Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wellington to Auckland ride selected shots
Here are some shots from the ride, the valley is the Rimutuka valley, one of our biggest hill climbs. The photos are of Matt my brother in law and I.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wellington to Auckland, end of the ride
Well we made it! The last two days were sunny and warm with green rolling hills, lots of sheep and cows, rivers, and some short steep climbs. We've ended up with a consistent group of 10 or so that work together really well as a peleton. For about 40 km we even had a "carousel" going with two lines going, fast on the right and slow on the left and rotating rapidly so that you're only in the lead for about 15 seconds. We were moving along at 24-25 mph and it was almost effortless! Great team of riders and a real sense of comraderie. One stage was 94 km from Tokaroa to Hamilton, and the next day was two stages 67 km Hamilton to Glen Murray and 38 km Glen Murray to Pukekohe (just outside Auckland).
I've been amazed by some of the older riders, there are a number of riders 60-69 that are in incredible shape, and one over 70 that was trying to chase down a breakaway when they broke from our peleton (and a 62 year old guy was in the breakaway)!
It was also fun to have a local television celebrity with our group as well as an ex All Black rugby captain who played rugby in the 1960's for New Zealand. Every night we were on television thanks to the television guy and that was fun as well. He was racing for a charity that sends disabled athletes to the NYC marathon. They were raising money to send an athlete who lost both his legs in the Christchurch earthquake. The newscaster got several people to donate $2000 in exchange for him shaving his legs and it all went to this charity.
All in all a great ride/race. If anyone enjoys biking and would like to visit New Zealand, I would highly recommend this ride or one of the other rides these guys put on. They're Dynamo Events and they do this ride, one in Northlands (4 days) and one on the South Island.
Thanks for following this, will post some pictures soon.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wellington to Auckland ride days 3-5
Day 3 took us in two stages from Palmerston North to Wanganui. These stages were notable for rain and cold and a long section of road works. Fortunately they stopped to allow everyone to fix their flats (punctures as they're called here) because there were about 15 flats, 2 guys got two flats!
Day 4 the "hump day" was two stages taking us from Wanganui which is sea level up to Ohakune which is on the plateau near the National Park. Lunch was in Kakatahi School--they have 11 students this year. I'm sure this was the highlight of their year to have 150 bike riders and a National News 3 reporter and an ex captain of the All Blacks show up at their school. The students had balloons and cheered as every single person crossed the finish line and then put on a huge lunch for us. This was billed as the hardest day with two 7 km hills.
Day 5 was the longest day 86 km and then 50 km from Ohakune to Turangi and then Turangi to Lake Taupo. It was beautiful and sunny and we went through part of the national park. The views reminded me of high plateau Wyoming or Montana with mountains and lakes in the background.
We're definitely on the downhill slide now, the next two days are relatively flat and the weather is picking up. The Channel 3 News broadcaster who's doing the ride broadcasts live from the town we end up each night. They show footage of the ride each day and the kids from Kakatahi school ended up on television last night.
Day 4 the "hump day" was two stages taking us from Wanganui which is sea level up to Ohakune which is on the plateau near the National Park. Lunch was in Kakatahi School--they have 11 students this year. I'm sure this was the highlight of their year to have 150 bike riders and a National News 3 reporter and an ex captain of the All Blacks show up at their school. The students had balloons and cheered as every single person crossed the finish line and then put on a huge lunch for us. This was billed as the hardest day with two 7 km hills.
Day 5 was the longest day 86 km and then 50 km from Ohakune to Turangi and then Turangi to Lake Taupo. It was beautiful and sunny and we went through part of the national park. The views reminded me of high plateau Wyoming or Montana with mountains and lakes in the background.
We're definitely on the downhill slide now, the next two days are relatively flat and the weather is picking up. The Channel 3 News broadcaster who's doing the ride broadcasts live from the town we end up each night. They show footage of the ride each day and the kids from Kakatahi school ended up on television last night.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Wellington to Auckland Ride Days 1 and 2
I was impressed with the riders in the tour and the organization. They have people self-select for the fast group, the medium group or the slower/social group. Matt and I are in the social group, but even in there people are pretty serious. They let the slower group go 30 minutes before everyone else and then we try hard to not let the fast group catch us. Even in the slower group the faster people form large peletons and take turns pulling at the front. We were averaging ~20-21 mph.
