Epic Eve

Writing this on Epic Eve - we drove all day to get to Kaitai from Auckland. We still have over 100KM to get to the top of the North Island - photo left is our start point - I might do a bit of a dip tomorrow!

It is SERIOUSLY rolling between here and Auckland and we'll be riding back through what we saw today for Days 2 & 3. Having seen the terrain, there are going to be some worked campers 72 hours into things. I'll report back on that -- with luck I won't be completely torched. If I go quiet then you'll know that I'm smoked!

The terrain is really beautiful up here -- it's super lush, very green and extremely volcanic. Our bus driver told us that Auckland sits on ~48 volcanoes and all but 2 are extinct. Driving north of Auckland, I'm guessing that the rollers are from thousands of mini-volcanoes. I'm grateful for the tough rides that I was able to do with my pals in Brisbane.

Asking around the Epic Virgins, this is a HUGE increase for most of the athletes. I have to admit that they are very brave to take on the challenge. I know what I'm in for and I am nervous.

Tomorrow will have mini-races built into each of the swim, bike and run portions of the day. The scheduled run is 20KM (with last 10K as a road race); the bike is 90KM with a TT of a length to be determined; and the swim will have a special event as well.

We offer special bonuses if an athlete hits 25K on a run as well as 6K on a swim. Given that tomorrow is a "short" ride, I expect that main of the athletes will opt to go long both running and swimming. Should be fun to see what happens.

A few of the guys have full TT set up -- no doubt they will dominate the bike. The gaps will be large. I left my aerobars back in Australia so I wouldn't be tempted to solo and to give me an incentive to work as part of the team. I'll get punished a bit in the TTs but, I think, that it will prove to be a good decision.

We all know that the two days that follow tomorrow are going to be extremely hard. Our first test will be to see if we can think past the first "races" to what lies ahead.

In my mind, I have figured best average effort for my total volume (swim/bike/run) across the camp. I figure 200w for the bike; 5 min K for the run (includes hills, warm-ups, cool downs) and 1:30 base (scm) for the swim. We will see how reality turns out.

We had a committee meeting and there wasn't any interest from the Vet athletes to having Steven Lord join their category. So the 40 year olds are out of luck and will be racing Open with me. I tried to console Steve by saying that, having won the last two camps, he'll get a chance to welcome a new member to "the club" if someone happens to beat him. Personally, I still think that he can win it but agree that it's risky for his foot.

Jo Carritt just got her elite card so Molina said that she's racing open with Tara Norton. It's really good to have Tara back as her positive attitude is a big plus across the full camp. Tara can RIP on the bike and, depending on how she plays it, could be the first lady to win the KOM competition. It would be great to have a Queen-of-the-mountains. We have six official KOM sites with one being an optional climb to a ski station that we ride by (Whakapapa).

Did I mention that the rollers were insane... I'm so glad that I have my 34/28 compact gearing. A few of the lads are rolling full TT set-ups // I predict some tight glutes from all the up and down.

I'm rooming with the Ripster. Turns out that he really was in the movies, as well as being a stunt man and fashion model. We're here for two nights so it will be a good chance for us to get to know each other. I need to remind him to consider swapping out his carbon rim front wheel it if rains -- in this terrain it is really important to have good braking power.

OK, that's it for now. Only training today was a short run with Petro this morning.

Back soon,

g