Rev 40km, 2011

My one road race of the year is done and dusted. The Rev 40km is part of the Rev Cycle Festival held in Hamilton once a year. I didn't have the chops or the bike to take part in the 120km race, so signed up to do the 40km again.

Last year's Rev 40km was my first go at riding at an event (some call it racing) on a fixie. I survived it and had soon pledged to do it all again this year. My usual partners in crime (let's face it, rolling up to a road race on a fixed gear cyclocross bike wearing mountain biking shoes breaks quite a few of the rules), Megan and Michelle had signed up too, but then Michelle ended up being a late scratching (get well soon). So 3M's became two and we departed from home and rode down to the race village. We arrived in time to see the start of the Solo120 race, and then another start, and another start, as they were sent off in waves.

We were lucky to have a cracker Waikato day, sunny, warm, and just a whiff of wind. We lined ourselves up in the front group, but by the time we had shuffled up the road to the actual start line we ended up in wave 2. That wasn't ideal, but was probably ambitious for me anyway! Last year I got dropped on the first long straight, unable to spin my 39:16 gearing fast enough to keep with the bunch. This year I had geared up to 42:16, so was hoping to hang with a bunch for a lot longer.

I did pretty well, sticking with the main bunch along that first long straight, then the bunch split at some point and I fell off the back on Tauwhare Road. The pace was just a little to high for me to spin along (I should have done a proper warm up and got my legs up to speed). Megan rode along with me, untilI realised that there was no point in both of us catching wind and I slotted in behind her. She was just cruising and taking it easy, whilst I was struggling to keep up! We were doing around 30-32km/hr which means I was doing 94-100rpm. I usually ride between 80 and 90rpm.

We finally got onto the first of rolling hills, which I quite liked but knew that there were a couple of bigger hills to come (it's still a relatively flat course, though). I felt nicely warmed up and a bit stuffed but I thought I'd get over the hills okay. Then I made a truly amateur mistake; I dropped my water bottle. A slight fumble getting it back into the bottle cage meant it popped out of my hand, pinged off my foot and disappeared into the ditch. "Bugger!" was all I could say. I knew I needed it (didn't have another one), so signalled that I was moving out of the bunch and turned around to go retrieve it. I muttered a few harsh words at losing so many places as the bunch behind me now swept past. I found the bottle, but it was missing it's lid. "Fark!" I had no drink left at all. I found the lid, reassembled the bottle and carried on. I used my anger and frustration to get me up the two big hills, spurred on by the sound of Michelle's cowbell (yay!). I pulled into Pukemoremore School to find a tap to refill my bottle and regrouped with Megan who had kindly waited for me to get underway about 5 minutes down.

It took a while to settle down into my 94-100rpm rhythm again, but soon Megan was leading the way with me tucked in behind. I would occasionally lose her wheel and have to dig a bit deeper to get back on. We did quite well over those remaining 18km or so, catching and passing quite a few people. Full credit to Megan, because I was doing none of the work!

With 4 km to go we passed another small bunch and Megan led me all the way home. It was hard work staying on her wheel, but I tried to keep close to avoid being dropped. As we rounded the last corner, I lost Megan's wheel again and thought she was putting on a burst to the finish. I dug deep to catch up and ended up beside her. "C'mon Megan!" I yelled. She grinned and then dropped her head... not to sprint, but because she had nothing left. We finished with the same time of 1hr 23 minutes. That's 5 minutes faster than my time last year, and could have been faster if not for losing my bottle!

I don't know if I'll do the Rev 40km again next year. I have my hopes up that Oliver will be keen to ride the 6km kids mountain bike race and I might be able to ride with him.