Day #1 left Lower Hutt and started off up the Rumetuka hill, one of the hardest hills for the whole week. They have a car and a motorcycle leading the bikers and one following behind (and an ambulance follows the whole way). This made it seem much safer going up the long windy hill. It's a beautiful valley, and I'll post some photos later. Unfortunately I broke a spoke and by the time I got to the top of the hill my wheel was all out of true and I had to catch a ride down on the truck.
The mechanics loaned me another back wheel so I could continue with stage 2, but as our pack started off I realized I wasn't able to shift gears. Bummer! I had to pedal back and get them to fix that so I spent most of the next stage pedaling hard by myself trying to catch up to my group. Matt ended up in a fast peleton that beat me by ~20 minutes. Fortunately two guys overtook me and I joined them and rode with them for the last 15 miles. That put us into Masterton. There's not a lot going on in Masterton on a Sunday night but we were pretty beat anyway.
Day #2 took us from Masterton to Palmerston North. Matt and I were part of a big peleton that was going ~20mph. Every big hill we dropped a few more riders and ended up with about 10 of us going fast, ~24-25mph. Then we went up one more big hill which separated things even more and I found myself with 2 other guys in front. We shared the lead until the end when we sprinted for the finish. It was really fun to do as a race, felt like a mini Tour de France with peletons, breakaways, comaraderie, etc. Now we're in Palmerston North which is a big college town. We'll have dinner and awards (they give yellow jerseys for the overall leader and jerseys for the best hill climber, best sprinter, age group leaders, etc.) There are a suprising number of very fit 50-70 year old riders on the tour. We also have an ex All Black and a Channel 3 newscaster on our tour. Apparently because of the newscaster we are supposed to make the news this week, we'll see. There are 3 Americans beside me, a few from Europe, some from Australia, and everyone else from all over New Zealand.
Day #1 left Lower Hutt and started off up the Rumetuka hill, one of the hardest hills for the whole week. They have a car and a motorcycle leading the bikers and one following behind (and an ambulance follows the whole way). This made it seem much safer going up the long windy hill. It's a beautiful valley, and I'll post some photos later. Unfortunately I broke a spoke and by the time I got to the top of the hill my wheel was all out of true and I had to catch a ride down on the truck.
The mechanics loaned me another back wheel so I could continue with stage 2, but as our pack started off I realized I wasn't able to shift gears. Bummer! I had to pedal back and get them to fix that so I spent most of the next stage pedaling hard by myself trying to catch up to my group. Matt ended up in a fast peleton that beat me by ~20 minutes. Fortunately two guys overtook me and I joined them and rode with them for the last 15 miles. That put us into Masterton. There's not a lot going on in Masterton on a Sunday night but we were pretty beat anyway.
Day #2 took us from Masterton to Palmerston North. Matt and I were part of a big peleton that was going ~20mph. Every big hill we dropped a few more riders and ended up with about 10 of us going fast, ~24-25mph. Then we went up one more big hill which separated things even more and I found myself with 2 other guys in front. We shared the lead until the end when we sprinted for the finish. It was really fun to do as a race, felt like a mini Tour de France with peletons, breakaways, comaraderie, etc. Now we're in Palmerston North which is a big college town. We'll have dinner and awards (they give yellow jerseys for the overall leader and jerseys for the best hill climber, best sprinter, age group leaders, etc.) There are a suprising number of very fit 50-70 year old riders on the tour. We also have an ex All Black and a Channel 3 newscaster on our tour. Apparently because of the newscaster we are supposed to make the news this week, we'll see. There are 3 Americans beside me, a few from Europe, some from Australia, and everyone else from all over New Zealand.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wellington to Auckland bike ride
My brother in law Matt and I are going to ride from Wellington to Auckland over 7 days with an organized ride. There are 150 people doing it with some flying in from the US, Europe and Australia. You can do it as a race or as a ride (we're doing the latter). Will try to update this every couple of days and will post some photos at the end. If you're curious about the route hit the following link and scroll down and you can see what we'll be riding each day. Cheers!
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