Rangitikei Active had a brand new cycling event on today, an "achieve-a-bull" one, leaving from the fire station in Bulls. There were two lengths of course, 28km or 50km. I know I can cycle 50km, but wasn't sure if I could do it easily in the time available, so opted for the 28km. Good choice! (It turned out to be quite a warm day and I easily finished the one water bottle I took.)
Here are the entrants lining up for the 50km ride, which started first. As you can see there are a few of us bigger ladies waiting for the 28km ride. I am sure that the series of Women's Triathlons that Shane started have a lot more women out confidently cycling. 
Here you can see more of the line of entrants for the longer ride. They all looked suitably competitive! As I found out later, a former pupil was in this bunch, and he has turned into quite a keen cyclist. He came in second in the men's longer ride. 
The longer ride headed down to the beach at Bulls, but we only went a few km down that road before doubling back and heading down Brandon Rd, which had a few more hills than I had been expecting, though nothing too exhausting. This farm building was at the turn-around point on Brandon Rd, and I gave myself a drink stop here. Everyone agreed that the trip back along Brandon Rd seemed a lot shorter than the way up, maybe because we knew we were in the home straight.
The finish line was fun: lots of people stood there cheering and clapping as we finished. Also, I was really glad to find that I managed to finish before the first of the 'long' riders came in, as it was great to feel that I hadn't been 'lapped'!
At registration we got this water bottle, which I can now add to the one I got at the Bikewise breakfast. Then I won the chocolate as a spot prize at the end. And yes, I was pleased..... too bad about losing weight.... tomorrow is another day...
I love the sign at the top of the post - watch out! There's an 'event'! The generic-ness of it strikes me as funny. Here in the US we need everything explicitly spelled-out ;)
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
We have only had 'event' signs for a few years! There was a death of a cyclist on an event a few years ago, and the organiser was prosecuted, which has made everyone more worried about running such events. This event was down a rural road with little traffic. And there were quite a few cyclists on the road to make them realise something was up!
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