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Longest Day 2021 - French Pass

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With a few years of doing *other* stuff (renovating a house, getting married, having a baby boy, getting another on the way, etc) I've been pretty low key on the cycling front - it's been a good chance to chill out a bit, physically, but even that comes with penalties like being fat and unfit. So, what better way to counter my new found girth than to get back to the bike? Thankfully, I have two days a week where I can be in my office in the Wellington CBD, which gives me 4 x 25km rides each week without even thinking. Add a couple of short lunchtime loops or hill sessions to that, and the odd longer weekend ride, and it starts adding up to a pretty healthy amount of cycling. With the sense of fitness returning, I thought it would be a shame not to take advantage of it over the summer of 2021/22, and penciled in two rides - the Longest Day, and a revisit of the 2012 Kiwi Brevet course. Initially, I'd been keen to try a loop out of Blenheim for the Longest Day ride - out over

Unfinished business - the business non-finisher

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 2015 Kiwi Brevet - I made it as far as 8 hours in before deciding to short cut the course. 2017 Kiwi Brevette - I overdid it on Day 1, and short cutted day 2 2021 Kiwi Brevette - I overdid it on Day 1, and short cutted day 2. Notice much of a trend here? I'd had a blast in 2012 during my first brevet, then went well in 2014, so why did I follow up with a string of failures? Easy - in each case, the old adage applied Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail. In 2015, I was hot off a great ride the year before. 1100km? Pffft. Easy. I'll cruise it in 5 days.  With that attitude, I did very little training - my biggest training ride ended at 140km, when I got a lift back home. This put me in exactly the right place come day 0 of KB 2015 - out the arse. I struggled in the heat, I wasn't anywhere near as fit as I'd been a year prior, and my head wasn't there. So, when I was feeling pretty grim after only 6 hours or so, I was already thinking of what I could do. When I cr