This year 'The Pioneer' a mountain bike stage race was run for the first time through the southern alps. The map below provides a rough outline of the course.
569 kms with 15272 meters of climbing over 7 days sounded like a good idea to me, a holiday even, but I needed a team mate as this event is a pairs race. After a tarbabies ride one Sunday I mentioned this event to Steve Strain and he said he was keen too. This was a bit of a leap of faith for both of us as we really didn't know each other. All I knew of Steve was that he was pretty handy on the hills, but I didn't really even know if he mountain biked. Luckily Steve is also pretty handy on the mountain bike and it is just as well because some of the pioneer climbs and descents are pretty technical.
A few photos below describe the event better than my waffle...Here we are as the dynamic duo at the event registration in Christchurch. We raced as team 'Onslow Tarbabies', in the 40+ category, sadly for Steve I dragged him down to this category by 1 year. We finished 12th in the 40+, but would have been 2nd in the 50+ ... next time!
The first day was a prologue race on the port hills to determine team seeding. We ended up in group 2, luckily not in group 1 with the pros.
The race proper started in Geraldine. Each night a race village was set up to provide all services, tents, cafeteria, massage, bike wash, bike mechanics, toilets, hot showers, phone charging station, food vendors etc
Each rider has their own tent for the event, and a bag which is transported to each new camp every day. Perhaps the most impressive part of the whole event was the organisation, event crew, and volunteers. For a first time event they really nailed it. My tent is the orange one.
The Snow Farm was one of the most impressive places for a tent village
Each day we raced between 65 and 120 kms, with the longest day of 120k having 3500 meters of climbing, which kept Steve happy. Every 40kms there was an aid station with food, fluid, and a bike mechanic.
After each days riding, we cleaned and racked our bikes in secure storage areas. Both Steve and I have 29er full suspension race bikes, which proved perfect for this event.
Every morning and evening we were fed with great meals.
The course was simply stunning, and designed to be epic in content incorporating, single track, farm racks, gravel roads, and mountain passes.
Here is Steve on the Ben Ohau range at around 1500 meters.
We climbed a lot of hills
The 'team' aspect is quite interesting. You need a team mate who is not only relatively similar in ability with climbing but can cope on fast technical descents. But probably the most important attribute is pairing up with someone you get on with as you will be spending a lot of time together. Here is Steve and I after another long day.
The photographers did an amazing job in some pretty isolated and harsh conditions, and we were lucky with the weather through the week, although the 35 degree days tested your ability to carry enough fluid.
What an amazing country we live in
130 teams competed in the 7 day epic event, which is impressive for a first time event. 25% percent of the teams are from overseas and I would expect more next year as the word gets out.
http://thepioneer.co.nz/
http://thepioneer.co.nz/
If any of you might be interested in the event (which also has a 3 day option) for next February I strongly encourage you to think about it. Steve and I are happy to help out with advice on suitable bikes, training, diet, logistics etc.
Thanks for reading
Graeme