TAHUNA BEACH HOLIDAY PARK  Rainbow Rage - MARCH 17th, 2012.

All entrants in the 2012 Rainbow Rage Epic, Classic, St James Loop or Tennyson Return will get an A4 photo of themselves posted to them after their event.

	In March, 2011, three other options were added to the Rainbow Rage. The RAINBOW RAGE EPIC - a rider's report below. The ST JAMES LOOP. The TENNYSON RETURN. Go to "Rage Info" for full details of all the options Subscribe to our email newsletter
Alan Dean, 302, the oldest rider in the history of the Rainbow Rage. At his last Rainbow Alan was 84 years young with a wit and sense of humour and an attitude to life that a man 60 years his junior would be proud of!
Rainbow Rage EPIC – The Epic Adventure 2011 This is my personal story. I’m sure Henry’s story would read differently and every other rider would have an interesting tale to tell with highs and lows and lots of memories. I’d never done a race like this before and never one so long. I’d thought about it, dreamt about it, trained for it and thought I was completely ready for it. And yet somehow things slipped through the cracks, which would add to the adventure. Read on….. The day started great. The weather was fine, I felt relaxed and well rested. My knee which had been giving me a lot of trouble over the last 4 weeks was out of mind. We arrived about 6.45am with enough time to register, have our gear checked and make final preparations for the race, which started at 7.30am. My teammate and brother, Henry, decided I needed a faster rear tyre so we changed it in a hurry. After a quick catch up with some friends who were entered in the Classic, it was off to the race briefing at the start line. We were off, all 22 of us looking forward to the challenge ahead. We were neutralized for the first 3 km. After about 1km, my first problem occurred – there was a nasty scrapping sound coming from my rear brake. Now is a good time to inform you of one of the things that slipped through the crack. I knew my rear break pads were worn down but thought they were still fine. They were now scrapping on the rotor. I called Henry back from the neutralized bunch and we stopped to have a look. The wheel was turning reasonably freely with some scrapping, and with the bunch disappearing off down the road, we quickly decided to carry on and catch them up. After a quick sprint with me riding on Henry’s wheel, we caught the bunch before the race proper started. I had expected that we would all ride as a bunch for a few kilometers, saving our energy for the long day ahead. But no, at least not for 2 Canterbury lads. They took off down the sealed road immediately with 2 others. I was sitting at the back of the main bunch, but with a quick glare from Henry, we were off in pursuit, once again with me on Henry’s wheel. This race order for the 2 of us was to be the norm for nearly the entire race, bless him. We caught them before too long and the six of us continued on at a good pace, slowly leaving the others behind. About 2 km from the end of the seal we dropped the 2 other riders so it was just us and the Canterbury lads. Just after the gravel starts there is a ford. In Classic Rages I have done in the past I have hit that ford in a bunch and always there is a traffic jam and I either have to walk through it, or worse, fall in it. With only 4 of us I was confident we would all fly through at full speed. Silly me. The Canty boys had never done the Rage before and not knowing the ford, they slowed right down and the fella in front of me even came to a stop. So tradition continued as I cursed and walked through the ford. Up over the first small hill and I discovered the full extent of my rear brake problem – I now didn’t have any! This was either going to slow me down or kill me. We continued on with the 4 of us staying together for at least an hour. We had noticed that one of the other lads wasn’t very quick up the hills. And so it proved when we went up the main hill before Island Saddle. Now it was just Henry and I at the front and visions of victory were starting to cloud our better judgments. It wasn’t too long before the Canty lads were back with us. Another of my pre-race cracks was becoming a problem. I was using a drink bladder I hadn’t used before as it was a better size for my backpack. I was struggling to get any fluid out of it. It was near useless. I had talked with Henry pre race that I wanted to stop at the Island Saddle drink station. We did stop but not without Henry grumpily telling me to hurry. In fact, he was grabbing my bottles, cursing at the taps that didn’t work and then filling them from the creek. I took advantage of the stop to take a quick wee break. Under pressure from Henry to hurry I forgot where I was and it wasn’t until halfway through my job that I realized I was still standing next to the water system. Sorry everyone. I’m sure you didn’t drink any of it but you probably stood in it. By now the Canty lads were off up the hill and the next 2 were also past. So off we went. However, the fast start and the haul up the valley had taken their toll on me as I crept up the hill. Henry took off and caught the 2nd placed team who were about 100 metres ahead. I could make no ground, especially with the wind picking up in my face so he had to stop and wait. Over the top of Island Saddle and now the rear brake problem came to a head. I am not a keen down hiller at the best of times so going flat out with only front brakes was not an option. So I crept down the hill, much to Henry’s delight. We flew down the valley and quickly got to the Maling Pass turn off – stage 2 of the race. Like Island Saddle, I crept up Maling Pass. I was now starting to worry about how I was feeling, with about half the race to go. With fatigue taking its toll on my body, the mind was also wandering. Somehow I had some brakes at the start of the