Starting a Start List

Howdy all,

I'm starting to think about where we source the SPOT trackers from. There are 20 readily available in NZ (if booked at least a month out, cost is $65 per week). If we need more than that I need to look offshore (turns out that Scott Morris from Bikepacking.net and Matthew Lee from Tour divide have some demonstration units - might be cheaper).

The upshot is that I'd like to get a feel for how many riders will be starting.

As an incentive to get your name on the start list, we'll dish the cheapest SPOT trackers out to the first people to notify us of their intention to start.
Also, given the total number of SPOT trackers available is limited, we might have to cap the event at about 50 riders this first time (not that we're expecting that many fools!).
One other thought, if you're under 18 years, probably best to wait a year or two. You'll enjoy it more when you're arse is starting to get hard and crusty.

Please email simon at kennett dot co dot nz if you are likely to be lining up in Blenheim on the 6th of Feb.

There's no entry fee, but you will be expected to sign a waiver (and have a SPOT tracker) before entering the private land north of Lees Valley, and pay your share of the SPOT hire (or turn up with one of your own).

I'll add to this list as we go. So far we have:

John Randal
Jonty Ritchie
Laurence Mote
Guy Wynn-Williams
Mike Thompson
Mike Anderson
Dave Rudge
Trevor Woodward
Barryn Westfield
Rob Garden
Thomas Lindup
John Morris
Jasper van der Lingen
Simon Kennett
(As of 3rd Nov)
Claude Dabaliz
Barry Bryant
Chris Gilbertson
(As of 4th Nov)
Willi Borst
Andy Reid
Gordon MacDonald
David King
(As of 6th Nov)
Ross Friedrich
Chris Charles
(names above, as of 8th Nov)
Ed McDonald
Joel McFarlane Roberts
(as of 9th Nov)
Ash Brown
Nick Treadgold
Brenda Clapp
Chris Burr
Jo Holden
(as of 11th Nov)
Chris Sherwood
Mark Rayward
Tony Bateup
Lisa Savage
Peter Maindonald
(as of 15th Nov)
Mondo Kopua
(as of 17th Nov)
Oliver Whalley
Mark Hearfield
Bill Brierley
(as of 18th Nov)
Matt Gerstenberger
Shelley Gosse
Andrew McLellan
Micki Speck
(as of 24 Nov)
Nathan Mawkes
Jeff Lyall
John Mote
(as of 29 Nov)
Ian Gordon
Scott McLachlan
Phil Byron
Pat Hogan
(as of 6 Dec)
Marquita Gelderman
James Dick
Phil White
Anne Mortimer
Dirk Naish
Helen Van Hoof
David Bailey
(as of 24th Dec)
Jan Witkowski
Brett Porter
Tina Bayer
Tim Mulliner
Rodney Hansen
Charlotte Ireland
(as of 6th Jan)
Chris Tennent Brown
Jakub Postrzygacz
Darren Tatom

NB: Total of 65 names (incl 10 women).

Services List

Planning and enjoying your ride is going to depend a lot on wise use of the services along the way. So here's the start of a list of them. What you still need to find out is when they open & close, what they offer (and at what cost), and if bookings are required.

Chances are that you'll get to a small town just after closing time at some stage in your ride. If you are in tour mode (riding well within your limits) you might have the energy necessary to push on to the next town. But if you plan to ride into the small hours, you'll want to have a sleeping bag and spare rations tucked away.

Please let us know if there are services en route that are missing from the list.
If you want the contact details for these businesses a google search, or call to the local info centre or 018 directory should do the trick.
Note that most towns also have a service station.

I'm not sure how cutting and pasting an Excel file is going to work - it looks great before I press post (which makes me very nervous). If it's crap, email me and I'll send you the file.

Distance	Location	Services
0 km	Blenheim	all
	Waikawa	dairy
58	Picton	food, accom
	Momorangi	cafe
	Linkwater	service station
89	Havelock	food, accom
	Canvastown	hotel
	Pelorus Bridge	cafe
143	Nelson	all
	Stoke	all, ex hospital
	Richmond	all, ex hospital
	Brightwater	food
	Wakefield	food
233	St Arnaud	food, accom
297	Murchison	food, accom, hospital
	Maruia	cafe, accom
373	Springs Junction	cafe, accom
416	Reefton	all
	Big River	hut
491	Blackball	hotel, accom
553	Jacksons	hotel
	Otira	hotel
588	Arthurs Pass	food, accom
	Bealy	hotel
	Flock Hill station	food, accom
	Springfield	food, accom
679	Sheffield	food
	Wharfedale	hut
	Hurunui	hotel
	Culverden	shops, hotel
859	Hanmer Springs	all, ex hospital
	Awatere Valley	B&B
1064 km	Blenheim	all

Some Useful Links, a budget, & a Schedule

So, in the interests of seeing 100% of starters actually finish, here's some info you might find handy.

