K2 Cycle Race - Coromandel New Zealand

The K2 is one of the toughest cycling races in New Zealand.  It's 200km of sealed roads with 2300 metres of climbing in the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula.  If you get the chance to have a look the scenery is spectacular. People of all abilities enter this race ... from New Zealands best riders to others just hoping to finish. 

There are about 500 entrants each year with the average time to complete the ride being 6 and a half to 7 hours depending on the conditions.  The leading men usually finish in just under 5 and half hours. The event is run by Adventure Racing Coromandel and is very well organised.  They hand out water bottles on the hills, which is fantastic.  They have about 200 bottles at 3 different points, this really helps as you need rather a lot of water for a 6 hour plus race.  I did K2 in 2005 and took 6 hours 24 mins. The conditions were pretty much perfect, slightly overcast with no wind. I was planning on doing it in 2006 but I had a knee problem which is hopefully resolved now.  So I'll be looking to beat my previous time this year, hopefully the conditions are favourable again.

There are seven large hills greater than 150m to get over so consider you gear choice carefully. This year the race starts in Thames so the first climb will be the 425m high Kopu hill, this is the biggest climb in the race but because it's spread out over 14km it's not as hard as some of the others.  The start of the kopu hill is a fairly gradual ascent with a few short downhills thrown in as you get closer to the top it gets a lot steeper.  After cresting the hill you come to a very fast descent (lucky the race doesn't go the other way) it's possible to reach speeds of over 90km/h on this descent.  There are a couple of smaller ascents after this before coming to a flat section leading into Tirua.  Not long after Tirua you will hit Pumpkin Hill a twisty climb that rises to about 250m, the road here has a very smooth surface which makes the climb a bit easier and the descent very enjoyable.  There are some small undulations leading into Whitiangia but it's mostly pretty flat.  After Whitianga the race gets a lot harder with the hills much closer together.