Cyclist goes up a gear for Taupo enduro

by Martin Lang | 27th November 2009

While one punishing lap of Lake Taupo would satisfy most cycling addicts, Dave Dijk needs nothing less than a double dose.

Set to take on the 320km enduro at tomorrow's Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, Dijk gives the impression he'd tackle the ordeal on a monthly basis given the chance. And with a 1.30am start coming up he's aiming to hit the hay tonight a little earlier than last year - when he got just an hour's sleep between registration and saddling up.

With the experience of four one-lap Taupo rides and last year's two-lap effort to draw on, the Matua 47-year-old is moving up another gear.

"I did the single-lap event one year with no training at all," Dijk said.

"I've taken a different tack this year. I finished the 320km last year in 13 1/2 hours, and I want to do 12 1/2 this time.

"I've been through a five-week boot camp with Global Fitness. One hour, three mornings a week of running up Mauao, sand sprints, dragging tyres, and press-ups - loads of them.

"I'm definitely better for it, but it's how you feel on the big day that's the telling factor."

As if 12 hours' hard pedalling isn't enough, Dijk intends doing the 320km event again next year before putting his butt on the line in the 640km four-lap enduro in 2011.

How does an amateur cyclist survive such a grind?

"Last year on my second circuit a woman doing the single-lap asked,'What's your advice for the hills?'

"I said,'Don't look up.'

"You have to put your mind into blank mode, don't think about anything. Mind over matter, that's all endurance riding is."

Dijk is service manager at the Bay Prestige car dealership, and his leisure-time cycling regime obviously keeps him well tuned.

"Last year my muscles started to burn on the second lap but there was time to ride it out before the finish.

"I was up and about afterwards, tired but not exhausted, no sore shoulders. The next day I was pretty comfortable actually, not lying on the ground in the foetal position."

As for the obvious points of friction, he advises with a laugh: "Plenty of vaseline."

Apart from the power bars and fruit and nuts he's constantly chomping through while pedalling, it's personal satisfaction that fuels Dijk's ride. The 12 1/2 hour time he posted last year put him about three-quarters of the way down the 45-49 age group of about 50 finishers.

Dijk had an earlier affair with BMX, beginning in 1995. Taking that variant up when son Bryce got keen on it at age 7. Bryce went on to make the New Zealand squad at age 11, while dad competed in the cruiser class for many years.

These days he's a top-level official and was third in command at the BMX world championships in Adelaide three months ago. He's off to Hong Kong a few days after his Taupo campaign to be second in charge at the BMX section of the East Asian Games.

There's plenty of scope for injury and mayhem in both the dirt-track and the tarmac sports, but Dijk has made it this far without any major incident.

"I've seen some big spills but the only time I've been scared on the Taupo ride was draughting another rider in the dark, on the first lap last year."

Such adrenaline rushes are a key attraction in getting back on the bike: "You have to do something in life that really pushes you, scares you even."