The Great Divide race
David Blaines GDR blog
http://www.ultracycling.com/
The Tour Divide site
Bike Packing
Rough Stuff Fellowship

Warning! There's some really interesting reading in those links - take care not to let it get in the way of your riding!

If you are thinking about a budget for the Brevet, you first need to work out what gear you will take. After looking at the links above, Googling 'great divide gear list' will give you more to think about. Or you can look for the gear list on my Great Divide Kiwi blog. I'll probably carry a very similar load of gear (minus the overmitts, booties, anti-biotics, sun umbrella, and shower caps).

Once you have your gear sorted, what will the event cost you to complete? Here's my estimate:

Travel to the start/finish - $100
Accomodation (six nights in a backpackers) - $180
Extra Food than normal - $200 (plus normal expenditure)
Bike repairs/replacements (tyres, chain, brake pads, etc) - $350
SPOT nav-tracker hire - $65
Koha - $50
Misc (anit-flammes, sunblock, batteries, etc) - $100

Total - roughly $1045

Next up I was having a think about an 8-Day Finishers schedule - what're the minimum distances to aim for each day? Something like this perhaps:

Sat (noon start) - Blenheim to Havelock - 90 km
Sun - On to St Arnaud - 144 km
Mon - On to Springs Junction - 140 km
Tues - On to Jacksons - 180 km
Wed - On to Wharfedale/Townsend Hut - 156 km
Thurs - Thru to Hanmer - 150 km
Fri - Rest area at Hodder River - 135 km
Sat - Finish in Blenheim - 70 km

Since the eight day time limit actually kicks in at noon on the Sunday, this leaves a half day spare incase of delays required for bike repairs or bad weather. It's interesting to see that you could stay under a roof at the end of every day except for the night by the Hodder River.

The distances are estimates based on Google Maps and Classic NZ MTB Rides. They might be a tad on the short side for some legs. They come to a grand total of 1065 km.

Some photos from the route

Here' a few pics from places along the route - some old some new:


The first half of this Super8 silent film from 1986 shows the first bit of downhill on the Port Underwood road. (The second part shows the excellent single track above Whites Bay.)

 Old-school: Simon on Maungatapu Saddle heading down towards Nelson.

Porika Track - overlooking Lake Rotoroa.

Maruia Saddle public road.

The Braeburn track.

Paul on the Warfedale.

A classic old cycle touring photo - river crossing in Lees Valley.

Short-cut confirmed, and the question of Sleep

Just got of the phone with the Patersons who run the farm north of Lees valley - we have a green light to pass through their property. This is excellent news - the alternative would have been to stay on public roads (some of them busy) and gone the long way round the south side of Mt Grey. We won't know the finer details of this short-cut for a while (the Topomap is incorrect, so we'll need local man Ben Kepes to check it out for us) but I can tell you it will be about 60 km of gravel road and some farm track between Lees Pass and Hurunui.

Sleep
While out riding last Saturday morning, my friend Andrew and I were caught up to by a guy called Brad. It was about 9:30am and he'd been riding since 4am (and still had about 100 km to ride to get home). We rode together for a bit and chatted about ultracycling. He'd come second in the Taupo Audax a couple of times and was interested in doing the Race Across America. He mentioned a couple of people had died in that race recently.

It got me thinking about safety a bit more seriously. Roughly 15% of New Zealand's road toll is attributed to fatigue-related accidents. People drift off ever-so briefly and then veer off the road or into an oncoming vehicle. The Ministry of Transport is currently considering adopting a European law which forbids driving if you've been awake for more than 24 hours.

Ultracycling usually doesn't require any amount of sleep, although Adventure races sometimes deny access to dangerous sections of a course after dark. The Kiwi Brevet is different from a normal brevet in that there will be some very long stints between towns and some very rough tracks where navigation is tricky; and it's different from the Great Divide races in that 50% of the course is on sealed roads shared with New Zealand's driving public (so you'll need your wits about you). It's different from RAAM in that there will be no support crew driving behind to pick you up if you fall off your bike. And...the Kiwi Brevet is NOT a race.

