8:15 am on Saturday, 26 November and Nige is amongst the 9,000+ riders waiting to get started on their 160km (100 mile) ride around Lake Taupo. It was a little chilly and VERY windy!
Waiting to get started! Nerves abounding!
Sadly, its a sad story to tell this year as Nige didn't make it all the way around the lake this year. At the 50km mark he started to experience pain in his knees but he kept on going. I received an automated txt to say that he'd passed the 80km mark 3 hours and 19 minutes after starting - "not too bad", I was thinking. Then after lunch I got a call from Nige. "Oh oh!", I thought especially when he told me he wasn't doing too well. First thought was that he'd fallen off the bike, but thankfully, no. He was just 30km out of Taupo and just couldn't ride anymore. He was sooooo disappointed! So I went and picked him up. But he really wanted to cross the finish line, you know, like just in case he won a spot prize. So he biked the last 4-5km into town and I made it back to hear his named announced that he'd crossed the finish line. Yah.
Here's Nige's cycling buddy, Tony Page, arriving back. Tony's time was slower than he wanted this year but he did bike up Hatepe Hill - which is quite a feat in and of itself!!! Well done, Tony!
This is the crowd at prizegiving - many hoping, like Nige, to win a spot prize. No spot prizes for Nige this year though.
When we got home Sunday, Nige headed in to the after hours doctor to get his knees checked out. He was given anti-inflammatory tablets which helped almost straight away. Monday he had an x-ray which only told us he doesn't have arthritis - which is a praise!! Now he's waiting on an appointment to come through to see a specialist about his knees.
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