Riding in Wellington

Now that I’ve settled into Wellington for a couple of weeks I’ve had a chance to get a really good chunk of cycling in. As I alluded to in an earlier post, Wello is mainly built into some pretty big, steep hills that border the southern coastline of the north island. Unless you have a genetic gift, I’ve come to believe that climbing hills on a bike takes a lot of years to get really good at. I’ve only been riding seriously for nearly 5 seasons now. Hopefully as I spend time here climbing more hills than I typically do back home, I’ll see continued improvement in my abilities. I’ve been getting comfortable with the roads and finding my way around certain parts of the city since I built my bike. It’s funny how people will say to you: “You know there are much better rides than around the bays”. But they’ve been living and riding here for years. Can you imagine a nicer way to spend a day than riding your bike along the road that follows the coastline, watching the sailboats, windsurfers, ferries (which I’ve seen on every single ride)? Not really. Back home we have some great roads for riding, but they certainly don’t offer a view of beautiful green hills rising out of an aquamarine pacific ocean, waves crashing in on the rocks, lighthouses, little beaches, and signs warning you to watch for penguins crossing. So I’ll endure the hardship of it all as I continue to become acquainted with the area and feel more comfortable venturing out onto new routes. ;) The only thing I really need to do on an upcoming ride is to capture some of it for you with my camera. As I also mentioned earlier, the roads in the city are winding and steep. I’ve found more than one way back to the flat now, but none are easy going. As with about 85% of the population here: I live on a hill. While some live on the side of one, I live on the top, which is actually a good thing – at least I don’t have to try to come to a stop and enter my flat on a 17% grade or something. I have, however, been climbing some hills that are anywhere between 12-17% grade to get home. This is very good practice, particularly on the windy days when you get to climb those hills in a headwind. It almost seems sadistic doesn’t it? If these can become routine and ‘easier’, the Gats will be a breeze for me when I get home.

I went on my first ladies group ride this week. They call it “bunch” riding. It was really good. The group really focuses on learning new skills and on the flats they ride in a proper echelon which is really cool. I got to practice the smooth transition of the echelon for the first time since I took the learn to race clinic back home this summer. Since it was so windy (we’d had a really bad storm that morning and the winds were only starting to ease up to 50-some odd kph that evening, instead of the 120 kph gusts we'd had earlier) we really stuck together to shelter each other from it as it comes at you from different directions on each bay. Sometimes a headwind, sometimes a crazy crosswind that nearly knocks you off the bike! And nobody was really able to surge ahead too much and cause that elastic band effect. It was a good effort and smooth echelon. Fun stuff! I hope to keep riding with that group each week and see what other new things I can learn and practice.

I have another little project that I want to undertake so I can try to show you the city. Wello is a really cool place, in that, with everything built into the hills, there are little secret, or not-so-secret but sometimes hard to find, pedestrian accessways so you can find shortcuts up and down the hills into the neighbourhoods that make up the city. I mostly travel by foot here, as the place is very compact, but to make it effective you need to find these little paths and stairs. Stairs, stairs, stairs. They are everywhere! It’s a really different thing. You won’t have seen anything like it back home. I haven’t. So stay tuned and I’ll try to get some photos and commentary together to share the experience with you.