Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge has been a regular event on my calendar since my first ride exactly 20yrs ago, in 2003. It is New Zealand’s largest cycling event, which started in 1977 with a handful of riders, and built to a peak of over 10,000 participants in the late 2000s. This year was extra special. The 2020 and 2021 events had been cancelled because of Covid 19. Up until then, I had only missed one challenge, followed by the cancelled events, then also missing the 2022 challenge for my medical school reunion. This would be my first LTCC in 4yrs!
It was also extra special to have my family come and support me. Gryffin was just a baby when I last rode in 2019. Now we bundled 5yr old Gryffin and 2yr old Anthea into our van, along with my new 36″ unicycle and their scooters, and drove up from Wellington the day before.
There’s always a great atmosphere when you arrive in Taupo. The town is buzzing with cyclists and the event hall is full of sponsors and bike industry folk, showing off the latest and greatest. The best thing was getting free samples from sponsors Harraways (it helps to have cute kids), who make my favourite pre-ride breakfast Apple and Cinnamon oats!
Registration was quick and easy- the event is rebuilding after the 2021 and 2022 cancellations, so queues were short. They’ve done away with plastic goody bags which I guess is a good thing for the environment.
After fueling up on kebabs, it was back to the motel for a last minute equipment check. Having done 15+ challenges, it was pretty cool to pin on my silver number plate. This would be my 17th ride, the 15th on a unicycle, and 19th lap (I’ve done the 2 lap enduro twice on my bike). You have to do 20+ for a gold number plate, so I’m almost there.
I went back to basics this year- a 36″ ungeared unicycle. In past years I’ve ridden everything from an ungeared 36″, to a 24/125mm standard, to 29″ geared, 36″ geared, 29″/89mm and 700c/75mm. The course is a shade under 160km, and has 1700m of climbing, so the unicycle has to handle the big hills, long flat straights, some vicious camber, and whatever the weather throws at you. My fastest time was set in 2004, at 7hrs43min, on a 36″ unicycle with 110mm cranks. The closest I’d come was on a 36″/145mm geared unicycle at 7hrs48min in 2011. While gears are great for extra speed on the flat, the extra momentum is tricky to control on downhills, especially for a lightweight like me!
After spending much of the last 19yrs trying to break my 2004 record, I had resigned to the fact that my legs were exceptional that year, and I probably don’t generate as much power on as I did in my 20s.
That was before I took a test ride on my new carbon unicycle. The wheel is 2.5kg lighter than my 2004 setup, and 2kg of that is in the wheel/rim/tyre where it counts the most, with the remainder in the pedal and cranks. The new setup consisted of a carbon Braus rim/36″ Pollici TPU tube/Nightrider lite tyre matched to Quax 100mm cranks and AEST Ti pedals, instead of my old Airfoil rim/36″ butyl tube/TA tyre with steel Bicycle Euro 110mm cranks and the original Snafu pedals.
It felt like riding a 29″ unicycle at 36er speed- I could climb with 100mm cranks where I would normally need 125s! The equivalent of two crank-length increases in speed without extra effort. Still, being 4yrs since my last challenge, it was a risk to go with 100mm cranks- something I would never have dreamt of using in 2004.
The other upgrades were the NNC flatfish seat and KH T-bar at full extension. It had taken me over 20yrs of distance unicycling to realise the comforts of a long extension bar, as I discovered during last year’s Tour Aotearoa. It meant less saddle pain and wasted time on crotch adjustment stops. All this was bolted onto a solid but lightweight Triton titanium 36″ frame. I decided against using brakes- there are only one or two sections where a brake would be helpful.
So, it was looking good, until the morning of the race, when our van wouldn’t start! Our motel is16km from the start, so I was going to miss the 6.20am Group 9 start! Thankfully, a nice chap who worked at the power station stopped to give me a lift as I tried to hitchhike to Taupo. It turns out that our van key has an electronic chip which stopped working when I duct taped it together the day before! My wife Anna got it working, but not in time to get to the start before I headed off.
Being in the ‘slow’ group, it was great to be the first start of the day, 40min before the regular groups. It means getting to the finish without being the last riders in, and also much cooler weather. I can’t recall nicer conditions in many years- it was overcast, with temperatures in the teens. Just right. The legs felt good and by the top of the first climb I was ahead of all the Group 9 riders. We played yoyo for a number of kms, with them flashing past on the downhills before I passed them again on the climb. Just like the old days!
My trusty garmin was reading an average speed over 23-24km/hr, which was great on the first hilly section of the course. The 100mm cranks were effortless on climbs, and super fast on the descents. Better still, the nightrider tyre handled camber extremely well, so I could rest on the downhills instead of wrestling with the unicycle. By the time I hit the 40km mark, I was under target time, and I was hopeful of setting a new record. I had a quick stop at the 70km drink station, but with a mistimed dismount ended up dropping my unicycle. The long handle was pushed down slightly, giving me an uncomfortable angle. The question was whether to fix this or get used to it! I elected to do the latter, but it took a while to readjust.
On the Kuratau climb after the halfway mark, my legs were still in good shape, and I went up just fast enough to stay on without burning excess energy. The descent was fun, but perhaps not as fast as I’d done in 2004 because the crosswind kept steering me off the road. I had my only UPD, when I was caught by a wind gust. Luckily no damage was done and I took it slow until the bottom. By then, my average speed had dropped to just over 20km/hr. I had to make up time on the flat straight to Turangi, right into a headwind! Unicycles are about as aerodynamic as a flying brick wall, but we make good windbreaks. Despite many groups going past and giving me encouragement, there were few riders to draft.
Heading around the Lake was fun- and there was just one last hill to go! Hatepe isn’t particularly steep, but it is relatively long and comes late in the race. I was determined to ride all the way up, so kept spinning gently to keep my legs going into the red. Like previous years, I passed a lot of riders who weren’t expecting to see a big unicycle go past!
Once over Hatepe and it was onto the home straight, the legs were still good but I was unsure whether I was on track for the record. My garmin flashed a big ‘Low Batt’ note over the screen, obscuring my elapsed time, so it was anyone’s guess. I decided that I had slipped behind record pace, so I just enjoyed the ride into Taupo. While I don’t mind a bit of headwind, as I made the final turn into Taupo I was hit by a crosswind. It was a little embarrassing as I flailed around like someone trying to learn to ride a unicycle. The wind died off as the road went through the built up area, and then finally I was in the finish chute! Better still, after stopping my garmin, I’d taken 15min of the old record, coming in at 7hrs28min! Woohoo!
Anna and the kids unfortunately missed my finish- they weren’t expecting me to come in so early. Ice cream for the kids and a tired unicyclist was the perfect way to end the day.
