Looks like a stalemate at the pointy end of the Tour Te Waipounamu. On the first night local, Hooch, had 4.5 hours sleep while TDV record holder, Justinas Leveika only had 2.5. Justinas lost a lot of time the next day in the Hope Kiwi track. It’s a real mind fuck. On paper it looks flat and straight-forward. In reality its a hiking track with roots and tree-fall every 100-200 metres. Plus it was wet. This is the first TTW with a bit of wet weather. Justinas girlfriend Sami Sauri, pulled out yesterday. The top kiwi girl Emma Bateup had already dnfed with concussion from a surfing accident coming back to mess her up. Rufus is out. Doing it twice is a big ask. It just gets more competitive each year so you are not going to get a better placing, and with crap weather you will not get a better time. Knowing what is coming up can be a real disadvantage, if youve been there before. There have been a lot of dnfs. Not common in this event as participation is strictly vetted. It was opened up to 80 riders this year. There seems to be a few peoples AXS shitting the bed with the wet weather. Hooch and Justinas rolled into Te Anau this morning too early to catch the shops. It will be a while before they can get food. Its going to be interesting to see who makes the winning move. Still some gnarly country to go yet. Singlespeed dude in 5th. If it’s that steep you will be walking anyway.
EDIT: Sami Sauri reportedly had a very hard night spending 8 hours crossing the Dampier, injuring her foot in the process and was heard to say “Silk Road has nothing on this.”
I appreciate these updates! I’m not following it or anything, but it is interesting to me as well as your local knowledge of the area.
Rufus is out. Doing it twice is a big ask. It just gets more competitive each year so you are not going to get a better placing, and with crap weather you will not get a better time. Knowing what is coming up can be a real disadvantage, if youve been there before.
In what way is knowing what’s coming up a disadvantage?
I would think it is an advantage, unless you mean that psychologically it’s nicer to not know about the toughness ahead as it lets you focus on the present and not dwell on tomorrow?
Yes, 100%. That’s why I would never do it again. Going in blind, and no-one had actually done it before when I did the first one, so it really was blind. Since then there has been blogs and podcasts, but when you know how hard it was the first time, and you are feeling fucked, and you KNOW what is coming up, that’s not a good place to be in your head. I actually said this to Rufus in a chat before the event. He’s an intelligent guy. If I was intelligent I would have pulled out at Methven when my feet went AWOL, but I was more scared of being a quitter than I was of being sensible. It takes a particular mindset.
A couple of the fast guys (Angus Young) have self DQed now because their electrics got wet. They didnt know exactly where they were, and stopped to sleep in a private farm area where they weren’t allowed. My guess is touch screen garmins and AXS are not big winners in wet conditions. Hooch got the drop on Justinas before Otematata. Wondering what happened if its lecky shifters or what. He seemed to lose about an hour.
Sad day yesterday. Justinas wrecked his tire and had to hitch a ride to Twizel where he was very lucky to find a new tire. I was really looking forward to seeing who cracked first. Their lead was so big that Justinas is still in 2nd place after this diversion
Basically, if you want the good oil. Check out Justinas IG stories. You get a really good feel for what it was like out there. It’s a real shame but it appears that he wrecked his tire, then his one tube and was very lucky to do so close to a road where he could hitch to a town where there must have been a cycle tour company. He was able to buy 2 new tires and rejoin the course. His and Hooches lead was so big that he retained 2nd spot til the end. Sounds like he cheaped out and tried to do the event on worn tires. But frankly, anyone who rides with one spare tube and no puncture kit is taking a bit of a risk.
There has been some incredible photography on IG from different people this year.
This was written by Eileen, a neighbour. Her husband Andy was 5th last year I think. He makes the Wayward Rider rear bag thingo that a few of the top guys were using.
That is a wild take. If I’m out for one night I can get by on 3 joints, a tarp, and a change of underwear. For anything over 24 hours I want as many luxuries from home as I can carry.
feels like some sort of bell curve meme at work here
overnighter → yolo, whatever
a few nights where you might at one or more points end up a multi-day hike from civilization → kitchen sink so a fun trip doesn’t turn into a nightmare if things go wrong
extended tour → start lightweighting so the bike isn’t awful to ride
Something unique to the Tour Te Waipounamu is the ICU at Slope Point. Free beer, icecream, food etc. And tall tales. I think its free. Not sure who pays. The race itself is free.
This guy was DQed from sleeping on private land, but he was allowed to continue. Hes taken some great footage. Note hes running a Madrone dangler. Hard to brick an analog dangler. https://www.instagram.com/whatswrongwithpaez
You got it : ) everyone said I looked like I had been doing chemo when I finished. They didnt have it then, the ICU. Its part of the culture of it now. Most of these events you finish tired and alone, a massive anticlimax. A lot of folks just hang around at Slope point because the only people that can really understand what they have just done are the other competitors I guess.
It’s almost like these folks took the “suffering” portion of the late aughts rapha copy and built from there. Like do we need another orthodox catholic style self flagellation hobby?
The only reason the event can happen is that the organizer has managed to get permission from farmers to have access through their land. The whole event relies on the good nature of the farmers. If one farmer gets pissed off it can’t happen.
