Summer Solstice 2010

On the longest day of the year, I decided to join with several other riders across New Zealand and embark on an all day ride. Tama chose to couple his ride with a fund raising effort for Arthritis New Zealand, and those efforts are ongoing at the donation page. I had a small hitch... well two small hitches; Oliver and Ella. I had to drop them off at childcare in the morning before I could start riding, so I wouldn't be starting at sunrise like most other participants. Andrew had kindly reshuffled his working day to pick them up in the evening, so I had a clear diary through to sunset and beyond, if needed.

Ready to go.

I got underway at about 8:45am. I had a route planned, a good stash of food and water, but no company. I was going solo. My prospective riding partners were otherwise occupied with work or kids. I could have sent out a public invite, but I had reservations about my lack of speed and willingness to ride all day with a stranger. I cruised away from home and headed west for Pukete MTB park. I took a diversion through the gully system, following the shared use paths and almost collided with a jogger. Whoops.

Start fresh.

Despite the overcast and humid conditions, the sun was powerfully hot and made the air feel like an uncomfortable clammy cloak, clinging to my skin. I really enjoyed the blast through the Pukete MTB Park, and was tempted to do an extra half lap. I think I was just trying to delay the upcoming lengthy road section. I crossed over SH1 and headed further west towards Te Kowhai, turning south on SH39 to stop in Whatawhata. That was quite a busy bit of road - plenty of large trucks, tractors, bailers, construction traffic. Most were courteous and when I thought "ooh, that was quite close", I started to study the position of the vehicles in the traffic lane as they passed me. Most were just on, or just over, the centreline. For a truck that is 2.5m wide and a traffic lane that is 3.5m wide, that was giving 1.0m clearance between the edgeline and the vehicle. Considering that I was riding on the shoulder (to the left of the edgeline), I figured most vehicles were giving me 1-1.5m of space. It just feels closer because of the tall sides on the trucks, their length, and the big gust of wind that comes with them. I digress...

I stopped at Whatawhata and peered into the darkness inside the Tavern. I would be back here later on and wondered about stopping in for a feed. The darkness did not look at all inviting. I called into the service station and grabbed a bag of chips (for the salt content, honest!), a picnic bar, and a big bottle of sports drink. I was already hot, sweaty, dirty, and a bit tired, and had only travelled 25km. With over 60km ahead of me before I'd be back to civilisation (does Whatawhata qualify as civilisation??) and food/drink, I was not sure how the rest of my day would pan out. Not to mention that those 60km would contain some of the biggest hills, no THE biggest hills I had ridden all year. And I hadn't ridden much in the 8 weeks prior... okay let's just say that by this stage I had doubts.

Heading for the hills.

I had a good stash of One Square Meal bars, some jelly snakes, a couple of Red Bull shots, an energy bar, and 3 litres of drink with me so I figured that I should be fine with that. Pushing on, along SH23 over the Waipa River and onto Te Pahu Road. It was nice to get onto a quiet country road and away from the traffic. Then I hit the rural traffic; two utes, a quad bike, three dogs, and a herd of calves trotting down the road on their way to who knows where. I said "gidday" as I rolled along with the calves and past the farmer on the quad bike.

The fun starts just around the corner.

Next up: Raglan Deviation. I turned onto Old Mountain Road and rolled somewhat effortlessly over the chip sealed surface on the first few rollers. Gravel, hills, and a wicked decent lay ahead. I'm glad I knew there was a massive downhill to come, otherwise I would have hated every inch of every climb. As soon as the chip seal ran out, the grade tipped upwards, I clicked downwards, and was straight into granny gear. I spun along for a short distance, but soon ran out of strength and was resigned to walking. The first couple of hills on Old Mountain Road are the steepest and I had anticipated a 'strategic walk' would be in order anyway, in an effort to save my legs for later in the day. The walking was quite difficult in my stiff soled mountain bike shoes and with loose gravel underfoot. I plodded on.

Up, up, and away?

