I’m a “Super Randonneur” again..

 

The Super-Randonneur award is awarded for the completion of 200km/300km/400km/600km rides within a Randonnuering year (Nov 1 – Oct 31). It is also the qualifying requirement for many 1200km events, which was my primary motivation. This is the second time I have completed a Super-Randonneur series, the previous time being while qualifying for Paris-Brest-Paris in 2011. Here is the 2011 medal, I’ll need to wait a while to see what the 2013 edition looks like.

 

 

 

 

Randonneuring (or Audax) rides have a low profile in New Zealand, which is a shame because we have found some nice rides, in very scenic areas. If you would like me on any of these rides give me a yodel or see http://www.kiwirandonneurs.org.nz

 

 

400km – Marlborough Mayhem

Riders: Craig (22h36m); Rita (AB)

Time-limit: 27 hours

 

It is often argued that 400km brevets are the hardest to complete due to being longer than a 300km, but not reducing the average speed enough for a sleep break like a 600km brevet. So, naturally that is what I started with, jammed into the Christmas crunch, was our Marlborough Mayhem 400km brevet. With a desire to qualify for  1200km ride further afield later in the year, I promptly rescheduled my flights home for Christmas and booked a ferry across Cook Strait and back again.

 

As I rode up the long false flat that is the Wairau Valley the misty morning cleared albeit, not enough to allow us to see the mountain vistas of this area. As St Arnaud approached the false flat was replaced by real climbing as we made our way up to this alpine village. With Elaine's cafe which I frequented on many a past tramping trip no longer trading, I bought a snack from the general store, before heading to Kawatiri Junction and up over the Hope. It was soon obvious that I was not a climber as I struggled up the steep pitches.

 

I had a brief flat patch, with zero energy and feeling mildly faint just before reaching Nelson and had to stop for an emergency snack on the cycle way, just moments away from Nelson. I must say that I was very impressed with Nelson's  integrated, and signposted cycle network.

 

Leaving Nelson required climbing the Whangamoa Hill, with sea fog set in on a warm and humid night. There was another bump before dropping into the Rai Valley and onto Havelock well after the shops had closed for the night.

 

I waited a few minutes for Rita to arrive but unfortunately it getting too late, and tiring, she chose to abandon and take a 20km shortcut back to Picton via the hillier route on Queen Charlotte Drive. Meanwhile I proceeded the flatter, but more distant route via Rapura Rd, although I will admit that I did sneek in a much needed needed a ten minute snooze to manage my tiredness en-route back to Picton.

 

 

 

300km – Round the Tararuas

Riders: Craig; Simon; Tim – All 17h51m

Time-limit: 20 hours

 

After Christmas I returned home to Wellington and was joined by Tim and Simon. We were able to meet Paris-Brest-Paris ancien Ed Allen for a snack at our first control in Carterton. Before the devastating heat of the afternoon kicked in, with the thermometer well over 30 degrees for most of the day. In Wellington we think it hot if it reaches 20 degrees! This led to us many time consuming rest-stops to eat more ice-creams, in all contributing to over four hours off our bikes.

 

 

 

600km – Picton – Westport – Picton

Riders: Craig (38h57m); Rita (AB)

Time-limit: 40 hours

 

It briefly looked like we may have had up to five riders for the 600, but after late withdrawals, it was just ride organiser Rita and myself.

Two days beforehand we swapped the route around so that more services would be open, and the overnight rest stop at Murchison could be at 382km instead if 440km. This seemed like a good idea - until getting our bikes at 5am on Saturday morning and riding into a headwind up the long false flat that is the Wairau Valley. At the top at St Arnaud we were a mere 40 minutes ahead of the time limit, so it was starting seem a tad tight even at this early stage. Time for fruitful hours of sleep was already seeming unlikely.

 

We met up with Kiwi Randonneurs stalwart Duncan and Tony in Murchison, where after 290km into the headwind Rita decided it wasn’t much fun and chose to abandon. As for me, this was the only 600km ride I had available for qualifying so I pushed on into wind and rain down the beautiful Buller Gorge to Westport, where all businesses decided to celebrate my arrival at 9pm by either closing or ceasing to be serving anymore food. So, it was nuts and snackbars on a concrete step outside New World (thanks for the extra snacks Duncan – was looking grim).

