Sunday 30th January 2011 - Ngutunui Summer Time Trial

MARGUERITE RITCHIE SMASHES HER OWN WORLD RECORD

The banjos were duelling in the carpark as always, raising the hype and the heartrates. The air was cool and still. The mountain beckoned from the north and anticipation was building. A 30 second race briefing and they were off. Road conditions proved as perfect as the weather and wandering livestock caused fewer problems then they often do.

Marguerite scorched around the course, to smash the record by over 10 minutes, coming in 2nd overall and even at one stage making it look dangerous for James Gurney - the winning male and the only rider to get in ahead of her. She is the first woman ever to break two hours on this course and did it comfortably.

Shane Easton rode on a single speed and still beat his winter TT time.

Graham Dudfield arrived with his bike on the back of the car emanating a strange burnt rubber smell. A wheel was too close to the exhaust which had melted the tyre and tube into a sticky syrup. He took one look at it and went for a run instead. Tui travelled light without a pump and of course punctured and had to be rescued by Scotty.

The food and company in the cafe afterwards was great. The prize-giving went smoothly with the recipients of the coveted Ngutunui worms making excellent acceptance speeches.

Thanks to Rachel and co for their time-keeping skills. Much ginger crunch was consumed at the finish line as always.

Thanks to Rachel Algar for her photo of the riders awaiting the start.

Sunday 1st August 2010 - Ngutunui Winter Time Trial

WORLD RECORDS SMASHED AGAIN

Young up-and-comer Josh Parkin from the Hammers’ club smashed the "World" record on his first ever attempt at the course, lowering it by over 2 minutes. Women’s record smashed by over half an hour by Marguerite Ritchie, also a Hammer. We had our biggest turnout ever and the highest calibre of riders.

There were 15 starters and 13 finishers. Four women rode and all finished. Lots of riders did PBs.

Tony Fitzwater turned back before half way (stomach upset we think) and Graeme Hardaker opted for a lift through the last part of the last climb since the weather was packing up nastily for him. Graeme has had bad luck on the ride whenever he does it in winter though he has no problem with the summer versions. He has become quite a character of the ride and now has a strong goal to complete a winter one so as not to let the season get the better of him.

The weather was very cold at the start and grew colder with altitude. Most people seemed well prepared for this with plenty of layers of clothing. It was windy and overcast with wind gusts being strong and unpredictable in direction. Going up the final climb we got following winds, cross winds and head winds. The rain held off until the first riders were finished. The slower ones got a little rain towards the end and we all got wet riding back down to the school after the finish. Road conditions were great.

Jeff Tucker won the no-pedalling contest by blatant cheating (drafting).

Ginger crunch and hot chocolate went down well at the finish line waiting for the rest to finish.

Prize-giving at the Pirongia Clydesdales was appreciated and Josh made an excellent speech.

Chris was superb as the timing official. She played the theme song to us as she drove by while we rode up the first big hill and again as we went through the top. She handed out food to finishers and made a great job of the timing - no mean feat with no numbers on bikes. So the silver lining to her recent operation is that she comes in handy in other ways when she can't ride.

Results:

Sunday 31st January 2010 - Ngutunui Summer Time Trial

NEW WORLD RECORD SET BY CHRIS GAZE !

Too wet for cameras sorry, so no photos, but the big news is that the course record was smashed by Chris Gaze who rode a time of 1h 48m 48s in the worst road conditions we can ever remember for this event. The weather wasn't great either with constant rain and mud making it difficult to see out of mud-filled eyes at times.
On the last big climb up Okupata, which is never easy at the best of times, the road was 10 - 20 cm deep in newly applied loose gravel, so the bikes were swimming around in it like fish in the sea. It was almost easier to ride on the grass verges, and going by the tyremarks left as evidence, this is what some attempted at times.

Another amazing achievement was by Kerry Evans who also broke Justin's record doing a time of 1h 55m 26s on a SINGLE-SPEED BIKE on the shocking road conditions of the day. Kerry came in 2nd behind Chris.

