This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
“S GO MAb IN THE COROMANDEL”
Five mad clubbies headed for the Coromandel to take place in the 3% running of the K2 bike race that took place on Saturday 30 October.
The drive up was relatively uneventful although one of the vehicles chose to take in the smells of Rotorua on the way? There was much chatter about race strategy, the hill climbs we would encounter and possible weather conditions on the Friday night in Tairua. This didn't achieve anything other than release everyone's nervous tension.
The race started at 8 a.m. on the Saturday morning with a short climb up Pumpkin Hill. The writer reached Whitianga in relative comfort but the stretch from Whitianga to Coromandel (which includes the recently sealed Wangapoua hill) was a tad more difficult. And then came the 50km stretch from Coromandel to Thames into a southerly wind — this was not good fun. The last leg back to Tairua included a 5 km hill climb but more interestingly a really fast decent where one of the mad five reached a speed of 84km p/h.
The numerous hill climbs, in retrospect, were great fun ~ As were the views of the peninsula along the way. Thanks to Stuart for arranging the accommodation and doing most of the driving on the way back by which time everyone was really tired.
The mad five were: Andrew McLellan, Gerard Galvin, Stuart Palmer, Glynne Lloyd, and Simon Ward*.