The day of my final brevet training ride dawns and it’s
blowing a gale. Clearly this wouldn’t be a problem if it was looking like a
tail wind. But alas the gum trees at our home are bent over the other way and
the thought of riding 200kms into that sort of a headwind causes me to despair.
These feelings of anguish are quickly alleviated by cursing the weather Gods
and turning over in bed while burying my head in my soft pillow.
The relief is short lived however as the mental torture of
knowing that you are using the gale as an easy excuse for not starting the
final training days of the Kiwi Brevet 2014 sink in. But really I continued to
ask myself throughout the day, would a normal person let a little wind stop
them, would they? The wind just continued to grow throughout the day to the
point that my softy roadie friends were using it as an excuse to not do the
Tuesday evening World Champs. By that stage though I had decided that I
couldn’t face another day of guilt. I would leave on my mission tomorrow regardless
of the wind. The mission was to ride 200kms to Reefton the first day camping
the evening there. Day 2 would see me doing the mountain bike trail between
Reefton and Big River and then on to Waiutu. Then riding back to Reefton and on
to Springs Junction. The final day would be another 200km circuit home. I reckoned that if I felt perka after this
then I’d be ready for the actual Brevet in 14 days’ time.
Wednesday dawned and the wind was against me but light. I
dragged myself out of bed knowing that although I didn’t want to go there was
no way I could live with myself if I piked. The problem of course arises when
you set yourself these challenges. As is always the case, you set these
challenges when you are either zooming along on your bike feeling like a
million dollars or you are sitting on the sofa with a coffee thinking about
what one could do on a lovely summers day. The reality off getting up on a not
so great morning and doing said challenge is often a different thing entirely.
Anyway I was off on day one half an hour early and in sunny
weather I fort a light wind all the way there. I arrived pretty much bang on
time although the last 50kms saw me hit the wall a bit due to the last food
premises on route having gone out of business the month before. A friend later
saw me cycling while he was driving back home in his car. “You looked like you
were making hard work of it Niel”.
“It’s called pacing myself for continuous effort while
carrying a load!”
Roadie’s aye.
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| Having the Bike was a bit of a Waste at this Point. |
Sticking my head out of the tent on day 2 and the weather
was not looking too flash. Gone was the sun and wind. This had been replaced by
a muggy, calm grey day. I grabbed a few filled rolls from the corner shop and
headed into the hills with all my gear. The first 3 hours were spent riding
along a rough 4 wheeled drive road as the weather deteriorated to heavy rain
and increasing mist, as my Mercian and I climbed further into the hills. This
was terrain that I had never been in before and I was relieved that not only
could I ride it but also that it was easily navigated. I wish I could have said
the same for the next 3 ½ hours that were spent hauling my bike along a
tramping track that was so slippery I could hardly stand up on it in the wet
weather and this combined with the fallen trees, awash river beds, slick tyres and
camping gear on the bike made for virtually 100% walking. I like to always look
on the bright side though and in this case ( since there was definitely nothing
bright about the weather) this being the fact that the trail was pretty easy to
follow and that the bike was holding together nicely , up until the point where
the rear bag support parted company from the bike proper. A good excuse for a
late lunch and a bit of Kiwi fix it saw things back to normal.
Then after what seemed like a full days biking or in the
case of roadies, a Grand Sportive, I was out of the bush and onto a forestry
road that would lead me out and back to civilisation. The problem here though
was that the track came out at a T intersection that was not on my map. One way
clearly lead out and back to a shower and evening meal while the other led most
definitely up onto a rain lashed range , down into the next valley and then
nowhere. Ah you ask, how could I know
where the wrong path led?
Well I’ll tell you.
I could only know because that is the way I went. Up onto
the range to what was an abandoned mine and then down the other side to a stack
of beehives only then to be confronted with a dead end. I had to at this point tell myself that this
is why I was reconnoitring the course ahead of time.
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| Waiutu was as Un- pleasant as it Looks. |
It was still raining when I arrived back in Reefton looking
so filthy that I had second thoughts about how to present myself to the
campground reception for check-in. The day’s course required me to go on
another 60kms and then freedom camp but sanity prevailed as freedom camping
while this filthy is just stupid. I made a mental note at this point to take
full length mudguards during the actual event if the weather looks shite. A clean
bike is a happy bike and clean camping gear works better in my book. I would
also have to say that South Island grit is particularly abrasive on bike parts
and bum cheeks. No amount of chamois crème will help if you have a teaspoon of
quartz dust missed up with it. Full mudguards if the weather looks bad.
After 70kms of cycling and another 20kms of hauling I was
back in my tent listening to the rain drumming on the nylon.
Day 3 caught me sticking my head once again out of the tent
and being welcomed by a sunny day with what looked like a light tail wind for
my 200km ride home. I started off quietly optimistic about the wind, pedalling
along with the constant grumble of an under oiled, overly gritty transmission and
the occasional complaint from my front wheel bearings.
(Second mental note; new transmission for the event and
grease and replace bearings. Take oil.)
The tail wind increased in strength throughout the day to
the point where not only did I get home well ahead of schedule but while doing
so the constant presence of lazy mindless motorists failed to raise my hackles
to any degree until near the end of the day when some silly biddy asked me if I
needed a lift because of the wind.
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| Day 3 was a Gift. |
I tried to explain to her that a potential problem with the
wind is really dependant upon which way you are cycling at the time and in this
case it was behind me. But really at the end of the day you are really wasting
your time trying to explain these things to motorists as they are a breed apart
and will never understand. You are best to keep the conversations short so that
they can speed on their way to their next fast food outlet appointment leaving
you in peace.
