Cycle: 2009 Le Race - warning: Mountainous

Knowing I needed to work on my hill climbing I entered Le Race to get some more practice. And yes, there was hill climbing. In fact, at one point I did actually dismount and walk. I have never done that during an event before.

The even began with a controlled start, and a green wave to get us through the traffic lights in Christchurch. The controlled section ended abruptly with the first climb of the day up the aptly named Summit Hill. In thick fog, I took the descent cautiously due to limited visibility.



From here there was a long flat section to Little River in which I had the support of a large bunch. That said it was one of those large bunches where the rotation at the front was not working as well as it might for optimum speed. That said, I was pretty happy with how things were going until the ascent up to Hilltop where I twinged my back slightly. In most cases this would not have been a problem, but for the steepness of these climbs needed 100% commitment. Yup, I ended up walking and having some short rests. Duvauchelle Peak, near killed me I tell you!!! Most of those around me were able to make it up these hill on this day either. I have never, ever seen so many cyclists walking during an organised cycling event before.




I would like to improve on my 4:37 next year and make it up all those hills. It was a tough and challenging course and one of the most scenic I have ridden. These are serious hills, you need to be ready for mountainous climbs to do well in this event.

I also have Garmin data for this ride, but Garmin Connect doesn't provide options to embed ride stats yet. You can find my full Garmin Connect data of this ride here.