Megagrind day 4

Yay: awesome ride out of raglan into the dawn. Only one real torrential downpour. Excellent date scone and coffee at Whatawhata. River trail around Hamilton lovely and fast! Bike very happy after new chain lube purchased. Mamaku climb much more fast and fun than expected! Then zoom down to the finish – lovely to have Pete and Erik there to meet us and chat. While today was my new longest ever distance – 216km – it felt by far the easiest day! Helped by a better sleep last night and a number of nice food stops.

Boo: choking on either a fly or bit of muffin in Hamilton then coughing for next 20 mins. Slightly vicious rolling climbs into Putaruru. Accidentally dropping bike into pool of foetid water by Mamaku barricades oops.

Thanks Pete for organising another awesome event and thanks Brent for company/mutual suffering. 4 days feels like a big achievement!

Megagrind day 3

Yay: still going surprisingly ok despite two brutal days and little sleep, no major niggles. Beautiful ride through valley after Piopio. Bakes beans on toast at Oparau! Deciding to stop in Raglan just after 6 and enjoying first shower (and downtime)of event and enjoying watching thunder and lightening while not riding in it. Also it didn’t rain all day.

Boo: run out of chain lube (thanks Brent!), heinous up/downs between Oparau and Raglan. Also brief navigational error.

Megagrind day 2

Yay: timber trail down hills, ohura Mexican food fuelled really enjoyable ride up the valley, chain not falling off and definitely appreciate those extra gear, felt ok today despite yesterday’s big effort, while we got to piopio at 910pm I felt a lot better than I did yesterday at 9pm!

Boo: the 20km to Taumarunui is not flat like I thought, rat chewed through feedbag last night and ate my snacks, last hill to ohura in beating sun.

Megagrind day 1

Yay: first 60kms v fast, achieved epic day, new light is great

Boo: Waikato river trail pinch climbs and steps, last hour riding was torture! Added new bcc flavour to blacklist could only eat half of it at 11pm! This was definitely too late for dinner.