On Sunday the 16th the Wellington Vets club held a 40k TT along Kahutara Road just outside Featherston.

With the wind laying the grass horizontal in the paddocks I was having flash backs to the Hope Gibbons TTT the Kapiti club did last year only this time I wouldn't have any teammates to hide behind.

Even before I got out of the car I decided I needed to change the front wheel at least from my usual tri-spoke to a more modest 30mm Mavic.

My warm up mostly consisted of A. trying to ride in a straight line and B. getting use to viewing the world at a 60 degree angle.

I started pretty well (for those that don't know the course, you start in a bit of a hollow sheltered from the wind) and held 45kph, until the road takes you up and exposes you to the brutal crosswinds.

From there up to the 1st turn it was all painandsuffering, for the long haul down to the 2nd turn...well it was all painandsuffering apart from a few moments of tail wind when the road turned East and I felt like a proper bike rider humming along at 50kph.

Had one slightly unnerving moment as the road turned and the crosswind grabbed hold of 75kg of bike and rider and we became airborne briefly.

By the 2nd turn I knew I had started too hard and would pay for it over the last 10k, though seeing strong-man (and new Kapiti club member) Mark Donald closing the gap was enough incentive to keep pushing to the end, which for me was 1:09:56 firmly putting  the Amature in "Amature Cyclist".

Mark posted a very impressive 1:00:34 to claim fastest time and a well deserved rider of the day.

Thanks to the Wellington Vets club for hosting, friendly and relaxed bunch of guys and girls, check out their race calender for more Vet-aged (35+ for men) events.

AJ