Cruising Brevet style

Our decision to ride through Molesworth Station was not taken lightly, but planned well over a year in advance. I had been through in a car about twelve years ago and wanted to go back. Scott had ridden through at the end of the Kiwi Brevet in 2010, but had not had the time to absorb the surroundings.

For me, it was the challenge. It has been a very long time since I have set out on a ride without knowing for sure that I could finish, or that an alternative was just a phone call away. The Molesworth is different; we had permission to ride through when the road was closed. This meant that there was no way out other than to succeed. There is no cell phone coverage, shops bakeries or other services. Even shelter is hard to come by. Failure means the embarrassment of a rescue, or worse, a night in the open.

So, to prepare, then, my bike went into Avantiplus Waitakere for a full service, new tyres and brake pads. I planned my food intake so that, in the event of a night out, I would have enough to survive. A first aid kit, emergency blanket, and personal locator beacon were included in the kit. Wet and cold weather gear had to be carried. And plenty of water (although there are fresh mountain streams, it pays not to take too much risk as a bout of giardia would be disastrous). It turned out that there was plenty of water en route, but we used sterilising tablets.

Port Underwood in the background

We had a ride through Port Underwood to test our systems on Thursday. 70 km of climbing and descending on metal roads. It turned out that I was carrying far too much kit. I got my nutrition wrong, and suffered from cramp. It was a struggle to reach Blenheim, let alone get to where we were staying.

This ride utterly destroyed my confidence. If I couldn’t make 70 km, why was I even contemplating 200? However I convinced myself that one bad day does not necessarily mean that the next is as bad, so long as I can learn from it.

Early morning, Taylors Pass Rd.

So just after dawn on a day with perfect weather, we set out. I planned to eat a little and often, with liquid food in my drink bottle and pure water in my hydration pack. I had been ruthless in jettisoning unnecessary weight, and as the day and kilometres went by, my confidence grew. By one o’clock. We had reached Wards Pass, the highest point of the ride, and it was pretty much downhill from there.

Wards Pass, the highest point.

From Wards Pass, we were able to cruise at above 30 km/h for a lot of it, slowing for the hills, and stopping for photos and views. A short period of elevation towards the end saw us arrive at Jollies pass in to Hanmar Springs for a wicked descent and then onto the sealed road into the pub for some beer and hot chips to complete the day, just over 12 hours after setting out.

We went faster than we thought we would, and while it was not easy, I doubt that it was any tougher than a forestry worker doing a 12 hour day, only more fun. So if you want to do such a trip, you probably can. Certainly, it was not as difficult as I had imagined and, as an experience, a fantastic day out. The route is here.

Looking down over Hanmer Springs

Coromandel MTB crossing

A leisurely 55 km, 5 hours, 1570m of altitude gain

Lunch Spot

We started the ride with 10 of us meeting at Puriri Township, just south of the turnoff to the Kopu / Hikuai hill.  We rode a short distance along the main road, then turned into Neavesville road, and began the 11.5 km climb up to 600 metres above sea level. Once we left the sealed road, the gradient got gradually steeper and the structure of road gradually changed to be a steep, rutted 4wd track when we were reduced to the granny gear. We stopped a couple of times to admire the views both of a rather nice Kauri tree and the Hauraki Plains .
From Neavesville, we stayed reasonably high for a couple of kilometres and stopped on a bit of a knoll from which we had great views of the Eastern Side of the Coromandel ranges. Then we began our 7km clay track descent (through some very technical sections some of which were unrideable!) down to the Tairua river at about 60 metres above sea level. We followed the river track through a rather pretty bush setting to find a nice picnic spot at which to have our lunch beside the river.
After lunch, we retraced our route for a short distance and began the tricky part. The  short bush bash was unmarked (required local knowledge to find) and river crossing carry for about 500 metres onto private land. This part of the ride went past two homesteads, so should not be done without permission from the

Pritchards Kauri

owners.
After about 6 km of farm roads, we were back into forest roads, and made the climb back up to 300 metres to get views of the coast and down to Whangamata. Another short descent to view Pritchard’s Kauri, a magnificent Kauri too big to fit into one photo!
Then we had another 8 km of downhill to the “Luck at last” mine site – still in recognisable condition after 100 years.  After this a wonderful 4 km stretch of single track, through stream crossings sharp corners, narrow ledges and interesting bush back to Tangatara road. We had a short climb and then a gradual 3 km of metal road down to Tairua road (SH25), where the last part of our trip is signposted.
It all seem to end too soon, with 8km flat sealed rd, then 2km pine forest singletrack  to finish at the beach with a swim.

