Most excellent ride

Rotorua_70km
Originally uploaded by kiwipete.

Was up in Rotorua this weekend. Drove up Friday afternoon, stayed with Erik, Pauline and the kids. Lined up for a 70km mtb race on Saturday thorugh the Whakarewerawa trail network. Mountain biking doesn't get any better than this. Fantastic single-track for mile after mile.
I didn't have a great race...my lack of fitness started to become apparent at about the 40km mark. I had to wobble my way to the end from about 20kms out.
All the big guns are in Rotorua this week for the World champs. Quite a few of the pro teams did Saturday's 70km ride...for training. The winning time was 2 hrs 59 mins. I managed to stop the clock at 4 hrs 45 min! Ouch.