Old Dunstan Road mission

I had been keen to do this mission for a while now so with the weather looking good and a few things falling into place I went for it.
The Old Dunstan Road is the old stagecoach route from Dunedin to Alexandra and passes through some amazing Central Otago country side. The plan was to head off from Dunedin and ride to Clarks Junction which is the start of the Dunstan Road, head through to Alex and then ride home via the Central Otago Rail Trail a total of 400 km (give of take a few). Not really knowing what to expect and how the body would cope with the distance I made sure I had enough kit to stop and have a sleep somewhere if needed.

 Above: Elevation profile of ride and a bit of a map. Lost a few kms along the rail trail when the GPS ran out of batteries.

So with bags packed I rolled out of Dunedin at 5.30 am on Thursday 13th Dec. The added weight on my back and in my attempt at a home made saddle bag made the first few climbs out of Dunedin tough and I wondered how I was going to ride the bigger climbs to come.

  

Above L: At Clarks Junction ready to hit the Old Dunstan Road. Right:Looking out over Loganburn Reservoir

Once on the Old Dunstan Road the climbing started in earnest. The sun came out and the hills seemed endless as the road zig-zaged up and up in front of me. The amazing surroundings made the climbing 'not so bad' as I pedaled through Lord of the Rings country, over the Rock and Piller Range, past the Great Mossy Swamp, across the source of the Taieri River, up over to Poolburn Reservoir (how they got stagecoaches up or down this section of the road is beyond imagination) and then finally over the Crawford Hills down into Alexandra. After 11 hours on the bike I had clocked up 170 km and made it through the Old Dunstan Road. Now I just had to get home!

 After stopping in Alex to refuel I hit the Rail Trail at around 5pm. With a bit of a tail wind the k's started to tick by. As I rolled past Wedderburn (the highest point on the rail trail) the sun started to set. I pushed on to Ranfurly and had quick stop there to sort out my lights and have a quick bite to eat. The clock ticked over 10.15pm.

 Above: The sun setting over the Central Otago hills

Back into it in the complete darkness, it now became a game of following the light beam and trying not to be taken out by the hundreds of rabbits that seemed determined to throw themselves under my wheels. A close encounter with some sheep and a cow! sleeping in the middle of the trail kept me on my toes as I pushed on. Then out of the darkness came the lights of Middlemarch which signaled the end of the rail trail. It was 1am on Friday morning as I quickly stopped in Middlemarch to fill my water bottles.

 Above: At Middlemarch at the end of the Rail Trail. 320km down, only 80 to go

I hit the final road section back over the hill to Dunedin and after my short stop my legs and bum were protesting about getting going again. It was slow going with tired legs and the long climbs in the dark seemed to have no end. The body was starting to hurt, in particular my feet and bum (surprise, surprise). But it was not far to go now and I kept looking forward to the downhill that I had slogged up in the opposite direction yesterday. 
As I rolled into Mosgiel the sky was starting to look brighter and I was on familiar  terrain. Almost there, only two small climbs to go! I turned down Richmond Street and spied my letter box. Looking down at my watch it ticked over to 5.30 am. Spot on 24 hours after I left I was home again with 400km under the belt. What a great way to see Central Otago. 

 Above: My feet were a little worse for wear after getting wet earlier in the day.

Dunedin 6 hour

After recovering from the Timaru 12 hour a few weeks earlier I was keen to give the Dunedin 6 hour a good nudge. Riding my new 2013 Giant XTC composite 29er  that I picked up 2 days before the race I could not wait to get started. 

Coming into the end of the first lap I had my first drama of the day, a puncture! Not to worry I thought there is still plenty of time left in front of me to catch up.

Back up and running I rolled through the start/ finish cute to see I was sitting in 11th place, I had some work to do. Riding hard I moved my way up through the field picking up on average 1 place each lap on the tight relatively short course.  

