Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge

Saturday 25th November 2000

by Jason Kelly

The weather on the day started off dry, overcast and mild with little wind. Some showers were predicted which could make the road slippery and dangerous - especially for a three man bike whose combined weight of around 250kg does not stop in a hurry - even in dry conditions. After months of training, including many Te Mata Peak climbs, riding to Taupo and a ride up the Desert Road from Palmerston North by one of the team, rain was the last thing we needed.

In 1999, myself, my brother Patrick and John Barry attempted the 160km Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge on the triplet tandem with the aim of breaking the four hour mark. Ultimately we were unsuccessful due to gear failure, but, our fast pace for the first 80km helped over 40 riders to break the previously untouched sub four hour mark. After the disappointment and virtually perfect weather conditions of last year, we decided to have another go this year and set our sights on being the first across the finishing line - the time was not important.

On the strength of John Barry’s previous solo rides, we qualified for the elite start group and started in front of the rest of the tandems at 8am. After a struggle at the start to not run into other riders who had squeezed in around us and for all three of us to clip into our pedals, we were underway. We climbed the control gate hill at a moderate pace in the middle of the bunch.

Sitting in the bunch, we saw the lead vehicle in the distance with a few riders behind it. The bunch was large and spread-eagled over the entire road. We slowly edged our way up the bunch in the first few kilometres. On the first descent, we were boxed in and rode the brakes down. At about the 9km mark, we reached the second descent, the road widened and a gap opened in front of us. Applying the power, we surged past the bunch on the outside and we were away. We passed several riders out the front of the bunch, some were solo riders, some were enduros and some were just out for a ride.

Further down the road, John Barry looked behind and calculated the gap at about 30 seconds over the main bunch. Shortly afterwards, we hit a good descent and powered down at over 80km/h. By the time we looked around again, the bunch was out of sight. Realising that we were now away and had a long way to go, including some good hill climbs where we would lose many minutes, we settled into a good rhythm.

More riders joined us as we passed them, including some enduros, and then most fell away. Eventually it was just us and Sam Oliver from the South Island. He wheel sucked very efficiently and even showed his face once or twice on early hill climbs after commenting that we had, “put a bit of pace on down some hills.”

We passed the 40km mark after about 1hr 07m compared with about 57m last year. The climbing in the this first 40 kilometres was not really noticed and I believed we would have been at least holding the gap over the main bunch during this period given our pace.

On some of the descents, we had to slow our pace as we out accelerated the leading police car and the lead truck vehicle. After the first two or three descents, they generally learnt their lesson and powered down the hills out of our way.

At around the 80km mark, a motorbike told us we had about a 6m 30s gap over the main bunch. This sounded like about enough lead to just get us over Kuratau and Hatepe with the main bunch.

The wind was light and variable and our pace varied as the road wound its way to the Kuratau climb. Choosing a good low gear early, we started climbing the Kuratau hill at about 22km/h. We comfortably held this pace until about the last 500m when it levelled out and the wind pushed at our backs. We quickly raised the gears and the pace and went over the top of Kuratau at around 37km/h. Holding a good solid pace, we were informed that we had a gap of about 6m 00s over the main bunch. They were sure leaving their run late!

Many spectators we passed said, “It’s a three person bike!”, quickly followed by, “Hey, the guy on the backs not pedalling!” I guess that explains our variable pace! By about the 3rd time we heard these comments, the humour was long gone.

The local radio station, after asking if we were in the lead, tried interviewing John and Patrick as we rode along but soon gave up as the words got lost in the passing breeze.

At about the 120km mark, there was still no bunch in sight and we just had Hatepe to climb before the final few kilometres to the finish. Our pace varied quite widely as we rode towards Hatepe - ranging from about 28km/h up some of the gentle rises to 48km/h down some of the gentle slopes.

Finally, Hatepe was in sight and we knew we had a 2km climb to make. Again changing early into a good low gear, we started the climb. We spun up reasonably well and got over the top of the main climb at about 16km/h. Going up, John advised that Sam had agreed to let us win as we had done all the work. However, climbing Hatepe, Sam was fresh from his 135km free tow and powered away from us - probably pulling two minutes by the top. He had said he would wait at the top!

Reaching the top, the lead vehicle was virtually out of sight  with Sam close behind it. Quickly changing into bigger gears, we began to chase in earnest. The gap hardly narrowed to start with. Pushing on, we rode harder and slowly began to pull Sam in. Reaching the steepest part of the descent, we were still well down and rode in the 54:11 gear up to about 87km/h. Putting our heads down, the gap was soon narrowed. As we closed in, Sam turned around and saw us coming. He then put his head down and powered on. By now, he was in our sights and we put in a final burst to catch him. Once we caught him, he said again he was going to wait for us. It sure didn’t look like it!

From there, we rode on, climbed the airport hill with relative ease and powered down the other side into Taupo. The last small climb was ridden over and we rolled down the main street along the lake front. Entering the final few hundred metres, the lead truck locked up and slid around the right hand corner in front of us as we approached the judder bars. The triplet did not appreciate the judder bars and one crank bit into the first one. We slowed further and tried to ride around the second one. We had no such luck so we crawled over it and up the little climb to enter the finishing area. True to his word this time, Sam didn’t try and outsprint us and we rode across the line in first place. Our goal had been achieved.

Our time of 4 hours 05 minutes was no record but was not bad as part of a 150km individual time trial! The next riders appeared around 6 minutes later. Overall, we had largely held our lead from the bottom of Kuratau hill.

With our goal achieved and John heading off to Cambridge University for three years, what is next years challenge? Well, we could attempt an enduro, or let some other riders have a crack at breaking the four hour mark, or, if three elite cyclists were interested, we could just sit back and watch them attempt to set a time that would never be beaten. Three and a half hours sounds like a good round time. After all, it is just a fun ride!