Our route can be found here.

Much of this ride is accessible and can be planned from maps, but our guide Tony had done a considerable amount of detailed research to link it all (including getting permission from landowners) to put it together. I would warn against trying without an experienced guide.

It has been a very slow winter..

Don’t get me wrong. 2011 has so far been a very enjoyable year on my bike. I started with two new bikes, the most significant of which was the Scott Scale 29er. This took me from 140 ml travel at both ends to 100ml at the front. The big wheels compensated for this though.

The season started well with the Whirinaki Quest being on the day after I got the Scale. I was pretty happy with my performance, particularly as I came in under the previous year’s time in an event that was 4 km longer. The bike performed well, and I was looking forward to seeing how it would go in the next Auckland race.

However, soon after Whirinaki, I had an accident which damaged my knee. The pain was excruciating for a couple of weeks, but subsided to a bit of an ache, more of an annoyance than anything. So I set about getting fit for the Huka Challenge.

Summer came and went, and although I had a great deal of fun, my race results weren’t bad, but weren’t particularly good either. Choosing the highlight of the summer is pretty difficult with Team Avantiplus having some pretty good efforts, but my peak of fitness came with a podium result in the ‘Motatapu Icebreaker’.

From there I had two months off racing during which time I moved my business from Glenfield to Whenuapai. This required a pretty major effort and my riding suffered, partly because work became pretty absorbing and partly because my three times a week bike commute reduced from 32 to 22km each way.

So I wasn’t expecting too much from the first winter n-duro, but my effort could best be described as embarrassing. Still, we learn from this sort of thing, so I began putting some real effort in for the second, giving myself a month to gain the fitness required for an effort that I could be proud of. Not enough though. Still not a particularly good result, although I had the fitness, just not the speed. And I was able to enjoy the ride.

Then came the Craters classic at Taupo last weekend. All was well, a perfect frosty morning and a good start saw me in fine shape until the first hill. But I simply did not have the power to climb it. The event would have been great fun, but my knee pain was getting worse and every climb became a struggle. I was getting toward the end of the race, and was pretty much over it, when bang! I did a pretty good job of using my body to protect the bike from a tree, but still managed to bend the stem and buckle the front wheel. It was a struggle to the finish, but finish I did. It was not a mistake to do the ride, but boy, I need to sort myself out.

I went to the doctor to get my knee checked, and an x-ray showed that my patella was still broken from November. I am now advised that I need an operation to “fix it”. The doctor also commented that my right thigh muscle is considerably stronger that my left. So I measured them – my right is 52 cm in diameter, my left 48. I have been pedalling with just one leg! No wonder I have been struggling. I am now looking forward to having the operation and getting back to form.

On a positive note, though, the fishing has been good!

I had done this event two years ago and remembered how difficult the start was, but I also knew that soon after the start there was a short descent on which to catch my breath. The course climbs steadily, but has many dips and climbs, so I was keen to make the most of my Scale 29er. This type of riding is ideally suited to the big wheels, although it does require a slight change in technique. Most of the climbs were relatively short, so rather than stay seated as I would normally, mostly I was climbing out of the saddle in a big gear.



The plan was to draft for as long as I could, and any overtaking could be done on the hills. Although the start took off at a furious pace, I was able to keep up.

The course continues to climb until the highest point at 34 km, and the hurt gets stronger and stronger and I got to the point where the only solution was a tube of Peak Fuel. I was also suffering from a sharp pain in my left leg, which I though may have been caused by my seat slipping down. So I stopped and raised it a little.

