Round the Taupo x 2 | Okolo Taupa x 2

Each year in late November there is famous Round The Taupo bike race being organised (www.cyclechallenge.com) in New Zealand around the lake Taupo. Jana had really good excuse this time being almost 30 weeks pregnant, so I decided to raise the family flag and do 2 laps instead of one, which means Enduro category and 320km.

As usually I've not done too much training, but I have to say I was quite happy with the final results, although there is always some "althought", but lets start from beginning.

Start at 1:30AM was a bit early to have a good sleep before but the race started well and riding through the night in pack of 20(ish) bikers was absolutely amazing. The hilly part of the first lap was over relatively soon and I was finishing the 1st lap (160km) at time under 5h10, well above my expectations. Unfortunately I've lost the pack due minor issue with my chain and then I got lost in Taupo struggling to get to the check point which costed me good 15 minutes of time. Of course I should have the map with me or at least studied it the night before, but I wasn't expecting that there is going to be no sign where to go and traffic marshals not knowing the way for Enduro category.

However finally I got into the 2nd lap just before the main start at 7AM, and pedaled into the hilly section. There I started to struggle, being really slow on uphills and not really quick on flat sections. Just after half of the 2nd lap when I've taken some muesli bars I felt energy coming back and that really made a difference. On the long flat section I caught one pack, accelerated and before the finish of the race I even started passing some bikers from the 160km category. Finally I've finished the 2nd lap in about 6hrs and the whole race for 11h26min.

I have to say this was really good ride, I enjoyed it a lot, and if it works out well next year, I am planning to be on the start again. Now when I know where to go after the 1st lap I have really good chance to improve :D

You can find results here and some photos below

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Kazdy rok pred koncem listopadu se na Zelandu porada vehlasny cyklozavod Round The Taupo (www.cyclechallenge.com) okolo stejnojmeneho jezera. Jana mela tentokrat docela dobrou vymluvu, jelikoz je v 30 tydnu tehotenstvi, tak jsem se rozhodl pozdvihnout rodinou zastavu a zajet si dve kola namisto jednoho, coz znamena kategorii Enduro a trasu 320kilometru.

Jako obvyle jsem moc netrenoval, ale musim rict ze i tak jsem docela spokojen s konecnym vysledkem, i kdyz vzycky tam jsou nejake "ale", nicmene pekne od zacatku.

Start v 1:30 rano byl docela brzo na to se predtim vyspat, ale start dopadl dobre a jizda noci v baliku asi 20 lidi byl uzasny zazitek. Kopcovita cast byla za nami relativne rychle, a prvni kolo (160km) jsem koncil v case pod 5h10, vysoko nad svoje ocekavani. Bohuzel jsem kvuli spadlemu retezu ztratil balik a pak jsem se ve meste Taupo ztratil kdyz jsem hledal kontrolni bod pro prujezd do druheho kola, coz me stalo dobrych 15 minut. Samozrejme jsem si mel s sebou vzit mapku anebo ji aspon poradne prostudovat vecer predtim, ale necekal jsem ze trasa nebude znacena a uz vubec ne to, ze lide organizujici dopravu nebudou znat trasu pro nasi kategorii.

Nicmene nakonec jsem se dostal do druheho kola chvili pred startem hlavniho zavodu v 7 rano, a slapal si to do kopcovate casti okruhu. A tam to zacalo drit, dostavila se unava, do kopcu to jelo hodne pomalu a po rovine ne zrovna rychle. Nekde za polovinou druheho kola jsem do sebe vhodil par muesli tycinek a snad to se mnou udelalo zazraky. Na dlouhe rovinate casti jsem se chytl do projizdejiciho baliku, zrychlil, a pred koncem dokonce predjizdel nektere jezdce z 160km kategorie. Nakonec jsem ujel druhe kolo za priblizne 6 hodin a cely zavod za 11h26min.

Musim rict ze tahle vyjizdka teda rozhodne stala zato a ze pokud se to pristi rok podari, tak budu zase stat na startu. Ted uz vim kudy jet po prvnim kole, tak mam snad sanci se zlepsit :D

Vysledky muzete najit tady a nejak fotky nize

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BIB | Startovni cislo

Start

Relay category bikes ready for transport | Kola stafetove kategorie pripravene na prevoz

Downhill at the end of the 1st lap|Sjezd na konci prvniho kola

Finish | Cil

Karapoti Classic

Finally we did an mountain bike race on Saturday, the southern hemisphere's longest running mountain bike event Karapoti Classic, by the way not far from where we live.

