Well about 1 year and 1 month since I first donned the cycling gear, clipped unsteadily into the Keo pedals on my Cervelo Soloist Team and pedalled out onto the asphalt, the Mt Cootha Challenge has come around again.

This was the first organised event that I entered so I was not going to miss the opportunity to smash myself all over again.

As expected, ot felt just as hard this time around but my 8:18 time was a considerable improvement on the 11:43 it took last year.