Race Results – Spring Fortnightly Series Race 3 – 13th September 2025

The infamous Kaituna Winds were back with a vengeance for Race 3 – a fairly direct head wind down the long back straight and then the brutal cross winds along Dean Straight on Te Tumu Road.

After struggling to open the car door when putting the signs out on the back straight, and then the lap board blowing over, it was decided to cut a lap or two off the race. A Grade and the combined B & C grade did three laps, while D Grade did two laps, starting after the A Grade, the master plan being that everyone might still finish together.

The conditions obviously put a few regular punters off, but we had a few newbies turn up to race, including visitors from Auckland.

Henk arrived and then set about trying to fix his seat post – without success as it transpired, with the seat dropping throughout the first lap. He called it quits at that point and headed off to the nearest bike shop.

The B/C Grade was going at a cracking pace, mostly courtesy of Roy with his TT bike – everyone seemed quite happy to leave him out front to carve through the headwinds.

A Grade were not making much headway in hunting down B/C, and eventually split into two groups.

D Grade normally have the mantra of “leave no man behind”, but their normal camaraderie only lasted for one lap. Suddenly it was every man for himself and the group was well spread out at the finish.

Lachlan took fastest time, but the biggest sprint seemed to between Liam and Andrew. Liam, with by far the widest handlebars in the field, claimed that victory

Cyril cracked open an early spot prize to quench a burning thirst, but as it turned out he just started a trend. Everyone was a winner today with every rider getting a spot prize for their efforts.

So just how strong was the wind? Glen noted that although he was putting out 600 watts, it was only resulting in a ground speed of 20km/h along Kaituna Road. The weather station at Maketu was recording wind speed of 46km/h with gusts up to 60km/h

Thanks to Ray, Greg and Lesley for running the race.