 

 A couple of photos taken by Brendan Ward Photographer

 Finally I started making some head way and I could see 2nd and 3rd place up ahead of me on certain sections of the course. With some revived hope I kept pushing hard.
Then on what was my second to last lap I suffered another puncture (later that evening at home I pulled a peice of wire 2 cm long out of my tyre that I must have picked up on one of the bridges).

With the puncture fixed it was off for one last lap to place 4th in the solo mens section. All in all a good day out on the new bike.
Cheers to the guys at R&R Sport for getting my new bike built up in time for the race and then also making my wheels tubeless the week after the race. Hopefully that will help stop my recent puncture problem.


 

Timaru 12 hour MTB race 2012

It has been a long time between races, so going into the Timaru 12 hour MTB race I was interested to see how my fitness would stack up against the likes of Milan Brodina who I coach and know is going really well at the moment. Besides this I was just fizzing at spending some time on the bike.

I started conservatively and quickly settled into a steady pace lapping through in around 5^th place. After an hour I was feeling good so started pushing the laps a little harder and I started moving through the field into 2^nd. I was riding well and could not believe how much fun I was having. It was great to be back on the bike.

At around the 3.5 hour mark I like so many others in the field suffered a puncher. The sharp rocks over the top section of the course were shredding tiers all over the place. A quick change soon turned into a long one when I cross-treaded my CO2 pump and jammed up. Not being able to get it un-jammed I resorted to begging others for their pump, which soon paid off with a fellow competitor stopping to lend me his pump. Back on track I had only lost 1 placing.

 The weather was perfect throughout the day with it being warm and overcast with a slight breeze. As the day wore on the hills started to feel steeper and longer, while the razor sharp rocks out on the course were still playing havoc with tires. I noticed a slow leak in my front tire that would get progressively softer over two laps. I had to make a quick stop every couple of laps to top it up with air. After repeating this process for a couple of hours the leak was getting worse and I was forced to stop to change it in the pits. Luckily Nick Taylor was in the pits and he did a quick change for me while I stocked up on some food.

With 2 hours to go Nick was reporting back to me that I was pulling slightly faster laps than 2^nd place. I keep working on closing the gap but the legs were feeling the day’s activity. With about 26 min until the race finish I got the call from Nick that I was on the same number of laps as 2^nd place and that he had called it a day like most of the other riders, as it was starting to get dark and a final lap in that time would likely be completed within the cut off time. If I could do one last lap and get back in under the 12 hour cut off I would move into 2^nd place. It was worth a try.

So with everything I had left in the tank I took off for one last lap. With the light fading fast all I could do through some of the tree covered sections that were now pitch dark was hold on and hope my bike knew the way over the obstacles. Red lining it all the way to the finish I narrowly missed the cut off by about 2 min so my final lap did not count. Oh well, it was worth a try!

So with 223 official kilometres under the belt I finished up in 3^rd place in the men’s solo section. More than happy with my days work. 

Grand Canyon adventure

Ever since I first hiked the Grand Canyon 8 years ago I had always wanted to run the Kaibab – Bright Angel loop in a day. The 28.5 km loop starts at the South rim drops 2300 m via the steep Kaibab trail down to the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon before climbing back up to the South rim via the Bright Angel trail.

Every year over 250 people are rescued from the Grand Canyon and there are a number of warning signs advising against making the trip in one day. With this in mind we made sure we carried enough water for the full trip so we did not have to rely on the sometimes dry water sources on route. We also planned to leave early in the morning to take advantage of the cooler part of the day and avoid the 35°C+ temps that the mid afternoon serves up.

All geared up my wife and I hit the trail at 6am ready to tackle the Grand Canyon. 

The descent down to the mighty Colorado River came and went very smoothly and we started up the climb to the top with legs feeling a little battered but feeling good. 

As we climbed the sun really started to heat up and the red dust that coated us started to become apparent as the sweat glands started to work. 

In the final 8km the climbing started to get serious and the trail was flooded with day hikers heading both up and down. With the feet really starting to feel the hammering they had taken we pushed on steadily to the top and finished comfortably in 6 hours 40 min.