My First 100 Mile Ride - The Palm Springs Century

Well it’s been a month since I have been back in the States after a great trip back to the land of Marmite, Squiggles, Monteith’s, Mac’s, Hell’s Pizza and Meat Pies. Carrying on from that I have now well and truly worn off all them meat pies I had. Even Edan would agree. What have I been up too???

Well it started off pretty busy. In the days after I landed I moved into a new house with Derek now that Alex is in Alaska and lovin it from what I hear. The new place is great. A million times better than the old place and has such conveniences including a door opener and general fittings that actually work. Since then I have been trying to do as much riding as possible. I have not done as much as I wanted due to the bad weather. Yep it’s been real shitty here. I nearly got hypothermic a couple of weeks ago when I was MTBiking and got caught out in near freezing rain with a super chilled wind coming down from the Mountain Peaks. Even in Redlands itself we have had some pretty cold weather with a few heavy frosts. For those that don’t believe me are here is a picture. It’s hard to believe that in a couple of months there will be no rain for months and months and the temp will rarely have a max of lower than 30 degrees C. For weeks in a row it will hover around or above 40c.

So it was with a little trepidation that I did turned up with Derek to the Palm Springs Century Charity ride. (I had 3, 50 mile or less rides under my belt in the month since I was back on the road). There were 3 lengths available to ride. 100 miles, 55 miles and 30 miles. All up 9000 odd people participated. Anyhow this particular Saturday turned on the weather for once. Friday was shitty as was the Sunday and especially the Monday just gone. It was cold however. Probably about 5c degrees at the start but we soon warmed up. We started after the mass start so for the next 2-3 hrs we were passing a constant stream of people. It was kind of fun actually. Especially the punters who were riding some serious bling but going at a speed that I could have ridden a downhill bike at J. We saw tandems, triples, recumbents and even a tandem recumbent.

The first 50 miles of the ride was pretty intense. We pushed each other, well mostly Derek was pushing me slightly having the edge most of the time. I stuffed up and left all my electrolyte drinks at home on the counter. This meant that at 50 miles I was starting to cramp. The water only diluting the few salts left in my body. Luckily at one of the food stops I drunk heaps of very strong Gatorade and filled up my one bottle. After another 20 miles I started to come right which was just as well because the final 20 miles was fast. We were in a fast group with everyone pushing each other. It was painful but racing in a fast group was surprising enthralling. The one thing I struggle with is being super confident right on the wheel of another. I am learning but it requires lots of trust in strangers you have never met. When I hang off their wheels or miss the slipstreams though I really pay for it cause I spend so much more energy keeping up the pace. With MTBiking this is not an issue and team work is rarely needed so I am taking a while to cotton on.

Don’t worry MTB is still where it’s at fellows J

So in the end we finished together in the same fast group having done the 102 miles in 5hr 15mins ride time. So it was a 19.4mph or 31kph average which I am pretty happy with. It makes me feel better about the proper hard centuries we have lined up starting in April. Though these centuries have 3-4 times the amount of climbing. The first being the ‘Mulholland Challenge’. 110 miles, 12,500ft climbing and the fastest time ever is a bit over 6.5hrs. So I might be looking at a 8-9hr day in the saddle if I make it at all. Jeez…



One more observation from the Palm Spings ride. OMG tandems can be fast. At around the 35 mile mark a tandem was drafting me, they then passed me and I drafted them and Derek drafted me. To cut a long story short they kept upping the tempo. They keep pulling. In the end they were hitting 45+mph on the flat rolling terrain. We were well dropped, I got spun out (ran out of gears) and my legs wanted to separate from my hips. Insane. Derek hang on for another minute or so having a bigger gear than me then was also dropped. It was incredible. A guy and a girl. We can’t say how blown away we were. When they pulled out to pass if you were not right on their wheel you lost their slipstream and that was that. No getting back in behind after that. WOW.

Next race is the first of the Southern California State XC Series and maybe Super D (Not sure if I will do these or not yet). I was thinking it would be a nice intro to racing again as it’s a week before the Vision Quest on the 7th of March. This is the race I am really worried about. 60 miles of off-road riding, heaps of technical single-track and 12,000ft of climbing. However this first Cal State race is 27 miles (44km). 3 laps of a 9 mile course. No walk in the park especially cause the race categories have been changed this year. I am in Cat 1, one below the pros. The Semi-pro category is gone so now I will be racing against a bunch of semi-pros that did not want to have their arse handed to them in the Pro category. Yikes.

The only consolation to all this is that I am working on a new race bike. It’s pretty exciting so I can’t wait to have that up and running.

Anyhow until next time get out there and push some boundaries. It’s entirely satisfying in a painful why the hell am I doing this kinda way… ;-)
Kurt

P.S – One more thing. I did a Dirt Bike (Motocross) introductory course a few weeks back for 5hrs one night. All I can say is it was tones of fun. That the MTB skills really cross over and that after a couple of hrs I was really starting to tear it up. Oh and don’t ever let me buy one. If I do I will not be round much longer, or will end up as many Southern California dirt riders. In a wheel chair. .. It’s sad but true. The Pro running the course told me this and is the reason he doesn’t race anymore.