At the top of the Deviation the wind meant I could hear a farmer and his dogs rounding up stock on a ridge far away, yet I could barely see them. As I was about to remount and set off for my well-earned downhill, I decided this was my best opportunity for a pit stop. I ducked behind the fence and found a good spot in the lee of the gorse, out of the wind. I had a great view down a valley along the Karamu Walkway - luckily there were no walkers out today! As I climbed back over the stile to rejoin my bike, I realised the farmer and his helper were riding their quad bikes up to the fence across the road. Wow, that was fast! Having retained my dignity, I said "gidday" and we had a brief chat about where I'd come from and where I was going. The farmer thought it sounded like a pretty good loop and remarked, "that must be about, oh, 60 kays?" I smiled and said, "yep, at least that. Hopefully I'll click over 100 kays before I get back home". We bid each other farewell and I got my steez on for the downhill.

I had to exercise a reasonable degree of caution on the downhill. The wheel tracks were quite worn and the gravel was well packed, but switching between wheel tracks to avoid going onto the wrong side of the narrow road on a blind corner meant I really had to think about my timing and unweight the bike to get it to float over the loose stuff. Some of the corners where pretty chopped up too. The road was pretty narrow in places, about 1.5 lanes wide. Enough width for two vehicles to pass each other slowly (each with two wheels in the grass), but I have known people to use this stretch of road for a bit of unofficial rallying practice. I did not want to come around the corner to find the grille of a car sliding towards me on an oblique angle!

The tank stops here.

I stopped off at the tank trap for a photo op. The tank trap is from WW2, built by the NZ Army I guess. No info signage was up when I passed through, but I have seen signs in other photos of the site. Apparently steel beams were slid down into the slots to effectively 'close' the road. I'm pretty sure if I was driving a tank and came across this structure, it would have been the highlight of my day to have carved a new track through/under/over/around it.

I had wanted to stop quite a bit along the way for photos, to soak in the scenery, and explore a bit more, but felt as though my progress was a bit too slow and that I really should keep moving to make it to my rest stop by mid day. Besides that, visibility was pretty limited beyond a few kilometres, so I didn't bother using the old Olympus Trip 35 film camera I had packed in my bag.

It was so hot and humid, moisture beaded on my sunblock coated skin, but the rain just would not come.

Don't worry, it;s just temporary.

The downhill and the rest of Old Mountain Road through to Waitetuna Valley Road was fantastic. I was pleased to finally get a grin on and bust out a few lines of song to celebrate. I had to deal with a short section of sealed road then got back onto some gravel and the familiar and heart warming sound of stones crunching under my tyres.

Spot the wind sticks.

After catching a glimpse of Te Uku wind farm, things got a bit fuzzy. I was well knackered. My legs were like noodles on anything resembling a hill, so the steep ones were walked. It rained, finally. The cows in the paddock stared at me in disbelief. I said, "I know, stupid aye?"

Moo?

Distances seemed longer, time seemed slower, and at one stage I thought I was heading up a no exit road. I consulted my cue sheet, and my Topo50 map which assured me I was right and the signpost was wrong. I continued on. And on, and up. And on. Bloody hell! Mid day rolled around and I figured I had 10km to ride before I would reach my rest stop.

Looking down on Kaniwhaniwha Stream rest stop.

I finally got on to Limeworks Loop Road. The light at the end of the tunnel, and the road that would take me to my rest stop. I was tired (very) and hungry (very). The weather was crap. It had completely closed in, the rain was consistent. I parked up under a tree for shelter and devoured a significant portion of my supplies. It was a reward for making it this far. Picnic bar, banana, energy drink, OSM, jelly snakes. Yum. It really hit the spot, but could not do much to replenish my legs. I got a bit cold sitting still, so put my jacket on. It was one o'clock and I had been riding for four and a quarter hours to get here - a distance of approximately 55km. It felt completely pitiful that all that effort and struggle had only amounted to those small numbers. Five, five. Fifty-five.

