Reluctant rider recalls the challenge

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 462, 17 November 1992, Page 12

Reluctant rider recalls the challenge

BytheRelcuctant Rider , Robert Milne Some of the mockers and knockers would be happy that I didn't finish but many would be amazed that I managed to cycle almost 100 kilometres in the Round Ruapehu Ride on Saturday. When Warwick Funnell from the Wanganui Cycle Club came to the Ohakune Hotel a couple of months ago to talk about this year's Green Bottle Round Ruapehu Ride, somehow he found out I had mentioned that I'd like to have a go. "Why don't you write a column in the Bulletin about your experiences through the training, then finish it off with one about the ride itself,"

he very kindly suggested. Great idea. Trouble was I did about 10 cents' worth of training in the following week and no more until the day of the race. By then I had decided it would be foolish for an out-of-shape desk driver like myself to attempt such a thing. But another friend - Turoa's Jon "Mr Adventure" King very kindly persuaded me on Friday night to see how far I could get. Thinking there would be hundreds of people like me out to 'just have a go', I turned up at the pub at 8am in borrowed bike shorts, woolly singlet (and woolly thinking?), astride my over-

weight and under-oiled mountain bike. "Where are you?" I cried inside. All I could see was dayglo lycra, slipstream shirts and skinny people. Where were all the 'friends* who'd said "yeah, yeah -

we'll have a go" two months back? The only one left was Jon King and his (t)rusty green ten-speed which was twice the weight of the heaviest racer there and half the age of the oldest rider.

Once into the ride we were right at the head of the pack - all the way to Nation's Dairy. It seemed like an age before the last of the 160-odd riders passed us by and we could relax and not worry about being last any more (we

held our place, guarding the back of the field, for almost the whole ride). Waiouru came up surprisingly quickly, probably thanks to Jon's great story-telling ability. (I'm sure he would have halved his time if

he hadn't spent so much time urging me on) I had thought that if I made it to Waiouru that would be twice the distance I'd cycled in the past ten years so I could quit then, but it seemed so easy I Turn topage 14