The old world record, set by Justin Price in June 2008 was 1 hr 57m 9s . Annetta Tegel's women's course record of 2h 36m 30s, also set in June 2008 remains unbroken.

On the plus side, as far as race conditions go, there was none of the usual mid-summer heat we usually have to deal with at this time of year, almost the reverse in fact, with cold being more of a problem, and there was almost zero traffic with some riders seeing none whatsoever, (apart from the ginger crunch car itself), for the whole 53 kilometres.
Most riders had none of the usual entanglements with wild and domestic animals, although Rachel and Richard were caught up in a flock of sheep which did not help their chances of doing their best times.

There were 11 males and 2 female riders. The 2 females were Tui Allen representing WAMOs and Rachel Algar representing the Hamilton club.
The coveted Ngutunui worm trophies were won by Chris Gaze and Tui Allen. Tui now possesses two of these trophies so she has the most Ngutunui worms of any rider in the world.

Statistics of the ride, provided by Digi-Boy (Jeff Tucker), tell us we climbed 1114 metres with a maximum gradient of 17%.

Huge thanks and appreciation to Connor's dad Peter Dove, who drove the ginger-crunch car and recorded all the times as follows:

Results:
Finishers in order of finishing were:
Chris Gaze: 1h 48m 48s (First Male - New World Record for the course)
Kerry Evans: 1h 55m 26s (2nd male -Single-Speed World Record for the course)
James Gurney: 2h 07m 30s
Mark Vincett: 2h 10m 37s
Paul Fagan: 2h 14m 58s
Tony Fitzwater: 2h 15m 23s
Connor Dove: 2h 19m 05s
Jay Shelgren: 2h 20m 40s
Scott Sander: 2h 22m 25s
Jeff Tucker: 2h 32m 45s
Tui Allen: 2h 54m 0s (First Female)
Rachel Algar: 3h 06m 20s
Richard Young: 3h 10m (approx)

Saturday 25th July 09 Ngutunui Winter Time Trial - Take 2

We folded under intense pressure to the woosies who were too scared to turn up to the June "deathmarch" and held the Time trial again this month on a nicer day.

It was cold but still, fine and crystal clear. The volcanoes of the central plateau were at their most stunningly beautiful, with Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe gloriously visible from all the vantage points on the Pekanui. (See photos below) Mt Taranaki was likewise towering pure white in the south-west,and clearly visible from vantage points high on Pirongia West road. Kawhia Harbour was shining smooth like a mirror in the west.

Here's an extremely colourful account of the whole day's racing including full results written in full detail and much humour by Hammers' president James (Gems - Fockerati) Gurney. And we have great photos (see below) since we had the services of Scott Miller who acted as our official photographer and timing officer for the day.

The WAMOS on this occasion were outnumbered by the Hammers, but we still thrashed them by ensuring we had the winning male and female rider. The competition for the winning male rider was intense but that was sorted since K-Bomb (Kieran Chandler) turned up (to our relief) and quietly demolished all opposition.
The female winner was pretty much by default, females not being over-abundant on the day. So Tui was it. But she did not have it easy, since a farmer chasing her on his farm bike tried to frighten her with stories of bulls loose on the road ahead and another farmer slowing her down with his ute until she screamed him off the road with her loudest 'fish-wife' bellow. The bulls scarpered in terror.
Dealing with these kinds of obstacles however, is all part of the fabric of the Ngutunui scene and we all had the same wildlife to deal with.

These are heavily cropped miniatures - click to see the complete pictures
	At the start of the "Deliverance" Ngutunui Time Trial	TT-Tui on the Pekanui. Snowy mountains behind her	Damo and Wazza on the Pekanui
Ray (Gun) and Ngauruhoe	Fockerati, K-Bomb, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu	Fockerati and K-Bomb fighting it out in the lead	The main bunch and the snowy mountains
Dog Tucker finishing at the crossroads	K-Bomb looks relaxed coming in to take the win.	The winners: From left, Vincetto (3rd) K-Bomb (1st) Fockerati (2nd)	K-Bomb receives the coveted Ngutunui worm at the 'official' prize-giving