Shelter

The Nikau Walk started from my rest spot and travelled south into the Pirongia Forest Park. It was about a 2 hour return tip for a walker, so I had figured it would add about an hour to my riding time. The attraction was the Kaniwhaniwha caves, a couple of short caves requiring a bit of a crawl to get through. It was an easy decision not to do this section - my legs had limited "go" left in them and I didn't want to empty the tank before I got back inside the city boundary; the weather was miserable; and I was on my own.

I got underway a little stiffly and climbed over the hill towards Te Pahu Road. I was amused to discover the Toothbrush Fence - I had totally forgotten about its existence. Another excellent excuse for a stop!

Toothbrush Fence.

It's important to keep your toothbrushes organised.

Toothbrush Fence inspired art.

Bike + Toothbrush Fence.

Finally I felt like I was on the home straight, I turned north and then ducked off down a side road to avoid the traffic a little longer. The diversion took me back onto the gravel and onto one last nasty hill. I'd hoped for a good vista at the top, but there was not a lot to see up there. This is around the time I started to feel like my tank was on empty. My morale was at its lowest and I really felt the absence of a riding buddy. Its better if you don't have to suffer alone.

Stops became quite frequent during the two hours between the Toothbrush Fence and Whatawhata. That's only 20km, so I either stopped a lot, or rode really slowly... probably both! My knees were uncomfortably sore, so despite the warm weather I donned my knee warmers. That was instant relief and I realised I should have covered them up when I first started feeling cold. I crawled into Whatawhata, dreading the Tavern and wondering whether I could make it back to Hamilton without refuelling. Then I noticed a flag with C-A-F-E spelled out in big letters. Whew! It was a nice little garden nursery cafe, very small and quiet. I parked my bike, took my wet and dirty shoes off, ordered a hot chocolate and a croissant, and found a comfy chair at an outdoor table. The moment I sat down I knew it was the right place to be. My legs felt so light and a wave of relief washed over me. The resident friendly collie came over and let me rub his ears to help perk me up.

Friendly collie.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, I kitted up and headed back onto the road towards home. I was most grateful for my big tyres on this stretch of the ride - I could happily ride over the stones, twigs, rubbish, and other detritus on the shoulder, and keep well clear of the traffic whizzing by. I had borrowed a hi-vis vest to wrap around my backpack to increase my presence on the road.

A pedestrian/cyclist roundabout inside a vehicular roundabout.

My planned route would take me into Hamilton, right to the heart of the city and then back north towards home along the river path. At this stage of the day I no longer cared for the twisty, windy and undulating river path and decided to cut straight across the city to the refuge of a hot shower. I was quite dejected to discover my speedo was not going to click over 100km before I got home, I took the long way home and rode around the block twice, thinking "that will do it", but as I rolled in the driveway and looked down again, I realised I had fallen short - just. I contemplated doing circles in the driveway until the desired numerals appeared, but then realised it would be a hollow victory and accepted what I had done was all I could do.

Home. Done.

I stumbled in the front door at 5:35pm and was greeted by cheers from Oliver and Ella. It was wonderful to see them and felt good to arrive home to such a positive environment. I had completed 99.86km in almost 9 hours. I had ridden (or was moving) for 6 hours and 35 minutes, stopping for a total time of about 2 hours 20 minutes. The average speed of my ride was a low 15.1km/hr, with a maximum speed of 56.2km/h (on gravel). Fun times.

Almost!

Let us give thanks:

- to Tama for coming up with such a fantastic idea. Next time I hope to be able to see the sun come up and go down, and to share in those moments with one or more friends.

- to Andrew for reorganising his day to finish work early and pick up the kids (and do the dinner, bath, bed routine on his own). I really can't do it without you!

- to Matt Keen at Velo Espresso for dialling in my ride. It was my first ride on gears in about 4 years, and the first real outing for my Shimano Alfine 11 speed Internally Geared Hub. What a mouthful! Some call them IGHs, I call mine Alfie. I wouldn't have even contemplated this ride without gears, and it was Matt who managed to get it all running smoothly.

- to my friends and family for their messages of support and encouragement, and for listening to me talk at length when all they asked was "how did it go?"

Thanks.