Glory through suffering..

Wayne Hudson giving the race briefing, in true lawyer style.

Gravel, glorious gravel.

DB making a break off the front, Jay in behind, me behind that and CTB ready to give me a helping shove up the hill.

Gazza, owner of NZO clothing, rouleur and all-round tough bastard from Rotorua.

"Start slow and taper off" were the instruction from DB while sitting on the start line of the inaugural Race of Six Friends.

 The sun had come up that morning to announce a stunning day, with little to no wind. Temperatures were wintery to say the least, 4 degrees on the road to Riverhead, but positively freezing on the start line outside the tavern. 

Our team was in good spirits; CTB was a little bleary after a red-eye flight from Sydney, Gaz had come up from Rotorua, Gayle was unnervingly chipper (as always) and DB was on form considering the shitter of a week he had (the sad and unexpected loss of Fausto).

8:00 - Instructions, and directions given. Full evilness of the course is yet to be realised. As this was a gentlemans race, if anyone asked we were "just a group of six friends going for a nice ride on a sunday, just a very fast ride"

8:12 - Time to roll. 

My decision to wear Rapha summer gloves as they had padding was being cursed during the first hour, when I lost all feeling in my fingers and instead developed a searing pain where they should have been. 

We got caught by a team on the first section of gravel, including an 18% stretch to wake the legs up. 

Kept a nice high pace, started to loosen up and enjoy the morning a bit more.

Seed of doubt planted after a turn we made didn't quite match up to the distance given. Got to the end of the road and realised we had missed the sign we were meant to get a photo of. Balls. Took a pic of the road sign instead and carried on. By this time we were all fairly unaware of where we were.

The course went through some stunning areas. Absolutely no idea where we were, but we ended up on a long climb (Im guessing the longest of the day), which, rather than tapering off at the "top" carried onto a narrow gravel road which climbed even more and with even more brutality. Legs were empty by halfway up, and the first push of the day from CTB was needed. 

This was followed by an excellent long, rough, and steep descent. Lots of fun (gravel and I actually loved it). Luckily we weren't one of the many teams who got punctures along here. I'm guessing the 150psi I had in my Zipp firecrest 404's might've helped. Completely disorientated at this point.

Next stop was Kaukapakapa store, to pick up a playing card, have a shot of whisky, a swig of coke and some jet planes. Onwards and Downwards.

Back through to Helensville, The Axis of Mischief pain train was on high speed led by Gayle and Jay.

Back along SH16, past Woodhill, then at the 100km mark onto Kiwitahi Road. This road deserves a blog post all on its own. It is pure evil. You go from the dead chip of SH16, onto this road, which is also dead chip, but ramps up violently and carries on unrelentlessly for fuck knows how long (enough for me to almost start to snivel, and eat 6 jet planes). Then it turns into gravel and gets even steeper (18% again). At this point, as Stu had mentioned in the "teasers" of the race, I was cursing him with every bone in my body. 

CTB was an absolute life-saver, and nearly killed himself to give me a helping push up, as I hit an all-time low of 4.5km on one section. I have never ridden that slow in my life. It would've been more humiliating had everyone else not been suffering as badly aswell. I did however, refuse to walk like a lot of people (cough-Stu-cough) did. Mainly because it was too steep to get off. CTB then went back down to rescue Jay who was stopped with cramp. Got to the top, and put a foot down, had a drink, nearly vomited and gave evil death eyes at Gazza for making a joke about how nasty it was. 

From there on it was a 25km sprint back along Gt North Road, through Kumeu to Riverhead. The pain train came out again, and we rolled into Riverhead with a finishing time of 5:10. 

All in all it was an awesome day. It was by far and away the most fun race I have done. Thanks to Stu Hill, DB, Wayne, and Solo clothing for putting on such a fantastic day.

Thanks also to Amy Taylor for letting me use her photos.

And last but not least, thanks to my amazing team-mates. I was completely out-classed by you all.

 DB, CTB, Gazza, Gayle, Jay- you are all legends.

 Thanks for not laughing at my pitiful state up some of the hills. And a huge thanks to CTB for being Broomwagon of the day, hopefully that arm isn't too sore from pushing!