G
GizmoDuck
Guest
Final Team NZUNI report for RTL! Sorry it's a couple of days late but
we've been pretty busy partying after the race
Day 5
We started the day about 10min down on the German team, so it would
have taken either a superstrong ride from us, or a mistake/mechanical
from the German team for us to improve on our second overall placing.
Well, it became apparent that todays course would be the same as
yesterday....pretty flat and perfect 36" Guni terrain. The German team
were really Schlumpfing it today! In the opening 20km's only Team
Smiles' Sam Wakeling and myself from Team NZUni were hanging with the
29/36 Schlumpfs in the lead peleton. Without sounding like we gave up
entirely, it was pretty apparent we were going to be outgeared today,
so Team NZUNI settled in to enjoy the ride instead. We spent much of
the day with Team Texacali and Team Personal Rollercoaster. These two
teams were within 20secs of each other going into todays stage, so they
were fighting it out hard for third place. We changed places for much
of the day, until Texacali put on a burst of speed on one of the very
fast flat sections and put about 2-3min on Personal Rollercoaster and
Team NZUNI. Personal Rollercoaster was riding extremely well, but they
were mainly a 29'er Sclumpf team (Roland and Vince), whereas Texacali
had Corbin on a 36'er Sclumpf, which was big enough gear to power away
from us on the flats.
There was a 20km section at about the 150km mark where the timing was
stopped, because this had to be driven in our support vans. This may
have looked a bit funny on the GPS tracking if you were not aware of
what was going on. Basically, every team stopped at the checkpoint and
then drove 20km to start at the base of a hill.
Finally, we had a decent (7km) climb to try and pull a little back on
the GUni teams. Team NZUNI was sitting in third place, about 2-3min
back on Texacali, so it was the only time we could get some time back
before the course flattened out again. It was a really awesome
climb....not the steepest or toughest but definitely one of the most
fun. We don't know how we did as Texacali had driven ahead and set
their riders out long before us.
We did the final section with all three NZUNI riders drafting off each
other in the closing few km's to launch Tony Melton to the finish line
in style.
We came in second in todays stage, sneaking in 23secs ahead of
Texacali, and 12min ahead of Personal Rollercoaster. The German
Speeders had a good day, coming in 7min ahead of Team NZUNI. We never
really saw them after about 30km, but weren't chasing them hard today.
We were 2nd overall in the General Classication, behind the German
Speeders, and ahead of Texacali, Personal Rollercoaster and Team Smile,
in 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.
Pretty happy with the result, even if it would have been nice to have
beaten the German team more than once! They were consistently faster
than us, but we learnt a lot from racing them. Hopefully we'll have
the same teams again for the next RTL event!
Big thanks to all the awesome organisers, volunteers, support crews (in
particular our wonderful Don and Veronique for Team NZUNI), other rider,
and all the communities in Nova Scotia for putting on a unique and
wonderful experience.
See you next time!
Ken Looi
Team NZUNI
--
GizmoDuck
The Uninam Tour 2008.....Hanoi to Saigon!!! www.uninam.net
The SINZ Unicycle Tour 2007....South Island, New Zealand
www.sinzuni.org
The Induni Unicycle Tour 2009. Unicycle Tour of India. Email me for
details.
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we've been pretty busy partying after the race
Day 5
We started the day about 10min down on the German team, so it would
have taken either a superstrong ride from us, or a mistake/mechanical
from the German team for us to improve on our second overall placing.
Well, it became apparent that todays course would be the same as
yesterday....pretty flat and perfect 36" Guni terrain. The German team
were really Schlumpfing it today! In the opening 20km's only Team
Smiles' Sam Wakeling and myself from Team NZUni were hanging with the
29/36 Schlumpfs in the lead peleton. Without sounding like we gave up
entirely, it was pretty apparent we were going to be outgeared today,
so Team NZUNI settled in to enjoy the ride instead. We spent much of
the day with Team Texacali and Team Personal Rollercoaster. These two
teams were within 20secs of each other going into todays stage, so they
were fighting it out hard for third place. We changed places for much
of the day, until Texacali put on a burst of speed on one of the very
fast flat sections and put about 2-3min on Personal Rollercoaster and
Team NZUNI. Personal Rollercoaster was riding extremely well, but they
were mainly a 29'er Sclumpf team (Roland and Vince), whereas Texacali
had Corbin on a 36'er Sclumpf, which was big enough gear to power away
from us on the flats.
There was a 20km section at about the 150km mark where the timing was
stopped, because this had to be driven in our support vans. This may
have looked a bit funny on the GPS tracking if you were not aware of
what was going on. Basically, every team stopped at the checkpoint and
then drove 20km to start at the base of a hill.
Finally, we had a decent (7km) climb to try and pull a little back on
the GUni teams. Team NZUNI was sitting in third place, about 2-3min
back on Texacali, so it was the only time we could get some time back
before the course flattened out again. It was a really awesome
climb....not the steepest or toughest but definitely one of the most
fun. We don't know how we did as Texacali had driven ahead and set
their riders out long before us.
We did the final section with all three NZUNI riders drafting off each
other in the closing few km's to launch Tony Melton to the finish line
in style.
We came in second in todays stage, sneaking in 23secs ahead of
Texacali, and 12min ahead of Personal Rollercoaster. The German
Speeders had a good day, coming in 7min ahead of Team NZUNI. We never
really saw them after about 30km, but weren't chasing them hard today.
We were 2nd overall in the General Classication, behind the German
Speeders, and ahead of Texacali, Personal Rollercoaster and Team Smile,
in 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.
Pretty happy with the result, even if it would have been nice to have
beaten the German team more than once! They were consistently faster
than us, but we learnt a lot from racing them. Hopefully we'll have
the same teams again for the next RTL event!
Big thanks to all the awesome organisers, volunteers, support crews (in
particular our wonderful Don and Veronique for Team NZUNI), other rider,
and all the communities in Nova Scotia for putting on a unique and
wonderful experience.
See you next time!
Ken Looi
Team NZUNI
--
GizmoDuck
The Uninam Tour 2008.....Hanoi to Saigon!!! www.uninam.net
The SINZ Unicycle Tour 2007....South Island, New Zealand
www.sinzuni.org
The Induni Unicycle Tour 2009. Unicycle Tour of India. Email me for
details.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/70698
Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
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