We finished in relatively good times, Michal a bit under 4h and Jana a bit over 5 (see the results), which I thinks wasn't too bad for our first race with hardly any training. Although I have to admit it is far far away from the track record around 2h15 and friend of us Ivan who did under 3hrs in the elite category.

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Konecne jsme si na nasich horskych kolech vyjeli v Sobotu na zavod horskych kol, a to udajne nejstarsi zavod horskych kol na jizni polokouli Karapoti Classic, docela nedaleko od naseho bydliste.

Dojeli jsme v docela dobrych casech Michal neco pod 4h a Janca malo pres 5 (viz vysledky), coz si myslim nebylo vubec spatne na to ze to byl nas prvni zavod a vlastne temer bez pripravy. I kdyz musime uznat ze na tratovy limit nekde na hranici 2h15 ani na kamarada Ivana ktery to zajel pod 3 hodiny v elitni kategorii, ani zdaleka nemame.

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Moments before the start | Chvili pred startem

Michal in finish | Michal v cili


Jana hundreds meters before the finish | Jana par set metru pred cilem

Jana in finish | Jana v cili

New bikes | Nova kola

After two "serious road trips" on mountain bike we decided that it was time to get also some road two wheel vehicles and we bought some two road bikes Bauer in good health so we are now ready to hit the asphalt....

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Po dvou "serioznich silnicnich vyletech" na horskem kole jsme dospeli k zaveru ze je nacase poridit si take nejake silnicni jednostopa vozitka, tak jsem si koupili docela zachovale bicykly znacky Bauer a uz se tesime az s nimi zacneme "trhat asfalt" ....

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Michal's Bauer Flite | Michaluv Bauer Flite
Jana's Bauer Warp | Janen Bauer Warp

Round the Mountain (450kms on bike in one day)

We went for another road bike race this season. This time for Round the Mountain Cycle Ride [www.roundthemountain.co.nz] that goes around the Taranaki volcano on the North Island. Jana went for The big ride - Solo 175km, Michal for Enduro 275km. So together we made 450kms on bike this Saturday.

Finally Michal finished on 3rd place in Enduro and Jana on 4th place of ladies, 32nd in total. All thanks to our dedication and trusty biked (mountainbikes with 1 inch tyres), and also because lack of participants in our categories ;) but this doesn't change anything on Michal being bronze and Jana less than 10 minutes of the bronze.

Michal's time was 10h57m (including changing a tyre twice) and Jana's time 7h15m. Average speed shown by cyclocomputer was 26,2km/h and 24,6km/h (average speed excludes stops).

You can see our lovely new cyclo dresses in which we represented our home Bike clubs from Czech (SLK Semik and KPC Praha [www.kpc-praha.cz]).

Now is the time to start training for Karapoti [www.karapoti.co.nz], that's in less than 2 months from now ...

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Zajeli jsme v teto sezone si na dalsi silnicni cyklozavod. Tentokrat Round the Mountain Cycle Ride (Cyklojizda okolo hory) [www.roundthemountain.co.nz] ktery vede okolo sopky Taranaki na Severnim ostrove. Jana jela The big ride (Velka jizda) - Solo 175km, Michal Enduro 275km. Takze dohromady jsme za sobotu ujeli na kole rovnych 450kms.

Nakonec Michal skoncil na 3. miste v Enduro and Jana na 4. miste v zenach, 32. celove. Vsechno diky nasemu nasazeni a spolehlivym bicyklum (horska kola s 1 palcovymi pneu), a take z duvodu relativne maleho poctu ucastniku v nasich kategoriich ;) ale to nic nemeni na tom, ze Michal dosahl bronzove pozice a Jana se k ni priblizila o mene nez 10 minut.

Michaluv cas byl 10h57m (vcetne dvoji vymeny duse) a Janin 7h15m. Prumerne rychlosti podle cyklopocitace byly 26,2km/h a 24,6km/h (prumerne rychlosti jsou bez zastavek).

Na obrazcich muzete videt nase nove fesacke dresy, ve kterych jsme reprezentovali nase domovske cyklokluby v Cesku (SLK Semik a KPC Praha [www.kpc-praha.cz]).

A ted uz je nacase zacit trenovat na Karapoti [www.karapoti.co.nz], ktere je uz za mene jak 2 mesice ...

