Today was a real cooker - a 57km bike ride into town on the bike course, organized by the Tri Travel crew. Of course there had to be a mini-disaster along the way to keep me on my toes!
We met at 6.30am to have our bikes (carefully) loaded into trucks while we piled into a bus for a tour of the bike course. We headed all the way out to the bike turnaround at Hawi ("ha-vee") before coming back and stopping at Kawaihae.
Enroute our tour director, Shane, regaled us with Kona history and traditions, including having us stop at Waikoloa to build stone cairns as an offering to Madame Pele for a safe journey on Saturday.
It was a great opportunity to reflect on the journey we had been on and to be thankful for the opportunity to be on the island competing in this iconic event.
Although TriTravel are an Australian-based company, Pete and I weren't the only Kiwis on tour, and I wasn't the only one sporting the Team Kiwi kit on the bus. Richard Beamish was also with us and taking part in his first Kona race - as a winner of a spot in the general lottery. So it's been great to have a fellow Kiwi to help balance out the green and gold!
After making our peace offering we all piled back on the bus and headed up to Hawi, checked out the turnaround point of the course and then it was back down to Kawahai where we would start riding. As we got to the carpark there was the impressive sight of around 40 TT bikes all lined up along the fence waiting for us. Nice!
The only thing left to do, then, was ride. And so we did. We set off in different groups and different paces and the important thing was to get a feel for staying on top of our nutrition, adjusting to the winds and not smashing our legs.
I got into an easy pace early on - helped immensely by the fact that we started by having to climb a hill! But throughout the ride I was able to stay on the aeros. The section of the highway we were riding on, through the lava fields all the way back into Kona, is rolling rather than flat but nothing so steep that I had to get out of aero.
The riding conditions were certainly like nothing I had ever experienced. Apparently we had a tailwind, however I had hot air blowing in my face all the way back. At times we'd also get blown around from crosswinds, especially after passing through a cut out. And then I also had the surreal experience of climbing at 38km/hr whereas at the next climb I was down to 19km/hr. Again this must have been wind affected but there was no way of knowing where it was going to blow from next and so it really did just come down to putting your head down and just keep pedaling.
Another stark contrast to deal with is the exposed nature of the course. While courses like Taupo and Cairns have been really hot on occasion (when it's not bucketing down with rain!), the thing I've noticed with Kona is that there is absolutely no shade - no tree cover at all along the course. So you are out there in full sun, exposed to the elements for 6 hours and then back out there in the same spot for virtually all of the run.
It's therefore going to be crucial to stay cool and make use of everything on offer at the aid stations. Ice to go in water bottles, water over the head, ice in the cap. If needs be I'll even stop at the bike aid stations to make sure I've picked up what I need to stay cool and hydrated. The few seconds lost will be more important in the long run.
The last section into town went by uneventfully, until I got to the airport. At that intersection I rode over an innocent looking manhole cover and seconds later heard the familiar sound of my Fuel Cell bouncing down the road.
What the?!
It was loaded up with spare tube, gas canister and tyre levers, so shouldn't have been bouncing around, but as I hauled on the brakes and looked back, sure enough there it was in its two pieces lying on the road with the contents nearby. I parked the bike against a post to go back and retrieve it and looked up from the bike just in time to see a car run over the bottom (hard plastic) section of the Fuel Cell, smashing it into a thousand bits.
That's that then.
It then became a recovery mission of the contents which I was at least able to put into my back pocket to ride back to base with. A trip to visit the Specialized boys at the expo on Tuesday will be required to sort out this problem as it's the 3rd time it's happened and I don't want to be thinking about it happening again on Saturday...
On our return I was able to get the bike checked over to ensure everything had come through the flight OK and she was race ready. Triathlon Australia and TriTravel had arranged for Anthony Moustakas of CBD Cycles in Melbourne to join the tour and be the bike mechanic for Team Australia and the TriTravel tour. Fantastic service and much appreciated for the peace of mind it provides.
That afternoon we had our first look at the ironman merchandise, caught up with Coach Dave at Lava Java for a cold drink and then that evening we spent a couple of hours hanging out at John Newsom's condo where he was having a bit of a Q &A session for people on the IM Talk taper camp.
All in all another great day in paradise, with things definitely starting to ramp up in town.
Tomorrow a bit of a swim with the TriTravel crew.
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