 

Then it was a climb up to Murchison for a 90 minute sleep in the motel before setting off over the Hope and into Nelson. No sign of the rain of the Buller from the night before as a sun shone and the temperature soared, especially felt when climbing over the Whangamoa Hill. The strategic placement of a control point at Pelorous Bridge for a good pie, didn’t quite work out as all I wanted was anything frozen to help cool me down before the final push around Queen Charlotte Drive and back to Picton.

 

 

200km – Taranaki Spin

Riders: Andrea (12h30m); Craig (12h30m); Rita (8h45m)

Time-limit: 13h30m

 

This was “multi-sport” weekend for Kiwi Randonneurs, with Rita backing up from a half-ironman the day before, and myself from an ascent of Mt Taranaki. I mostly rode with Andrea who was visiting from Brazil, although I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish when I broke two spokes near Stratford. Thankyou ‘Z Stratford’ for the loan of some tools, which enabled me to loosen the in tact spokes so the wheel would turn between the forks and enable me to complete the ride, and my Super Randonneur Series.

 

Our route was a variation on the Round the Mountain which would have only been 150km. Ironically, some of the best riding was in the quiet rural roads, and the scenic finish along the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway (a shared path) which had been added to bring the distance up to the required 200km.

 

Rangiwahia Tops; Triangle & Irongate

Date: 13-15 July, 2012

Punters: Bernie, Brendan, Craig, Debbie, Jamie, Paul (L) and Sarah from the Wellington Tramping & Mountaineering Club.

 

On Friday night we surprised a full hut after tramping up to the elevation of 1300m.asl to Rangiwahia Hut under torchlight. Most of our group stayed on the floor, but I was not one to let a few clumps of snow sighted under torchlight discourage me and chose to stay outside under the veranda on the east deck. After all, I do not go outdoors to stay on a stuffy hut. Ironically, I spent the rest of the weekend hearing the tales of woe of how cold the rest of the party was - inside the hut!

 

 

Snowy Ridgeline

Saturday morning began with a climb up into the snow line proper. It began with mostly good travel with a few instances of stepping through the firm crust and post-holing into between knee deep and waist deep below. This was related to the snow covering the tussock shrubs. On the descent toward Triangle I found myself falling through the snow almost every other step. My knees took a hammering and with supporting cast members, Paul and Brendan we were leaving a trail of blood to mark the Ruahine Tramper massacre every time we post-holed through the snow.

 

On some firmer snow, Sarah let out a not quite so death curdling  scream as she went for a skate down the slope. I drifted off the back of the group as I continued to post-hole through the snow, in one case having to fetch my boot which didn't come out with my leg. My knees were pretty smashed up by the time we reached Triangle Hut where we had lunch.

Descending down to Triangle

Triangle Hut

The section down the river after lunch was absolutely my favourite section of the trip. It seemed surprisingly warm given it was the middle of winter. Possibly this was due to running water being warmer than the frozen stuff we had spent the morning amongst. When we got to the track that left the river with a near vertical scramble before descending rapidly to the river. I was promptly overruled when I suggested it was a flood track and the river was not in flood. (Post trip I have been advised that is both possible and impossible to follow the river in this section. I may return to explore this for myself)

 

 

 

We had a large serving of pasta with tomato base for dinner. Having the fire on on the evening I found the hut too hot but the veranda was small and covered in firewood so I stayed inside on this occasion. Perhaps just as well given the heavy rain that fell in the middle of the night.

 

Irongate Hut

 

The route out on Sunday was less interesting. It was more or less, a flood track up the side of the river that went up, across and down as each slip along the river was crossed. We stopped for lunch at Heritage Lodge, which was welcome as a shower passed over. It was great that it only rained while we were indoors. On returning home the news was full of flooding woes that thankfully did not beset on ourselves.

 

I think this route would be more suited to a summer trip and it may or may not be possible to follow the river from Triangle to the Irongates, near the road end. This may take some exploring and some possible pack floats... Most trips seem to have this thing about following tracks these days, but I continue to consider them optional :>.