All this considered, and after much discussion with riders likely to do the event, we've decided to introduce a new rule:

"Between noon one day and noon the next, every rider must spend at least one block of at least four hours not travelling. That is, the maximum time any rider may spend travelling along the course will be 20 hours (between each noon-to-noon period)."

This can be monitored by reviewing riders' SPOT navigational tracking device.
We're not suggesting you limit yourself to four hours sleep per day. You'll surely enjoy yourself more if you sleep closer to eight hours. But you might decide to get a really early start on one day (and catch up on sleep another). Anyway, as with all the rules at this stage, it's just a draft. We'd love your feedback.

Training or Practicing?

By now, anybody thinking of doing the Kiwi Brevet will be thinking about preparation. What do you need to do to complete 1200 km of all terrain in less than 8 days?

If you look at long events - ranging from a double century to a Great Divide style race - there are a few common things that can ruin your ride.

1 - Have a reliable bike.
Be prepared to fix multiple punctures, a slashed sidewall, a broken chain, a buckled wheel, wornout brake pads, etc.
Don't start with untested gear, or worn rims or chainrings, etc

2 - Be fit enough to comfortable do a hilly century by yourself, preferably with a good chunk of gravel road included. If you can do something like Round Taupo in less than 6 hours, and have reasonable MTB skills, you are probably physically good to go.

3 - Don't get Sick.
This is a biggy. Avoid dodgy food and water. Try to keep you hands clean. Eat and drink plenty of the stuff you find easy to digest. Take some sort of water purification system.

4 - Don't crash your brains out!
Be familiar with how your loaded bike handles off-road. Ride within yourself, especially when you're feeling fatigued. Use bright clothing and lights when out there in low light conditions.

5 - Be prepared for extreme weather.
You'll need to be ready to fend off both hypothermia and hyperthermia. Temperatures may well range between zero and forty degrees C.

6 - Know where you're going.
Once you've worked how you're going to navigate, practice using your system. Most of the navigation on this course is fairly straight forward and can be done using a 1:250,000 Terrainmap (possibly supplimented by directions from Google Maps). However, the navigation in/out of Blenheim and Neslon might need a street map. And finding your way through the Maungatapu, Porika, Big River and Wharfdale sections will require the directions in Classic NZ MTB Rides and/or a 1:50,000 Topomap. Same goes for the Molesworth, but we'll be going in the opposite direction described in the guidebook. The sections west of Lake Brunner and north of Lees Valley have yet to be described accurately - the 1:50,000 Topomaps for those areas can not be trusted - we'll work out a cue sheet and email it out prior to the start.


If you want to know more about 'serious' training for long distance cycling, check out this site http://www.ultracycling.com/

Personally, I reckon you don't need to do massive miles to enjoy something like this. 15 hours riding in a big week is plenty. Try to get one really long ride done every couple of weeks and the usual 1-3 hour med-fast rides done every couple of days. What is 'really long'? Five hours by the end of October, building up to an 8-10 hour ride (or a tour with your Brevet gear) early in the new year. Then sharpen up with a bit of fast riding or racing, and remember to give yourself heaps of rest and recovery. Enjoy!

Couple of rule revisions...

1 - Old Rule:
No outside support (deliveries only to public addresses, no support from friends along the way). Prior to the race you may only post supplies to post offices.

This now becomes:
No outside support (deliveries only to business addresses, no support from friends along the way). No posting stuff to anywhere (not even post offices) prior to the race.

Rationale:
In NZ we don't have small towns with only post offices but not shops, so this exception doesn't make sense - it just erodes the self-sufficiency ethos.

2 - Old Rule:
Cell phones OK, but must not be used to call for food or supplies (or any other assistance) to be delivered (except to a public address/business).

Rule Change:
This rule has been removed. Delivery of supplies is covered by the previous rule.

3 - New Rule:
If a rider leaves the course, they must return to the course where they left it, under their own steam.
If a rider takes a shortcut (or long-cut) they will incur a time penalty for the section they miss, equal to twice the slowest riding time taken for that section during this year's brevet.

Rationale:
As the route is new and detailed navigation cues are not available, riders will not be disqualified for missing a section of the course. The time of the slowest person will be determined by their spot tracker.

Feel free to post comments if you have any thoughts on these revisions.