Home Sweet Home

For Xmas and New Years I headed back to NZ for the first significant time since I headed to Asia in November 2007. After 10 months working in the States it was nice and also really exciting to head back down-under, down-under. After 30hrs of travel from Redlands including some heavy traffic by LAX and via Fiji and Auckland I arrived at Nelson Airport at 5.40pm on Xmas day. Mum and Dad were there to greet me. They are the only family members who knew I was coming and when I got to Oma and Opa’s place they were very very surprised. Especially Lauren (Sis). Ha-ha I was so sure that she had a few ideas I was coming after almost being caught out when talking to Mum and Dad on numerous occasions the months before I was to arrive on skype.



So after having a good time in Nelson with the Family for 5 days including a day trip to Kaiteriteri and Marahau I headed back with the whanua downsouth and got dropped off in Christchurch while they continued down to Timaru. The drive was great and it had been a long time since I had driven the Kaikoura Coast. It is somewhat similar to the Coastline between LA and San Fran. The weather was great and the seals friendly. Well until I got within their big ‘personal bubbles’ that is. It was at this point they would bark at me like a blubberised retarded dog.

So New Years in Chch for the first time in ages. Bridget and I did the whole Strip thing for dinner then hung out in the new ‘Sol Square’. A very cool spot indeed. Well impressed. A couple of bands, great weather and flavored Sake to say the least in some Japanese bar we got stuck in.

Next up was the part of the trip I was looking most forward too. An 8 day road trip round the SI. Bridget and I headed off over Porters pass wishing we had lights to head through Cave Stream. It really is a stunning area, then we had lunch at the Bealy Pub. Sure brought back memories from the many tramping trips which passed through the pub on most occasions when I was at Uni. Good memories. Over Arthur’s down the West Coast to Franz for a couple of nights. The West Coast is stunning. One very good location though we had rain while kayaking there is Okarito Bay. A place I have always wanted to go. And yip we saw a number of White Herons. Lovely birds and the view from a kayak is the best way to check them out.



After a few days here it was through to Wanaka for a night before heading onto Queenstown. One thing I knew but really struck me on this trip was how diverse NZ is. Also how lovely the place really is. It sounds soppy but I guess you realize these things when you are away in the big wide world. That morning we were gazing at a glacier just 300m above sea level in the rain and mist. An hour later we are driving through the likes of Bruce Bay and the rest of South Westland. One of the wettest places on earth. Up over the Hasst Pass and all its waterfalls and then down towards Lake Wanaka and Hawea. Here the climate, scenery and vegetation is stark by contrast. The lakes are turquoise blue and the sheep numerous, not to mention the vineyards and orchards. All this in a day. It really puts it into perspective when you can drive for a day solid in the States and see little change.

Don’t get me wrong the States has some very cool places, many which I have yet to get to, but what I noticed back home is the closeness and proximately of ecosystems and also that none of the scenery is boring. It’s always changing. Oh and the best thing after living in SoCal is it feels like NZ is empty. Geez to think I use to moan about the traffic in Chch. Haha – Its funny to think about it. I saw in the 2hr drive from LAX back to Redlands more cars than I had in the whole trip to NZ combined. Probably many many more infact.

Anyhow we stayed in Queenstown in a great hotel room with a view of the Lake for cheap thanks to Gemma (cousin) working there. Qtown is a great spot and we checked out the view from Qtown hill amongst other spots. Also went River Boarding. Basically it was a 5km stretch of the Kawarau river of numerous Grade 3 rapids. Snds easy. Man it was hard work. Just yourself, fins and a body board. My ankle really got a beating. A highlight was certainly the water slide at the end of the trip that spat you out into the fast flowing gorge. Lucky there was a jet ski to pick you up. Bridge found this scarier than rafting the mighty Zambezi and that was Graded 5+. There is some comfort to having a big rubber thing filled with air to sit in.

After heaps of good food in Queenstown. Man don’t ever let me get the fudge from the ‘Remarkable Sweet Shop’ again not to mention the pies from the Arrowtown bakery. Dam they tasted so good. I should really start a pie shop over here. Minted Lamb and Steak, Bacon and Cheese :-), we headed over Lindis Pass not without stopping in Cromwell to get a real fruit ice-cream. Something I have always done when passing through Cromwell. We drove to Lake Ohau and had a lovely dinner at the Ski Lodge overlooking the lake. The dinner was lamb which made sense after earlier that day having to shoo them off the road when driving up to the head of the Huxley Valley. For hours we keep an eye on the storms brewing at the head of the valley toward Mt Cook Nat Park.

Blue Lake at Mt Cook Nat park was the last stop of the trip before heading back to Timaru. Wow I can’t believe it’s taken me that long to see it. Huge iceburgs had carved off the Tasman glacier. Just how big??? Well in the pictures look out for the boats carrying 15 odd tourists to give them a close up view of the burgs. That really gave the burgs, lake and mtns a huge sense of scale. You feel real small in these locations. Well worth a visit by everyone.

The rest of my time in NZ consisted of time with family in Timaru and a couple of days in Welly catching up with mates. Including an evening at the Syn Bar and the great Hell’s pizza. Oh and Monteiths. Yet another thing I was greatly missing from NZ.



The trip through Fiji back to LA took forever with a 7hr layover. We could not really leave the area either due to the floods so the resort over the road from the airport had to suffice for a few ‘Fiji’ beers. From the plane I could see numerous flooded houses, agricultural lands and roads. Looked pretty devastating.



All up a great trip. It has given me lots to think about but I gotta say NZ is a great spot to have a passport from :-)