I had been looking forward to this event for a while - the abundance of trails around Wellington make it a great place to do long rides linking together suburbs, but the complexity of linking them together for a race through the city took some organisation.
For this, the first running of the Faultine, there were a few distance options. I chose to race the 100km distance, rather than the longer 160km race partly because I don’t think I have a 160km race in me, but also partly because the start time for the longer distance was painfully early! As it happened the start of the 100km race was within easy riding distance from home which also helped.
For our race we started around 6am in Belmont. This was before sunrise at this time of year so everyone had their lights on as we gathered in the school car park for the start. The usual nervous pre-race toilet habits were exacerbated by the early start and made more amusing by having to provide the light in the portaloos ourselves.
We all lined up on an ad-hoc startline and it looked like most people were there for a fun time rather than a race, so the stratline atmosphere was quite relaxed. We kicked off with a road climb for a short distance which meant that we could shuffle around easily before the first singletrack climb in Belmont Regional Park. I wanted to lead up the first climb and get a good gap so that I could get into the first descent without having a light following me closely and making shadows. Because of that I started fairly hard and got a small gap up the first climb. I tried to settle in and not go too hard up the single track, and then was able to just enjoyed myself on the descent.
On the next long climb up 4-degrees I deliberately chilled out, trying to keep my heart rate below 160bpm, and hoping that I would get some company: 100km out on my own didn’t sound like much fun. Thankfully Ross Weston caught me up at the top of the climb and we rode together over the top of Belmont through the rolling farmland. The spiky climbs in Belmont are always a challenge and I definitely didn’t clean every ascent.
Ross and I stayed together down through Cannons Creek and into the first feed zone in Porirua. I was working on a single-feed plan and had started with three bottles on my bike. Ross did have to stop and so we split up at the feed. I again tried to ride consistently up the climb of Rangituhi/Colonial Knob, and about half way up Ross had me back in sight and he caught me before the top.
The descent from the top is a fun one and starts fast on open grassland before hopping over a fence and into the Spicer Forest singletrack. This descent isn’t technical, but does provide a nice opportunity to recover and switch off a bit. After this we popped out into Ohariu Valley and a rolling tarseal valley road. My focus on the road was getting through as much of the rest of my bottles as I could, getting a bar down me and stripping off some excess clothing. Ross sat on the front and pulled while I faffed with admin the whole way along the road.
We then had the enjoyable doubletrack climb up to the saddle that separates Johnsonville from Ohariu Valley. I was expecting Emily to be at this point to swap bottles, get rid of my light and grab my hydration vest. To give myself a bit of a buffer for that feed I decided to push on a bit more on the climb and pulled away from Ross a bit. I was glad to see Emily at the top and she did a great job of helping me get rid of my light and don my vest. Getting a mid-way kiss was definitely a highlight of the day!
While I was feeding Ross passed me and got a nice gap. I wasn’t particularly worried, and set about riding at a consistent pace again up the rest of the climb to the top of Mt Kaukau. I caught Ross up somewhere on the climb to Kaukau, but Ross kept opening gaps through some of the new singletrack that I didn’t know so well.
From Kaukau we followed the Skyline trail along to Makara Peak. Somewhere along the Skyline Ross dropped off. I don’t think I kicked on at all, but we had been going fairly consistently for about three hours at this point. Once I realised that Ross was gone I deliberately decided to try to not get carried away and just keep it consistent. Part of the point of this race for me was to just get a good long aerobic ride in, so I didn’t feel the need to put in any attacks.
We did two laps of Makara Peak, and I almost got lost part way down the first descent with some confusing signage. I was grateful that the GPS track that the organisers had shared was correct through here and I relied on that to make sure I had gone the right way. On the second descent of Makara Peak my arms were getting a bit tired and I had to take the descent fairly gently.
From here on, I was on my own. We went up Salvation to the top of Wrights Hill, then around the back of the Zealandia fenceline and in to Barking Emu, Carparts Extension and Carparts: these are some of my favourite tracks close to town. We then had the long run down Ikigai to Aro Valley, where again my arms were fatiguing and I played it safe on the descent.
From Aro Valley we started the city section of the course, which involved more sharp climbs, road crossings (with surprised traffic marshals - I think I was a bit earlier than expected) and steps. I knew that there would be quite a bit of pushing through this section with all the steps and had deliberately saved energy for the final 25km. Nevertheless, this section still hurt and I was swearing away at the organisers at times when we could see good trails just to the side of the steps that they had decided to send us up.
After meandering around Berhampore and Mt Albert we eventually made it onto Mt Victoria for the final trails before the finish. The northern kilmotre or so of the Mt. Vic. section seemed to drag on for ages as we could see the waterfront beneath us and I wondered when we would finally drop down to the finishing section. Finally we did drop down, cross over the road and onto the waterfront.
Probably unsurprisingly given the nice weather, the waterfront was quite busy and I don’t think people appreciated a cyclist smashing along the cycle path at 35kph. I don’t think I pissed anyone off too much and rolled over the finish for first place. The organisers hadn’t finished putting up the finish gantry, and the finish was pretty underwhelming. Thankfully Emily was there for a finish line photo and cuddle.
This ended up being a pretty successful start for the Seismic Cycle Racing kit! Ross wasn’t far behind having only lost about five minutes to me over the second 50km, so the win wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it was nice to start off with a win.
Banner photo: Faultline Ultra Team.