decent over Maling saddle, but they didn’t last long so it was a slow decent again. I had one small accident on the way down, bouncing through set of holes and then going off the edge of the road. However, at my speed the accident was minimal. We were down on the flatter part of the road when suddenly Henry pulled up. Yeah, time for a rest. In fact, Henry had a flat tyre. Even better, a rest and Henry couldn’t blame me for it. Henry was flat out changing the tyre and I kept telling him we were now racing to finish, not to win. I couldn’t see myself having the energy to do anything more than that. After 5-10 minutes we were off again, miraculously, no one passed us. Shortly after, a car came into sight – one of the volunteers. They had a foot pump so we stopped to properly pressurize Henry’s tyre. In the minute or so we were stopped, 2 teams went past, we were now in 5th place after having been in 1st. The head went down and I continued with Race to Finish, Race to Finish. I was buggered. Off again and the other 2 teams were slowly pulling away – groan. But this is a long race and you never know what will happen and how the other teams are really feeling. Before very long, one of the teams had stopped for some reason. Now we were fourth. And it was only about 15 minutes later before we caught the next team where one of their riders was obviously fatiguing. Third again. From here we passed beautiful Lake Guyon and onwards towards rougher terrain. From steep up hill, to boggy flats, deep creeks and a crisscross across a river. We were now walking part of the time and my knee was giving me grief. I must have sounded like Gollum – mumbling and swearing to myself, mostly about the terrain and occasionally about Henry. Henry fondly described my noises as a woman giving birth. I was totally in the zone to keep going but my body wanted to stop. I was limping and leaning on my bike as I pushed it along rough tracks and through creaks. Getting off the bike was worse than getting on as my knee would seize up. Little did I know that worse was to come. We came out of the trees to look up at the hill we had to climb. It looked horrible and proved not to let me down. Suffice to say my knee was in agony. The top of the hill didn’t look that far off but it took ages to climb. About halfway up we looked back to see 2 teams come out of the trees and also start the climb. Finally we reached the top, at least what we thought was the top. After a few more minutes of pushing our bikes along a relatively flat section we met an even harder challenge – the final push up to Fowlers Pass. We could now see the 2nd placed team up ahead of us, pushing their bikes straight up the hill rather than using the track. So we took the same route, to our folly, as I’m sure the track would have been easier. I now felt about 10% and was done but we pushed on, dragging and heaving the bike up the hill. Finally we reached the top to be greeted by a single track downhill ride. Amazingly my brakes were working and didn’t give up. So I came down the hill at a reasonable speed. You didn’t think about the rest your body was getting as you were too busy concentrating on staying on the track. It didn’t take too long before we were down and back on the Rainbow road. Henry said to me to get on his wheel and we would make up time. Off we went and it was then that I realized that somehow, beyond belief, I was feeling much better – about 75%. I was having no trouble sticking to Henry’s wheel, except when he went wondering into some potholes I didn’t see and I went through the middle of them bouncing all over the place. I cheekily suggested we stop for a wee break and got growled at. He couldn’t take a joke. Henry was impressive keeping up about 40km an hour for quite some time. We hit some head wind and we slowed up. I took a short stint on the front, Henry recovered and off we went again. I pity the poor bastard who was going through the ford at the same time as us. He was in the middle as we both roared through at high speed with me on Henry’s wheel. The wake must have drenched him. We could see the second placed Canty team ahead but we were making little on them. We reached the bottom of Jack’s pass and started up the hill. It became obvious very quickly that one of the Canty boys was buggered. Henry was still going well and somehow I didn’t feel too bad. As we passed the lads they tried to get onto to our wheels but we were going too fast. We left them behind. We now wondered where the first placed team was and pressed on. We buried ourselves getting to the top of the hill. Once again, my brakes were reasonably good, and I was in the zone. I don’t normally go that fast downhill but to Henry’s surprise, had no trouble keeping up with him. I guess I was in that tired state of mind where you don’t care about the consequences. We flew down the hill but didn’t pass them. Found out later that they beat us by about 5 and a half minutes. We finished second after having been fifth half way through. The Canty lads came through third and we shook hands and shared a joke. The first placed finishers came over and once again handshakes and acknowledgements of a job well done. We all knew what we had each been through and shared that comradeship. There had been great highs and tremendous lows. We had a great adventure, had a lot of fun, and also suffered badly. I learnt a lot about my body but still don’t understand it. I’d recommend using antichafe cream in future races; I used vaseline and am now a bit uncomfortable. My drink bladder was still three quarters full so I’d hauled it all the way for nothing. If you’d asked me halfway through the race if I’d do it again I might have hit you. Now I’d say maybe. It was a great adventure and I will have lasting memories. Frankie.
	Gavin Warn, 904 - closest to the camera, heading to Hanmer with company