Nov 22: Long Ride – Whakatane to Tauranga

Day 11: Whakatane to Tauranga

Leaving Whakatane

Now we are 4 again

Rose re-joined us yesterday at Whakatane (with a flash new bike helmet) in time to ride today to complete the Long Ride to Auckland.

Cycle path en route out of Whakatane

The full team is back together again.

Today’s ride was a flat route from Whakatane to Tauranga (maximum ascent only 70 metres!). However, the weather turned the ride into something of an endurance effort. Weather was overcast – heavy grey clouds, which thinned and cleared later in the day. No problem with that. Weather was warm – the forecast high temperature in the region was in the mid-twenties and humidity was unusually high for the Bay of Plenty. The cloud kept the ride cooler than it would have been if we had been cycling in sunshine, which was a bonus, but the warm westerly wind dominated cycling conditions.

Our route was pretty much heading west the whole day, so for 90% of the time we were riding straight into a breezy head wind.

Riding on the flat into a head wind means there are no free kilometres. No coasting on down hills. No tail wind to ease the pressure on the legs. No variations in terrain which use different leg muscles and require riding off the seat. It is a grind at a constant pace into the wind the whole time. The legs muscles and butt get sore much sooner than they would in other conditions, and there is no relief.

In the warm humid conditions this was hard work. Given the general lack of up and down terrain to provide some variation to the ride, the butts were majorly sore even before we had reached the halfway point. We all complained about this. Coupled with the warm conditions and this ride took its toll.

By the end of the day we were all dehydrated, sore and looking forward to the end of the day’s ride. We arrived at our destination at 5pm, and spent the next hour sprawled on the deck re-hydrating and stretching sore/tired muscles. Thankfully the wind had dropped by then, so it was pleasant enough sitting on the deck in the late afternoon, grateful that we had finished that ride and wishing that the wind and died away sooner than it did, as was forecast. But we can’t control the weather, so I won’t go on (again) about how much we dislike windy conditions (especially constant all-day headwinds).

Good news: no punctures today, no mishaps on the bikes, no close encounters of the vehicular kind. The views along the coast were nice but a few twists and turns in those LONG straights between Matata and Otamarakau would have added greater interest. For the rest of the route the scenery was also pleasant, but not spectacular.

Not much more to say really. Bit like sitting on the wind trainer in the garage – setting it to ‘hard grind’, riding in heated conditions, then putting the head down and pedalling away for several hours without having enough to drink. And at the end wondering why the overuse of the same muscles makes you sore and cranky. Accordingly, not much choice or variation in the photos taken today.

We all ranked today as one of the hardest – mainly because of the weather conditions, and even though there were no serious hills. If there had been a significant portion of tail wind, or no wind, then no doubt we would be thinking about today differently.

last kilometre of the day; blurry but expression says it all

Stats for Day 11 of the Long Ride: total trip was 99.5 km, with a total cycling time of 4 hrs 27 mins

the end of the day's ride

(much longer than usual as there was no let up from the head wind). The average speed was 23 km/h.