Then the river crossings began. Lots of them, some of them quite deep. Funnily enough, this was where I started to gain ground on the other competitors, perhaps it was due to my having the peak fuel, or maybe the cooling effect of the water splashing on my face. Whatever, I was back on form!

Then the highest point of the race came, and I managed to convince myself that it was all downhill from there! I took off and began passing people, cruising at about 30 km/h! The onto Soho creek, wow! Spectacular views of the valley, and a drop off that looked dangerous. This was the point at which we started to catch up with the runners, who all kept left, allowing those of us on bikes to take the right hand line. This was fast and furious and I was riding with two other people on 29ers, although they both had full suspension. I am happy to report that I was the fastest to the bottom!

There were more river crossings to come, and then finally the track up to the finish at Arrowtown. I was being chased down by another rider for this last section, and succumbed to the pressure at the last river crossing – I took a bad line and he got past. I finished in 2:24, third in my category.

After I had finished, I got back on my bike and went to greet my team-mates at the last river crossing. Sasha came through ten minutes after me to take third in the elite women’s category and Sadie ten minutes after her for second in the Masters women.

I had two goals for this ride. The first was to beat 2 hours and 30 minutes, and the second was to ride all of the river crossings. I achieved both. By far the biggest thrill of the weekend, though, was riding down the Crown Range Road on Sunday morning!

Karapoti 2011

I once had a French car, it was a wonderful machine. Amazingly comfortable, fun to drive, and it had everything that was needed, and then some. It had character. And every now and then, it made sure that I knew that it was the boss. I hated it, and loved it, and when I was finally finished with it, I swore that I never buy another car of that brand again. But for some reason, when I see one, I kind of want one. And that annoys me.

I have the same sort of relationship with the Karapoti Classic MTB race. I was looking forward to my second attempt with some trepidation, because it represents the style of cross-country biking that I am not particularly good at. However, I wanted to conquer the challenge (get under that magical three hour time) and I still do.

I was reasonably well prepared, fitter and stronger than last year, and with strong support from Team Avantiplus. And the Scott Scale 29er is the perfect bike for this event.

The weather decided to show us all who is the boss. We were greeted on Saturday morning weather conditions that have been described as the worst yet. Not that that seems to affect Anton Cooper or Dirk Peters. These guys a remade of pretty stern stuff.

I got off to a good start, and enjoyed the first hour, despite the rain. Part of the way up the ‘warmup’ I heard “Hi Dad” from Elliot as he passed me at a seemingly effortless pace. When I got to the first aid station I checked my time, and was not far off the 3 hour pace.

I kept a reasonable pace through ‘Deadwood’ and was determined to put in a big effort to get back on target. By the top of the ’Rock Garden’, I was down by 4 minutes, and lost more going up the ‘Devils Staircase’, at the top of which I was nearly ten minutes off the pace. At this point, I realised I had lost too much time to make the three hour mark, and stopped checking my times.

Still, there were people to chase. Maybe they weren’t doing any better than I was, and perhaps I could close the gap. So I raced down ‘Big Ring’ (fun) right through to ‘Dopers Creek’ (I wonder how it got it’s name?) I have to admit that going up ‘Dopers’ was very hard work. I was still optimistic, though, because I knew that I was strong enough to race down the valley and maybe pick up a couple of places.

I did manage to pick off a couple of riders, and arrived at the final river crossing with only just enough energy to get back on my bike to cross the finish line. The bike performed flawlessly throughout, but perhaps I could improve with a few more hill repeats! It is comforting to know that when compared to last year, I closed the gap on some of my rivals, even though I didn’t beat them. Also, I can’t think of any part of the ride that I would have done differently.

Karapoti, you win again, but I will be back!

My team-mates did well. Hiskey got across the finish line in 2 hours 54 minutes despite having two punctures, Josh finished soon after in a creditable 3:01, Scott in 3:08, Elliot in 3:15, I got through in 3:18, and Sasha picked 5th place (and a cash prize!) in the Women’s elite in 3:40. Karen was recovering from an injured knee, Sadie was at home with Bike flu, and work commitments prevented Jamie T from going. For team Avantiplus MTB another great weekend.

