Last week I helped out as a rider for the Wellington leg of the Triathlon Series. In the Age Group event I carried a marshal who was rather officious, penalising several riders with 1 minute time penalties for draughting. In past events, my marshals would tend to get me to get up close behind errant riders in order that our presence would deter them from doing it, or if another competitor complained, then a rider would get a warning, but seldom was any action taken. It was good fun though, blatting around the bays from group to group. I did have a wee incident on Cobham Drive though. One lane had been coned off for the triathlon, and some riders were taking up most of the lane where we wanted to get past, so I slipped out between the cones, made the pass and slipped back in, but on that occasion, I clipped a cone with the wing mirror. I thought nothing of it as the cover is designed to come away but is attached via a tie-wrap. When we stopped along Shelly Bay Road, it became apparent that the shield was missing and we had to go back for it. With that race done, we regrouped at the transition on Waitangi Park to await the international series race. For that event they wanted two bikes for marshals and one for media, which was me. They are allowed to draught in this event so only a couple of marshals were used to keep a general eye on things. The course for this race is slightly different in that there is 6 short laps going to half way along Evans Bay Parade and on the return, they nip up Grass Street which has a hairpin half-way up and another at the top. The riders fly down this bit and my photographer set himself up here for a few photos, as well as out on the course. His main focus was to get shots of Bevan Docherty and Debby Tanner for the NZ Triathlon Magazine so I would try to position just ahead of them while he would snap away. A bit different but I don't think I'm up to the standard of the Tour de France support riders.....those guys are amazing. Today I've been tidying up the bike and preparing for the Southern Cross. Steve and I are departing for Tokomaru Bay tomorrow and I can't wait. We will cover 5,500Kms by next Sunday when we are returning from Bluff to Picton via the West Coast to catch the 1030pm ferry. I'm a little concerned that my front tyre won't last, but I can't get another Storm until the end of April, so I'll keep an eye on it and may have to change it along the route with something else. Roll on tomorrow!!
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These blogs were posted on the KiwiBiker forum but I decided it was time for a change. Archives
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