It was Saturday morning, and it was time for a bike ride!

At our Dethleffs Rally at the Happy Hour the evening before, we had sorted out somewhere to go so it was all on! The bikes were organised and led by Tony and Neal, 14 of us headed down through Cambridge towards the river and the start of the Trail.

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Some were heading all the way to Hamilton Gardens, some going to Tamahere to a Coffee Shop and others to the Velodrome.

The Te Awa trail is all pretty new still but what an amazing setup. Because I went as far as Tamahere (40k round trip), I didn’t get to see all the flashest boardwalks over the river .. next time!

We left Cambridge at 10am and it took about 2.5 hours to do the round trip including a good stop for lunch 🙂 Very easy though on an electric bike.

I’d stupidly left my bike keys behind so couldn’t get my bike off the rack on the back of Rafe. The Kryptonite lock and cable is a force to be reckoned with, so it wasn’t even worth thinking about the grinder.

John very kindly lent me Kirsty’s bike as she wasn’t riding. The bike is fantastic but has an older electric system with a Turbo function which is a bit scary if you’re not used to it 🙂

The short version: I was about halfway along the trail when I came around a corner, but the turbo kept running quite a bit…   ending with a full lock up of the brakes sideways into these massive retaining poles onto my shoulder.

Chris was just behind me and immediately stopped and said something like “that might hurt” 🙂   Initially it didn’t really.   Back on the horse and we were off again 🙂

We were about halfway so by the time we got to the cafe; with my recently acquired sore ribs, I was looking forward to a rest.

Although 14 started with us, several split off into different groups to go on to Hamilton Gardens or to the Velodrome.

After about 20 minutes or so, we headed back to the Raceway…  a lot of fun and a nice ride with good company. Thanks again to John and Kirsty for the use of their bike. A great day and a fantastic place to ride.

You can stay at The Cambridge Raceway if you’re a member of the NZMCA for just $10 a night so an easy base for the trail and you can go as far as you like in either direction.

See here for more information.   And for the Cambridge Raceway parking.