National MTB Champs, Dunedin 26 Feb 2011

This was an event to which all of the members of the AvantiPlus MTB race team were invited, and it was a beauty.

We were all quite surprised at the cold, despite having read the weather forecast before arriving.

The track at Forrester Park suited me, a little bit slippery and a couple of short climbs, one of which was on a metal road. We had a nice little start loop around a football field up some track onto and through another field. We then tore down a slippery zig zag track through a forest, across the some ‘off camber’ grass in the lower part of the park, up a shingle track and own again. Then into some forestry tracks through the forest. Nothing too scary, except for a slightly slippery bridge that was to prove my undoing in the fourth lap.

My race went well, apart from the aforementioned incident on the slippery bridge. I finished in fourth place, a bit higher up the list than expected, but only 30 seconds off the podium.

The morning racing went well for our group, with Sadie winning her category, Hiskey getting second in Masters, and Hattie (JAFAkids) getting second Under 17.

The afternoon racing was exciting to watch, particularly the race for the women’s elite title, with Karen (Team A+) battling Rosara Joseph for the win. The men’s elite was dominated by Carl Jones, in my opinion and that of many others, a well deserved victory. We watched the big star from Christchurch, Anton Cooper overtake the whole elite field during his race )which was a lap shorter than the elite).

Piki (Team A+ and JAFAkids) finished a creditable seventh in the Elite Women’s race, Nick Millar (JAFAkids) 13th in men’s elite.

We wound up the day with dinner in a restaurant just off the Octagon, a very pleasant evening marred by lousy service.

Wild Wellington Trip 18 to 20 Feb 2011

Jamie J, Sasha and I arrived in Wellington on Friday afternoon in time to have a coffee and a practise lap of the course. Our Motel was in Evans Bay, handy to the airport and to Mt Victoria, where the race was to be held.

We headed up to the velodrome to check the course and met with my friend Pete, who showed us how to ride it. It was a relatively easy (therefore fast) part of Mt Vic, and fun to ride.

Josh showed up at the motel at about 10 o’clock that night.

Six o’clock on race day had us reluctantly getting out of bed to get ready to help with the set-up in the race village. All went well and we were ready well before the race was due to start.

We made the decision to do three laps each. Hiskey got our team off to an excellent start coming in third after his three laps. Josh followed, continuing to set a blistering pace and moving our team into 2nd overall. We continued through the rota with Sasha Jamie J and then it was my turn. Disaster struck – a puncture one third of the way into my first lap! It was here that I found the first ever disadvantage with the Scale 29er – the gas canister did not have the volume to fill the 29 x 2.25 tyre! I pumped the tyre enough to get me around the lap and fortunately, Hiskey was able to take over for a couple of laps while I got myself sorted.

Race day banter was fun, and we were getting closer and closer to the overall leaders, and a massive night time effort by Josh brought us very close. We did however; win our category, making it a fun and successful day.

On Sunday morning we managed to get up at six o’clock again – perhaps the excitement of Saturday was still with us. Josh took Sasha to the airport, and Jamie and I went to meet Scott Mac for breakfast and a ride.

We set off from Haitaitai through the City, past Parliament to Khandallah, and up the track to Mt Kaukau. We took the tourist approach to this ride, stopping to take in the magnificent views, and to take photographs. We rode the ridgeline through some magnificent country, occasionally touching (but never entering) suburbia from time to time. Eventually, we had to cross a road, and then climbed the switchback track up to Makara Peak. Again, we had wonderful views throughout 360 degrees, from Wellington Airport, around to the Marlborough Sounds, and north to the Kapiti Coast and Hutt Valley. We concluded our ride with a wicked descent into the Aro Valley, and a short road section back through the Mt Victoria Tunnel to Haitaitai. We were gone for over four hours, with a ride time of three hours fifteen minutes.

Another great day in Wellington