ECNZ 2010 – Day 4 –North Shore / Coromandel to Matamata

ECNZ 2010 – Day 4 –North Shore / Coromandel to Matamata

Long day and I am short on time.

I don’t remember who made the suggestion to get a ferry to Coromandel from the North Shore but is a brilliant idea. It didn’t cut any distance, we avoided riding through Auckland and the route out of Coromandel was awesome.

After a 2hr ferry we set an eyeball Aquathon course of around 1km Swim / 5km Run. I knew Gordo would kill himself to win and Clas would run hard from behind so all I planned was to swim hard and then run as easy as I possibly could to get 3^rd. This worked a treat. Whilst Molina, Madman and the curly freight train were tucked in behind I felt OK and saved some energy for the KOM’s.

Onto the bikes and we were straight into two tough hills with a KOM on the 2^nd. I pushed to the front at the bottom of the first climb and we had a group of 6 form. I pushed hard on the 2^nd climb but Clas is a much stronger as you would expect and I didn’t quite get Gordo as he buttoned off in the last 200m. Still enough to be tied for 2^nd in the KOM with Clas and with Gordo in yellow it rolls down to us so we’ll each have a day in polka dot jersey. I;m still waiting for Molina and Tara to come smoking past me on one of these KOM’s some time soon.

With about 120km of flat riding today the under carriage was under more pressure but everything seems to be in place. Everyone seemed to be moving around in their saddles a little more and standing up a lot.

A bit sleepy now so time to sign off.