Summer has arrived

Wellington has really turned on some great weather of late and the GP riders have been making the most of it. Today was no exception, so an earlier start time was scheduled from the Tasting Room. Joe had pre-planned the route, heading out onto the Hutt Motorway, over Haywards and through to the top of Paekakariki Hill.

Stopping momentarily at the Paekakariki Hill summit to take in the breathtaking views and a quick photo opportunity before remounting and retracing our route back to Pauatahanui. A very rapid descent ensued with a few more riders joining us on the journey through the Whitby rollers, including Barney and Darren Henderson (Darren is making a comeback in Masters downhill racing).

Davis cleared out from the group while we rolled back through Porirua, Tawa and into town for a coffee at Pravda Cafe courtesy of Elizabeth and James from Immigrant's Son espresso.

A few sock length discrepancies were noted at the cafe and warnings were issued.

A quick stop at Capital Cycles to check out the new BMC and Zipp wheel lineup then back home for lunch. Speaking of BMC, Cadel Evans' new BMC SLC01 decked out in World Champion livery looks very PRO.

Days like this make bike riding all the more enjoyable, roll on summer...

Martinborough 2 day Tour

A couple of great days racing over in Martinborough at the Capital Cycles sponsored Wellington Veterans Cycle Club 2 day tour. The weather was cool and mostly wet, but we had plenty of Immigrant's Son coffee at hand to help keep warm and motivated. The Vets club did an excellent job of organising and running the event... a big thank you to Mike Elliot and all the volunteers who gave up their time.

Persistence paid off for Davis in the opening 50km road stage. After breaking away up Edge Hill early on in the piece and never gaining more than a couple hundred metres, Davis stayed away for the win, 9 seconds clear of a fast finishing Joel Healy and Tim Renner. The main bunch were a further 6 seconds in arrears with Glenno, Jono and Backy all there.

The afternoon stage was a 10km individual time trial, which featured a flat out and back course with a nasty crosswind that made the going quite difficult. Backy was first off and secured the fastest time of the day, Davis finishing second equal with Ben Knight. Things were looking good for the GP team with 2 stage wins and first & second on GC.

Sunday dawned, dry and calm for the third and final stage. An 80km loop around Lake Wairarapa, starting and finishing in Martinborough. The stage finish was up White Rock road, which featured a short power climb to the line. A nice change compared to the traditional flat run in and sprint on the outskirts of Martinborough.

A few attacks from the gun, but some good tempo riding from Glenno and Jono helped keep things together. Ben Knight was hard to contain, as were Blair Leslie and Kevin McCormack in their breakaway which seemed to take forever to pull back around the bottom of Lake Wairarapa!

Approaching the short climb to the finish line Backy jumped clear on the steep middle section, finishing just ahead of Davis (2nd) and Jono (5th). Glenno, after taking some long pulls on the front with Ben Copsey for the final 5km cruised up the climb finishing a couple of minutes back. Click here for the full results.

Some behind the scenes photo's from the weekend...

Giuseppe Saronni, Goodwood, 1982

The 1982 World Road Cycling Championships were held on a circuit near Goodwood, England.

Andrew Meo (Slim), a young New Zealander was competing in the amateur road race, but unfortunately crashed and pulled out. The following day from the sidelines, Slim watched Italian rider Giuseppe Saronni sprint to victory at the professional road race.

27 years later, Slim had lunch with Saronni at the Lampre team headquarters in Milan with Aldo Colombo, Saronni's mentor. How did this turn of events come about? Read the full story, Saronni, Ballan and I over on Slim in Italia.

Photo credit neilsamd

RIP, Fausto Coppi, 50 years today

Angelo Fausto Coppi, born in Castellania, Italy, 15 September 1919, died in Tortona, Italy, 2 January 1960.

An old vintage 'Emotonico' Fausto Coppi postcard, scanned from a set owned by Nigel Dalton. Also, be sure to check out the beautifully illustrated postcard celebrating Fausto's 1953 World Championship victory on Nigel's blog, H1BPOSITIVE.