The Motu Challenge
A Record Breaking Motu Challenge
Richard Ussher / 20.10.2011
It had already been a hectic return to NZ with only a few days actually at home before we hit the road for Opotiki and the Motu Challenge. It was looking like a minor miracle with fine weather predicted but that forecast quickly proved incorrect as torrential run fell all night. By morning it cleared just long enough for us to start before we all got a good soaking on the MTB. There were still positives though – no snow and light wind, which definitely was a first.
The first MTB trundled along at a pretty amicable pace on the road, everyone waiting for the first major climb to show their hand. When we got there, national MTB champion Carl Jones dropped the hammer and the rest of us scrambled to get on his wheel. There was still a much bigger group of riders than normal halfway up the climb and when Carl and Mark Leishman stretched it out a bit they slowly disappeared up the road. I was quite surprised not to see Dougal Allen try and jump across and so decided to keep a little bit in the bank. just in case he took up the attack later on.
The pace in our group remained pretty steady and gradually the number of riders whittled down to about five or six. The other big surprise was Sam Clark from Whakatane still with us, which showed he had made some big steps since last summer.
Heading into Motu for the change to running shoes my feet felt like icicles, which is normally par for the course at this race, and it took several kilometers to get them warmed up. Dougal was right on my tail still but after about 4km I noticed he’d just started to fade a bit and gradually I was able to stretch away from him.
Heading back for round two on the bike I was feeling pretty good, the legs were working well and once aboard the TT bike I was still able to put some good power in, which is always a good thing to find on this particular ride, especially when Dougal Allen is right behind.
I caught up with the two leading teams, one of whom was Courtney Lowe who I seem to ride with every year. She was riding really strongly and rode away from me up the hill, but luckily I have a few more pies on board and I was able to catch back up on the descent.
Arriving at the kayak I was surprised that Dougal hadn’t caught me on this ride so I was in bonus territory as I’d fully expected we’d be battling it out right to the river. See All Event Posts
