Rev 40km

I did it! I survived the Rev 40km race. I haven't ridden that far on the road in over 3 years. My last big road ride was 100km in the Rotorua to Taupo 100K Flyer when I was (unbeknownst to me) pregnant with Oli.

This time things were different. I don't have a road bike any more, the closest thing I have is my singlespeed cyclocross bike - an On One Il Pompino. To make it a bit more urban friendly, I have some fat 35c Maxxis Overdrive tyres on it. And to make things a little more interesting, I often run it with a track cog giving me a fixed gear ratio of 39:16. That will work, right??

Yes it did work. I finished in 1 hour 28 minutes 50 seconds, with a maximum speed of 55.1km/h. With that information in hand, I could crunch a few numbers and do some calculations. My gear ratio of 39:16 gave me 66.2 gear inches (pretty easy). At my maximum speed my legs were doing 181rpm (pretty fast), no it was not a pretty sight! And to complete the 40km race my legs had to do 7893 pedal revolutions.

My efforts pale in comparison to Ron King riding the length of the country on his fixie and doing something like 395,000 pedal revolutions over the 2210km journey.

I'm pleased with my effort, due to my relative inexperience with road and fixed gear riding. I rode 90% of the race on my own, as my easy gearing meant I didn't have the legs to keep up with the bunches on the flat. I was soundly beaten by my friends, who had the luxury of gears and the ability to stick with the bunches.

Luckily, being beaten by your friends means they are there to cheer for you at the finish line. Thanks girls! :D

I also got to hang out with Andrew and the kids, supplying them with some freebies for lunch from the Recovery Zone.

I came 98th out of 209 racers, was 29th of 91 female finishers, and 16th out of 37 in my age group. I think I could do the Rev again. See you there next year??