Robin Kos finishes fifth in the New Zealand Gran Fondo

The NZ Gran Fondo is a very hilly 170km race with over 2000 metres of elevation, in Cambridge. This year there were around 130 riders from all over the country in my race and I managed to get 5th place. It was a very tough race due to the extreme conditions, lots of rain, wind and even sun so a lot of people were overheating. The hardest part was having to get the fuelling and hydration strategies right as for me there was no stopping. I finished with a time of 4h30min and an average speed of 36km/h. 

With about 50km to go a little group of riders, including me, attacked the bunch and rode to the finish from there. I did find myself in a very dark zone a few times throughout the race but kept going. Overall I was very pleased with how the race turned out as a hilly race doesn't particularly suit my style of riding, I like short, steep, sharp hills rather than longer hills.