Wheelworks.co.nz, Handbuilt wheels by Tristan Thomas

Great to see you on TV in Wheelworks colours!

Richard wanted a pair of wheels for his Independent Fabrication road bike to replace some Campag wheels. He wanted to try the wide A23 rims after my initial impressions of the rim and the ride quality they bring.

The White H3 hubs with their classic, smooth shape suit the style of Richards bike perfectly. The rear hub uses a steel axle, titanium freehub body and 5 bearings to produce a strong, stiff wheel while keeping the weight down, and both hubs have wide flanges to build into stiff wheels.

Spokes are DT Swiss Aeroilte with aluminium nipples. Two spokes at each valve are polished silver and there are custom RK decals at each valve which match the script on Richard’s bike.

Richard is flying over from Australia to spend Christmas in Akaroa so the delivery of these wheels turned out well.

Team Wheelworks Racing is made up of the following members:

Andy Hagan is the fashion icon and man of few words of Team Wheelworks.  He has torn the legs off many of New Zealand’s best cyclists, quietly and without looking back.  He has been featured in glamour photo shoots in New Zealand’s top road cycling magazine, and been seen looking far better than he should have after turning out excellent results in K2, the Tour of Southland, the Taupo Classic, and the Tour of Wellington.

Chris Kendall is a reformed mountain biker who turned to road biking after realising he had been a wannabe roadie the whole time. Chris followed the rules before he even knew there were rules. His obsessive behaviours are the reason for his year round pride stripes and evenly stocked back pockets, while his secret mountain bike habit means he holds the current Team Wheelworks record for most metres ascended per kilometre in a single ride.  On the mountain bike he’s raced internationally and was sixth in the 2009 elite national championships. On the road he’s raced Tour of Southland, K2, the Tour of Wellington, and the Taupo Classic to name but a few.

Mr Coombes, as he likes to be known, was unavailable for comment at the time this article went to press.  There have been various theories on his performance over the years: is it the diet, is it the quiet solitude, or is it his sonnet-wielding panache and love of fine sherry that drives him on?  He has never responded to any media queries and even his team mates are uncertain.  He is generally believed to be the grandson of a Taranaki farmer’s wife and Fausto Coppi. Whatever it is, the powers within have driven him on through the Tour of Wellington, the Tour of Taranaki, top results in the Gwaloop Challenge and the New Zealand University Games.  Further glory awaits, though none of us are willing to speculate where.

Gary Stewart is the design guru and official team test driver for Team Wheelworks.  He owns the coolest bike of all of us and is reputed to have ridden it several times.  He is the self described cigar smoking old sponsor who turns up for the pies, pats everyone on the back and goes on to some other gig to then eat all their pies.  So far he’s managed to score zero pies, he’s had to pay for his own pizza, and we drank his wine on the training camp.

Greg Taylor is the on the road tactician and motivational speaker for Team Wheelworks.  Past tactics include leaving his pro team in Switzerland, selling his race bike, and moving to the UK to drink beer and chase girls.  Luckily for the girls, he can’t run as fast as he can ride. Greg represented NZ at junior, under 23 and senior ranks and first retired from the NZ peloton in 2001 at the tender age of 20.  He announced his third comeback to world cycling by taking line honours in the Kevin Smith memorial race in Otaki.

Janine Copp, the team Doctor with a proclivity for pink kit, alleviates the testosterone imbalance of Team Wheelworks. A New Zealand horse riding representative, Janine moved to a Wellington apartment in 2009 and decided to ride something that might fit a little better in the spare room. In her short time in cycling she has already achieved top level results in the elite ranks in the National Points Series and the various Tours around NZ. The only 30 year old ever to be selected for the New Zealand under 23 training squad, Janine’s youthful good looks belie her actual age.

Kirsten Price is the original cycling widow and other member of the Team Wheelworks Racing women’s team.  A former competitive rower, Kirsten first got into cycling to escape the exercise free world of the Beehive and because there’s no rowing course between work and Wheelworks International HQ.   Kirsten has raced at club and national events in New Zealand including Taupo-Napier and K2 and is the reigning Eddy Merckx of 50 km fun rides.

Mike Naylor is the sports science and performance expert for Team Wheelworks.  He is at the forefront of the science of negligible gains in cycling performance, and the use of quality frozen dairy products for improving athletic performance and speeding recovery.  He has taken his theories to elite cycle races in Asia, Europe, and here in New Zealand.  His theories have had proven results in the Tour of Vineyards, the Grape Ride, Le Race, podium places the under 23 National Mountainbike XC and Hillclimb Championships, and two time winner of the prestigious Glenhope to Murchison road race back when he was a sprinter.  After crashing too many times in the 2010 Tour of Wellington, next year Mike is planning to spend less time in the Ambulance having his dressings changed and more time scientifically testing which flavour ice cream has the greatest effect on performance.

