A bit of insight into the two guys charging toward Wharfdale Tk. For those who aren't aware, Andy Reid is a former national class road cyclist & mtn biker. His brother is Olympian Robin Reid. Andy's best days are behind him, but when you've spent half your life riding 20-30hrs a week, maybe the Kiwi Brevet isn't really much different mentally.
In contrast, Oliver Whalley, his drafting buddy for much of the race so far, has been enjoying his best riding years of late. He's a national class mtn biker & regularly in the top 5 in national series & eighth at Karapoti last year. Glutton for punishment that he is, he's entered for Karapoti in 4 weeks time as well ! If yopu do a few 12hr searches you'll find he's probably better at the longer stuff, so no surprises with his Kiwi Brevet ride to date.
Interesting to note what these boys are riding. They didn't list their rigs, but no surprise that a hard-core boy like Andy is on a cyclo-cross bike. Olly appears to be on a steel or titanium frame with one of the new rear hub gearing setups - but hard to tell. Neither guys are carrying much, particularly Olly, so they'll be praying the weather in wharfdale doesn't turn to crap weather.
Hard to say about their prospective finish time. The Sheffield to Hanmer section is slow going if they get caught in the dark, so they'll probably save it for early Tues AM. If nothing goes wrong they'll probably hit Blenheim before dark on Wednesday, which would be just over the 4-day minimum time in the rules... me thinks they going for sub-4.
Michael D. Jacques
MDJ Media & Events Ltd
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Wellington
New Zealand
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