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After the race|Po zavode

Final photo|Cilove foto

Map 275km|Mapa 275km

Map 175km|Mapa 175km

Round the Taupo

So we decided to take our sporting a bit more seriously and we registered ourselves onto Round the Taupo [http://www.cyclechallenge.com] last Saturday (29/11), which is sort of non-competitive race around the biggest New Zealand lake, roughly 160km on road. There were also shorter variants on the MTB tracks, that we denied, and also longer options where you can do this circuit twice or four times, which seemed to us "a bit too much for now". At the end the quickest guy doing this category did that (640km!) for something under 24hrs, which is under 6hrs per lap!

Weather was very good, in fact maybe a bit too hot. But finally we have in relaxed tempo (although Jana may disagree with this formulation), did all the 160km in a bit ovet 7.5hrs on our MTBs but with road 1 inch tires. Considering we did not train for this event at all i think it was quite good ;)

You can see the map and some pictures below.

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Tak jsme se rozhodli se zapojit vice do sportovna, a zaregistrovali jsme se na Round the Taupo [http://www.cyclechallenge.com] minulou sobotu (29/11), coz je vicmene nesoutezni zavod okolo nejvetsiho Zelandskeho jezera Taupo, bratru 160km po asfaltu. Jeste existovaly kratsi varianty na horskem kole, ktere jsme ale zavrhli a potom delsi varianty, ty ale znamenaly jet to "kolecko" dvakrat nebo ctyrikrat, coz nam pripadlo pro zacatek "trochu vic nez dost". Nakonec ale nejrychlejsi muzik na te nejdelsi trati (640km!) toto ujel za necelych 24 hodin, coz je pod 6h na jedno kolo!

Pocasi nam pralo, bylo mozna az trochu moc horko. Nakonec jsme volnym tempem (i kdyz Janca by mozna s touhle formulaci moc nesouhlasila), projeli celou 160km trat za neco pres 7.5hodiny na nasich horskych kolech, ovsem se slinicnnimi 1 palcovymi plasti. Na to ze jsme na tuto akci nedelali zadny trenink to nebylo myslim vybec spatne.

Dole muzete videt mapku a nejake fotky.

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Map of the race|Mapa zavodu
Bike storage|Uschova kol
Start
Getting closer to Tongariro volcanos|Blizime se k Tongariro sopkam
No comment|Bez komentare

Wild Wellington Mountain Bike Relay

Shortly after our return from South America Jana had working weekend and I was thinking what to do. Choosing between one day volleybal tournament in Palmerston (2hrs drive from here) or bike race in Wellington, and you can guess what I've finally decided for.

Wild Wellington Mountain Bike Relay [http://www.wildwellington.co.nz/site/wild_wellington_relay/] is MTB relay race on hilly circuit in Wellington park, that goes even for 6 or 12 hours. We went for the 12 hrs option, staring at 10am and finishing just at 10pm, so the last rides were with lights at night. There was eight of us so we formed two teams of four and because none of our employers was willing to support us, we accepted kind offer from children charity [www.savethechildren.org.nz] and we represented them in their red shirts ...

Results were not bad, we didn't finished in the very bottom, but most of all it was great fun ;)

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Kratce po tom co jsme se vratili z Jizni Ameriky Janca mela pracovni vikend and ja jesm premyslel co budu delat ja. Mel jsem na vyber mezi jednodennim volejbalovym turnajem v Palmerston North (2 hodiny autem odsud) anebo zavod na horskych kolech, tak muzete hadat pro co jsem se rozhodl.

Wild Wellington Mountain Bike Relay [http://www.wildwellington.co.nz/site/wild_wellington_relay/] je stafetovy zavod horskych kol na kopcovatem okruhu ve Wellingtonskem parku, ktery se jede 5 nebo 12 hodin. Vybrali jsme si 12-ti hodinovou variantu, ktera startovala v 10 rano a koncila v 10 vecer, takze poslednich par kol se jelo se svetly v noci. Bylo nas osm, tak jsme zformovali 2 tymy po ctyrech a protoze zadny z nasich zamestnavatelu nebyl ochoten nas podporit, prijali jsme nabidku detske charity [www.savethechildren.org.nz] a tak jsme v cervenych trickach reprezentovali je...

Vysledky nebyly nejhorsi, skoncili jsme dostatecne daleko od konce tabulky, ale hlavne to byla docela dobra zabava ;)

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Team photo|Tymove foto
Some teams had costumes|Nektere tymy mely slusive kostymy
Into next lap|Do dalsiho kola
Finishing the lap|Konec kola