Paul O’Connell is the Team Wheelworks Communications Director and Photographer.  Paul’s palmares include several first places in solo races around the Kawerau BMX track in 1986, a number of top three finishes on the Sunday World Championships, an accidental leadout from Pete Latham (which Latham won), and once beating Andy Hagan up a hill while Andy had the flu.  Paul was last seen calling out his heart rate and yelling “are you guys kidding” as the boys disappeared up another hill on a Tuesday hammer session.  If found, please return to Wheelworks International HQ.

Tristan Thomas is a Canadian who claims to have been a glider instructor pilot and bike shop employee in the past. We’re certain this is a convenient cover story, and that his real heritage is as the Canadian Quartermaster of the Research and Development Division of the Canadian Secret Service.  Upon moving to New Zealand he moved away from espionage to the fine art of building the best bike wheels money can buy.  Not only can he build the prettiest, fastest wheels you’ve ever ridden he’s also a past master at turning them quickly and has recently graduated to racing scratch.  In his spare time he is the Team Wheelworks Mechanic, Directeur Sportif,  Soigneur, Chef, Driver, Corporate Affairs Liaison and R&D Division Head.

James Coyle’s race report from the Elite race at Taupo

Recently I completed the annual round-Taupo race in a little over 4hrs. The race marked the completion of a 6 month personal odyssey back into bicycle racing for me. I wanted to mark the end of my racing season with a bbq for the people I have met during this time, but I have too been to busy to organise one so far, so I thought I would write this post instead.

I’m no Joao Correia, but growing up in Rotorua (home of 1994 Commmonwealth Games Road Race gold-medalist Mark Rendell and other assorted nineties cyclists who turned pro) I trained a lot as a junior in high school and raced sometimes. I was average back then: Although a 65-67 kilo grimpeur, I lacked the strength to stay in the bunch when the bigger guys started pushing hard gears over rolling or flat terrain. Lack of success in hanging in there meant I never developed the bike racer’s commitment to constantly fighting for every advantage possible needed to succeed, or riding till think your heart and lungs will explode, then riding some more. Truth was, I probably just didn’t do enough intervals or enough races to properly get the hang of it.

Anyway, 11 years, 11 kilos, university and a couple of careers later something urged me to get back on my bike with the objective of being able to race again. I didn’t want to win the Nationals or turn pro or anything, I just wanted to say that I had raced hard and to have the feeling of staying among a bunch travelling at 40km/hr+ for the duration of a race. I decided to dedicate about six months to training and racing, with the objective of riding a competitive time at Taupo (the perennial mecca for middle-age white guy’s trying to recapture their youth).

At 78 kilos, losing weight was of course priority number one, but justifiably so. You don’t have to have invented the VAM formula to understand what a difference one less kilo (let alone eight less kilos) makes to your ability to ride at a certain speed uphill and to sustain it. I certainly found this to be true. The consequential dieting required an amount of self discipline outside of the discipline needed to get up at 5.30am to go training in the mornings. It was made harder by the long-ish hours required in a law office (although they were pretty good about it) and you are tired alot.

However, it began to feel worth it once club racing started in August and national-level racing started in September, where I was firmly in B-grade. At the end of September I rode the Taupo-Napier of which I was terrified. Matt Yates finished 25 minutes before I did that day, but this fact was massively outweighed by the fact I had just raced a 140kms. I was very excited because I had never done this before. Riding a 140kms is easy. Racing the same distance is an entirely different proposition. In all, I competed in 16 Club races or National points races in the 4 months prior to Taupo.

Possibly my biggest regret, but equally a race from which I took great satisfaction, was failing to podium at the Martinborough fun ride. Laugh all you like, but the Wheelworks big guns – Hagen-das, Naylor and Taylor, Kendall and Coombes (I think) were busy crushing K2 that day. With the exception of Craig Lawn (who disappeared up the road early anyway), I had the field to myself with only the elder statesmen of Wellington cycling, the Meo-GP team, to worry about. I felt strong and rode in two breaks. The second break was too far from the finish and we got caught in headwinds. I know I could have podiumed if I had stuck to my original plan (to break away up a short hill at 5k out, that the bunch had slowed on all day).

Taupo itself was a bit of an anti-climax as I got sick two weeks before and training was difficult. Still, being on the start line with a list of riders who I am used to watching in Europe on tv was reward enough for the last 6 months. As was trying to look pro as I slooped by the SkyTV moto early in the race.

Next year is going to be taken up with some other things, but at 30, I think I can still keep improving for a few more years after that. I’d like to ride the Tours of Wellington or Southland as a domestique at some point.

Above all, the moments I will remember the most during my short racing season (I know the “season” is really only starting for elite riders) were:

* The moment mid-race when you’ve surivived early on and now your bunch is monstering the course at 50km an hour, and you are sitting in feeling great;
* Hilarious car journeys out and back to races with the Wheelworks team guys (Tristan I expect the UCI will ask you revisit your policy on team vehicle names when you go Pro-Tour);
* Sitting on the wind-trainer out the back of the house in the rain late at night in the dark in the middle of winter listening to the I-pod waiting for the weather to get better and the racing to start; and
* Attempting repeated hill batterings with Naylor – him succeeding, me usually losing my dignity by the 5th or 6th rep;

Divine genetic decisions blessed me with a somewhat pathetic engine meaning that I’m never going to ride to the level of some of the guys in the Wheelworks team. But the fact is that I love riding my bike and most of the time, I just enjoyed trying to hang on behind, while they lit up races and animated training rides. I admire their ability tremendously.