Tour de Manawatu 2010

The Tour de Manawatu has a couple of short steep climbs early on, on the way out of Ashhurst. After this there is a long but incredibly gradual climb and fall with one other lump before the finish back in Palmerston North after 116km. This sort of course would normally suit me, but today I was backing up from consecutive 200km epics with the GWALoop and the K2 from previous two weekends, and the Tour of the Bay the weekend before them.. This was weekend four from four and for me it was one of those days where if I had not entered in advance and paid an entry fee I may well of not turned up to ride and stayed home for a sleep in.

Ride Data:
Distance:	115.47km	5726 Calories
Time:	3h47m35s	30.4 km/h (60.4km/h MAX)
Elevation:	Ascent: 933m	Descent: 929m
Cadence:	Avg: 91 rpm	Max: 119 rpm
Ride Data:	Garmin Connect / RideWithGPS
Location:	Palmerston North, NZ	7 November 2010

I was managing to hold my own on the initial part of the climbs which denotes significant hill climbing improvement from the past. Unfortunately, I had a combination of four different riders either dropping their chains or getting punctures immediately in front of me on the way up the hill. The net effect of this was the same as my past hill climbing experience – losing touch with the bunch by the top. Ultimately this mattered little. I didn’t have a great deal of power in my legs today. Riding my fourth event in as many weeks was catching up with me so with tired legs I rode it out in generally solo riding through to the finish.

The Feilding Festival of Cycling: 90km Recreational Ride

Scheduled in late winter, the Feilding Festival of Cycling offers a great chance to blow out a few cobwebs before the spring Fun Ride season begins. This event offers a range of rides beginning with a critierium on Saturday, followed by Sunday’s Graded Road-race 90km and recreational rides of 90km, 50km and 20km. This leaves plenty options for all mixtures of fitness and ability. I entered the 90km recreational ride which followed an “Out and Back” course up a 30km false flat/gentle climb followed by 15km of rollers to  Peep-o-Day and return.

Ride Data:
Distance:	91.48km	4,207 Calories
Time:	3h 16m 25s Out: 1h 52m 21s Back: 1h 24m 05s	27.9 km/h (61.3km/h MAX) Out: 24.5km/h Back: 32.6km/h
Elevation:	Ascent: 1,094m	Descent: 1,086m
Cadence:	Avg: 91 rpm	Max: 114 rpm
Ride Data:	Garmin Connect / RideWithGPS
Location:	Feilding, NZ	29 August 2010

I was feeling tired as I drove up from Wellington and stopped to purchase the obligatory triple-shot mocha. At this time it was absolutely teeming down with rain and without my raincoat in the car I was almost ready to take the soft option and turn around and drive home again. During the coffee stop, the weather improved along with my mood and by the start of the event the rain had just stopped falling and the weather essentially just got better as the day went on.

Once again I could not find enough speed straight off the line to move through the pack and ride amongst the leading group. In these recreational rides it can be useful to be able to start hard and fast to be in the correct group when it settles down 10-15km into the event, of course this must be done in fine balance as not to blow out and struggle in the latter half of the event. We were able to get a group organised  into a good rotating pace-line. Unfortunately after a mere 15km this group fragmented as we began riding up the 30km long false flat. At this point a group of six got away off the front of this group and were generally in my sights but I was unable to catch them until that group also fragmented near the turnaround point when I caught each rider one by one.

With no benefit of drafting I thought I rode well alone on the return journey. Admittedly after the first few rollers it was all downhill, but there was a cross wind into my right shoulder.  In a really weird kind of way, I found it satisfying to pass a guy in $10K worth of fast aero kit on the crest of the last roller on the way back and made it through 30km of straight, flat to downhill road without being caught.

I resolved that the next person I see make such poor use of great kit like that should give it to me!

Whilst aero kit isn't of so much use climbing, he should have easily caught me. Cycling is an equipment sport and you can buy up to about a 4% speed improvement. 

I picked up a few more places in the last few kilometres and crossed the line strongly, and felt good enough to possibly hold that pace for another 90km? Endurance is feeling good right now. Not bad after a mild struggle to stay awake at the well on the drive to the start!

Thankyou to all organisers, volunteers, sponsors and of course for the tyre that I won at the spot prize draw that followed the event :D.