While at Cuckoo we see Tom Findlay (The Elder) riding in legwarmers and have a chat before heading back to Wellington.

Kirky.