The UK series of circuit races are excellent, the opportunity to race most midweek days in addition to weekends is a great form of training.

We depart for Colorado Springs tomorrow, Wednesday 18th for Altitude Training prior to the Junior Worlds.

The race was fast and furious with the tail wind but sluggish battling back up into the wind. Two intermediate sprints were won in style by Rachel, the race commentator, multiple world pursuit champion Tony Doyle commented that his money was on the NZ Junior for the final sprint, as was mine. A slight tactical error consigned Rachel to the runner up spot as a fast finishing senior rider came through for the win. An excellent performance from Rachel who has learnt a considerable amount from the time spent racing in the UK.

Gordon McCauley took out the elite men's race the evening before.

On Tuesday Rachel rode a circuit race at Hillingden just outside of London against a strong 1st and 2nd cat riders field. The fast and furious racing is proving very beneficial, both in skill and confidence.

On Wednesday night was the Guildford City Centre Circuit race over a very tight course. The 1km course included a very sharp cobbled climb. A puncuture after ten minutes of racing resulted in a first DNF for Rachel. The main race of the evening, the Elite Men's race was won by Gordon McCauley. It was good to catch up with him for a quick chat before we all rushed off.

After a drive up north, the Thursday night race was held on a 1.5km purpose built course in Preston. The rain held off long enough for the 40km race to be held. Rachel was a dominate rider throughout until the final lap, a small group of lapped riders got tangled up in the hard charging scratch bunch. Rachel went down along with about 6-7 other riders. A new experience for Rachel was the headlong dive into stinging nettles. A bruised face, slightly sore knee and numerous stinging nettles was the total damage. A lucky escape.

Please support Wellington Children's Hospital by entering yourself, a friend or a Corporate Team in the exciting fun ride supporting the 4,500 sick kids that are admitted to our Hospital every year. 

The HOSPI Bike Ride

SUNDAY 14th MARCH 2010

Kenepuru Hospital, Porirua, to Wellington Hospital, Newtown, via Makara Valley and Owhiro Bay.

REGISTER ONLINE AT WWW.HOSPIBIKERIDE.CO.NZ

Registrations completed after Saturday 7th March 2010 incur an additional $10 late fee for admin costs. 

Ride Options Are:

• 52km solo
• 52km relay = 25km each with a changeover in Makara
• Team of 6 = 52km each with the combined time of first 4 cyclists creating the team time.

Every cyclist that finishes receives their very own HOSPI soft toy and mini Powerade. 

Spot Prizes Include: A 32 inch flat screen television from Noel Leeming, a $750 bike from On Yer Bike and More Fm and Reading Cinema Movie Tickets - all items have been donated by respective organisations.

Friends, family and colleagues are welcome to join us at the Finish Line at the front of Wellington Hospital to cheer cyclists across the finish line from 9.00am onwards.  Ice Cream donated by Rush Munros and a sausage sizzle provided by Woolworths Johnsonville will be available for purchase with proceeds going to Wellington Children's Hospital.

Last year 300 cyclists took part in the inaugural HOSPI Bike Ride, including sharp looking teams from the Red Cross and Wellington Children's

A disappointing aspect of the finale, was that with only 20 riders recorded as finishing it cast a shadow on the strong riding over the previous four days racing which included 419 kms of hard and often hilly  terrain.

A lap of the criterium course took approximately one minute ten seconds, enough to negate a rider from being recorded as a finisher if lapped. Yet we had riders that were thirty minutes down and recorded as finishing on the road stages, make sense?. The inconsistent interpretation of criterium rules within a tour can certainly cause upset.

Although over fifty riders had the misfortune to be recorded as Tour non-finishers, they had the satisfaction of knowing they rode strongly and well throughout the previous four days.

The team has worked very closely together, providing strong support to each other over the four days so far, all good for a development team.

The young team is currently the second placed NZ team, just behind the national team and in front of some of the more illustrious overseas teams.

Presented in bar form, Build packs 20g of protein into its 55g along with 21g of carbohydrate and just 6.4g of fat for a total energy content of 222Kcal. According to SiS, Build is a convenient, easily carried way to consume high-quality protein at any time, ensuring a ready supply that helps prevent muscle breakdown during hard training and and ensuring rapid recovery. Eating protein is also an effective way to control appetite but, unlike Build, many sources are either high in fat or hard to keep fresh. The bar also contains antioxidants in the form of green tea extract and L-Carnitine.

Build is available from CycloSport NZ Ltd.