The first weekend of November provided a memorable 3 days of riding and social fun, with just over 60 OTB riders enjoying, what for most of us were previously untraveled roads.  Despite the predictions of weather bombs and torrential driving rain we enjoyed;

• A brilliant opportunity to sharpen our tan lines on the Friday afternoon
  • An tasty and very social evening meal with the locals (OTB really took over the watering hole)
• A fantastic Saturday journey in largely dry conditions, up the Whanganui river to Jerusalem, with a lunch that left a lot of us over-weight for the run back.
  • A lively evening meal, with an entertaining MC, fascinating guests and great sponsor support from KiwiVelo, Wgtn again!
• A challenging and blustery sunny Sunday ride through some terrific countryside

Obviously there are a lot of memories and stories packed into the 3 days, so just a couple of morsels to pick up on.

• Great to see so many 1^st time participants along (some who’ve been riding with OTB for years btw).
• Whanganui “legends” Graeme Cox and Gary Anderson were sensational and really added value to the evening, their participation is genuinely appreciated.
• OTT Award, male: Gregor Bruce – The K4 (twice round NZ’s toughest single day event)
• OTT Award, female: Janet Chilton – The Resurrection 1200 (km) in West Aust. over 86 hrs with 8 hrs sleep
• Andrew Elliston for the stolen (and returned, we hope) $2 Horse Poo sign
• The Group 4 scavenger hunt enthusiasm – really got into it and the human pyramid could have been entered in NZ’s Got Talent.
• Daryll and Shona turning up “unexpected” - Liz and Malcom wandering around in the early hours - Robin learning it’s harder than it looks and “KiwiVelo” Shane on the end of a hose washing 55 muddy rigs

Based on Strava data, uploaded and publish BEFORE the evening drinks & meal

• Queen of the ride: Juliette Lister, who took all 4 segments.
• King of the ride: Brendan McGrath, took 1^st in 3 of the 4 “mystery” segments (as a note Drew Blair won the 4^th).

We hope all that made it along; had fun, met a few new friends, learnt something about Whanganui, understood a little more about elite sports people and discovered something new about themselves.

Look forward to hopefully seeing you all on next years’ jaunt