Martinborough Fun Ride, Murphy Returns

Location: Pahautea, New Zealand Activity: Road Biking Distance: 113.25 (km) Comments: Broke a spoke :( www.mcfr.org.nz View Activity at MotionBased Being the third time I competed in the Martinborough Fun Ride, I saw this as a great opportunity to compare my speed and fitness against previous years. With a brand new chain I was certainly looking for better than the previous weekend in the Coromandel. This ride consists of two laps, the first being a shorter 48km loop and the second a slightly more extended 67km loop. I was sure the leave the groups thats set out between 37 and 40km/h go for it and settled myself into a bunch that was average about 30km/h in the early stages of the first lap. Yes, fitness was down a tad from some races last year. In the latter stages of the first lap we picked up speed for an average over the first lap of about 33km/h which was good for me, as it placed for a PB for this event. 2006 - 3:52? (29.7km/h) 2007 - 3:36:04 (31.9km/h) 2008 - 3:45:51(30.6km/h) I was feeling pretty good and maintaining cadence even up hills was proving that. In fact, I was managing to speed the pedals 90+ times a minute on the (small) uphills which is preferable to slowly grinding them out. However, after about 60km I started to find myself struggling to hold on to their wheels at the back of the bunch. Yikes. I then could not find the kick to join the back of the following bunch as it went on by. As a third bunch came past me, the mentioned my rear wheel looked buckled. I looked down to see it wobbling all over the place but kept on riding nonetheless. "Murphy was an optimist" O'Toole's Commentry on Murphy's Law With around 80km covered the brakes rubbing had become so frustrating I had a brief stop to inspect the damage. I had broken a spoke. Not much I could do about that so I got back in the saddle and limped on back trying not to load up the power on the wheel thereby twisting it further. The last thing I needed was it rubbing on the frame as well as the brakes. It was labelled as a fun ride, but broken gear is never much fun. However, I did get to play with my new Garmin Edge 705. I have certainly never had so many statistics to measure my (non) performance during rides. Next weekend I have the Tour of the Wairarapa ride, so I have all my fingers and toes crossed for a mechanically uneventful day.