Makara Attack(ara)

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One of the real pleasures of living here in Wellington for the last six months has been the ability to head out of the house and get right on my bike for a ride. Within minutes, I can be climbing and descending some awesome hills on back-country roads.

After a long ride on Thursday and a heavy running/lifting workout yesterday at Exodus gym, it would have been easy to take today off. But, unlike yesterday, the day dawned dry and the low clouds lifted by noon, leaving a weather window that was just too irresistable to pass up. Also, I was thinking that having a taste of that Castle Cliffs 2004 Pinot Noir would be so much better after a good ride today, so I dressed and headed out the door.

So, cruising through Karori, doing about 23 mph on the flat, I flew past another rider heading for the climb up to the big drop down to Makara beach. It was a real suprise, about three minutes later, to see him, come past me on the climb as I was going up at a fair clip. The road wound back and forth and I could see he was fading fast and that perhaps his move past me me was more testosterone than climbing ability. I felt that for sure I would be going around him again on the next curve, but as I came around the bend he was gone. Until I was up over the top of the pass and heading down the other side I thought that maybe he had gotten a second wind, but as I descended, I found myself in back of a line of five cars that were going more slowly down the winding road. There was no way that this guy could have passed these five cars. I'm pretty sure that he pulled off on the climb, taking a side road. No doubt, he rode past me on the hill well past his red line and then, rather than get passed on the climb (evidence of the hot-dog move), he bailed into the side road. Sad.

Anyway, on the way back from the beach, I decided that today would be a good opportunity for an uphill time trial.

As a point of reference, this same climb (from the "curvy road" sign at the bottom to the trail head sign at the top) took me 13:52 two days ago and my fastest had been 13:46 back on 27 May. Today I climbed this same distance in 12:37, taking more than a minute off my best time. I topped out at 173 bpm towards the end of the hill, sprinting at 20 kph at the very top. Ok, not TdF time but great preparation for the long rides coming up in the next months.

One of the other small, but wonderful pleasures of living where we do in Wellington, is that there is a Subway sandwich shop on the way home. One "veggie delight" later, I was home with that Pinot Noir and one great, fast ride finished.