‘Till next year.

- James, who loves bike riding

Chris Kendall’s Race report from this weekend’s Festival of Cycling in Christchurch

Its not about the result. Sometimes its about setting a plan and sticking to it regardless of the situation that unfolds in front of you. But when the ship looks like its sinking its hard to stay put with confidence while others around you are diving into deep water in an effort get to the shore before everyone else.

I’m a pretty good swimmer, I’ll always get to the shore if I decide to jump in, I just need to get the timing right so that I have the best opportunity to get there before those that jump early. Its about timing, patience and looking after yourself as best as you can. Its something I’ve been trying to work on recently.

Its required me to hit the reset button as part of my training and racing. I’ve done the form finder loops, clocked up some hard miles, worked on my strength and speed, now I’m working on my mental game. Speed and strength are easy, mental well that’s a different story.

I’ve raced my mountain bike for nearly ten years and the mental challenges for that are pretty simple. Push yourself as hard as you can for about 2 hours and leave everything you have on the trail. It gets more complicated than that when the heats on and there are lots of riders around you, but its always about pushing as hard as you can to ensure you’ve used every ounce of strength and energy to get your best possible result. This crosses over well to the road in ITT’s (a mountain bike race is essentially the same as two 40k ITT’s back to back) but doesn’t really help you in the chess on wheels that is a road race.

I’m learning my limits on the road, and have been frustrated recently with some results that haven’t reflected my current form. This has been as a consequence of my enthusiasm more than anything else, I’ve just wanted to show how well I’m riding by riding as hard as I can. Unfortunately that doesn’t always work.

The Festival of Cycling in Christchurch on the weekend was a course that I thought would suit me, and I was hoping for a good result. It’s a shortish (76km) course with a flat first fifty kilometres and a rolling last thirty. More than anything I knew I would have to use my head to do well on this course. It was a great test for my ability to follow a plan.

The plan was simple, stay out of trouble, stay off the front as much as possible and stick with everyone once we hit the hills.. Easy.

It was a fast start, rolling around the base of Banks Peninsula at around 50km/hr. Unfortunately this was a little too fast for some resulting in a big pile up after approximately 5km. Memories of my only Tour of Southland came flooding back all to quickly as bodies and bikes hit the road bouncing into the path of those that had nowhere to go. I have no idea how many came down (it looked like half the field, but wasn’t), but I was lucky enough to have lost position corners earlier and managed to narrowly miss the crash through some very evasive action.

The race didn’t stop, which meant that those of us behind the crash had to motor to get back on. This was particularly difficult given there were attacks happening non-stop on the front which kept the peloton speed high. I pulled a couple of times to help out but was conscious of how fast we were travelling (50+) and didn’t want to drag everyone else back on the before blowing a foo foo valve and riding the rest of the day on my own. Thankfully there were some small rollers which slowed the peloton down enough that we could almost make contact, before finally getting there as we crossed Colombo Street. Tucked in behind Hayden Roulston as we passed Princess Margret Hospital the pace started to lift again as more attacks tried to establish a winning break. However nothing stuck and we ended up hitting Gebbies pass in a large bunch.

From here it was everyman for himself as a group of 7 (I think – I was cross-eyed when they went for it) established the winning break. For the rest of us it was about getting to the finish to scrap for the remaining top ten places that were on offer.

I managed to hang in there to be in the second group on the road at the top of the last climb up Evans Pass. I’d followed my plan and was still feeling pretty good, despite the presence of some cramp creeping in. With 7 flat kilometres counting down very quickly the attacks were many, with the pace high all the way to the finish. I followed two moves but realized it was a little too much for me to handle all the way to the finish. With 1.3k to go there was one acceleration to many and at 55kph a gap opened that I couldn’t close, It felt like a parachute opening. I did get a second (it might have been the eighth actually) burst of energy out of the hair pin corner with 1.1 k to go but quickly faded into the head wind wind trailing the bunch by about 20 seconds across the line.

I would have loved to have been in for a chance with the sprint but I threw my dice with 7k to go. I’m happy with that. I’d done everything I had said I would do and was stoked to have been there when the fireworks began (admittedly this was 2 minutes behind the leading riders on the road but one of them has at least a couple of shinny medals).

So its not always about the result (31st overall, 14th open men: for those of you it does matter to), sometimes its about executing a plan to give yourself the best possible chance of a result.

I know that I’m riding strong at the moment. I just need to know the schedule of the boat for next time or maybe which way the tides going so I can decide about swimming….

CookieTime buckets.