I haven't been feeling the racing mojo or love lately so I skipped the Tour de Whitemans today and headed off up Paekak hill with Julia instead. After yesterday's ride was canceled due to some decidedly autumnal weather (rain, and cold southerlies gusting up to 85kph) and a morning spent in an RPM room I was more than ready for some sun and a good ride. After meeting Julia at her house in Tawa we headed North, with the lingering southerly to give us a push. I was feeling great. We stopped at the homestead at Battle Hill and then it was onwards and up.
Julia rolling in behind me at Battle Hill:
An odd location for a Tui billboard:
I definitely need to clean my iPhone's camera lens, but in some ways the blurring effect works.
Now, I've been up Paekakariki Hill once before, and I remember it being a slog. Admittedly today I had a push up from the wind, but I just cruised up in my big chain ring loving my new bike and waiting for the hill to actually hit. In fact there's only about one km right at the end which is even slightly steep. I was soon at the cutting where I'd turned around the first time (because of the strong winds), and then out the other side where I was greeted by this view and a good dose of vertigo:
Yep, it was a stunning day.
The bike was looking pretty good as well. Two motorcyclists (who also happened to be road cyclists, go figure) spent some time eyeing her up. I swear she's a great pick-up tool. Definitely need to clean that camera lens.
Eventually Julia came rolling in behind me. After a bit of a break we slogged it home into the southerly.
I finished the ride feeling incredibly strong and over the moon. More like that please!
3 comments:
Go Pip! Big chain ring? Outstanding effort :)
You are AWESOME at hills! Far out! I can't think of ANY hill I can climb in my big chain ring! All that RPM must be paying off :)
Well, Paekak from the southern side's not that steep, and I did have a push from the wind. But yeah, happy with that!
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