The Dannevirke Enduro

12 October 1997

by Jason Kelly
 

"Hey Jason, are you going to do the 220km Dannevirke to Hastings and return ride?" asked Shaun.

"You have got to be kidding! Starting at 2 o'clock in the morning and riding in the dark for that distance is just plain crazy!", I replied.

Well, just a few very short weeks and about six rides together later, Shaun and I found ourselves at the start line in Dannevirke at 1.30am for briefing. Crazy we must be. I had never ridden more than 160km and certainly never biked at 2am before! And of course, it was a "fun ride".

It was a clear, mild morning with a strong and gusty south westerly wind. The field was small and we had the only tandem. Various lighting options were being used. Rod, from Hastings Cycles, had very generously lent us a halogen headlight which is absolutely brilliant (and essential for such a ride).

The course was very simple - from Dannevirke, head north straight up the main highway to Paki Paki, turn left and then continue on to the Stortford Lodge roundabout, turn around and go back the same way you came. Official distance is 220km.

At just after 2am, we rolled out from the start line. We started at the back of the field but within about 500m of the start, with the wind at our backs, we had all but completed what I call "the Lynx move" i.e. we go faster and faster and all the other riders fall off the back or just hang in for the tow. As I discovered later, one rider did just hang in but was dropped around Norsewood as we put the power on down a hill and he missed half a beat by leaning down to grab a drink! From this time to the finish, we never saw any of the other riders except when we passed them on the return journey.

A possum was so attracted to the headlight that it almost became road kill to the tandem. It must have a shorter tail at least after its efforts. After about 1hr 45m, we stopped briefly for a comfort stop. Riding through Waipukarau was the first time we could see the speedo and we were pushing around 43km/h comfortably past the aerodrome. Shortly past this, there was a total lack of wind.

Heading past Te Aute and Te Hauke to Paki Paki, we encountered some small patches of radiation fog. I had considered the possibilities of a cold night, rain and snow but fog had never crossed my mind. Heavy fog would make biking with spectacles very difficult as they would completely fog up, reducing visibility to nil. Thankfully, thick fog did not eventuate.

We continued on and reached the turnaround point of the Stortford Lodge roundabout in an official time of 2hrs 42m 57s. A stop of two or three minutes to stretch, eat and drink was taken just after this point. Once we started again, our main thoughts were on where the rest of the riders were. As it turned out, the next group was already 25 minutes behind us.

Once back onto the main highway, there were still some 90 odd kilometres to go. Riding up the Te Aute hill was the only time we used the small chain ring in the entire ride. Around 5.30am, the birds were already singing and the first wisps of light began to appear in the eastern sky. By 6am, the sun had yet to rise but it was already light. Shortly afterwards, the first rays of sun crossed the road and we had just biked through a sunrise!

Our pace had slowed a little and we stopped outside the Waipukarau aerodrome. The total time was approximately 4hrs 15m so far and the road sign said there were 54km to go. The other riders, working as a group, could have conceivably made up time on us, so we decided to try and push on. Just out of Waipukarau, the south westerly returned and our pace slowed - first down to 35km/h, then to 30km, then as we got more exposed on the Takapau Plains and turned even more into the wind, down to a crawl of about 22km/h. Long, straight and slightly uphill sloping roads do nothing positive for your morale after you have already biked for over four and a half hours and realise that at this pace, you could easily have another two and a half to go!

We finally crawled off the end of the Takapau Plains and were very happy to see the hills as these gave some protection and variety from the wind and monotony of the Plains. By this time, Shaun was convinced that the pursuing riders would have made large inroads on our lead. Given our average speed for the previous hour, I had to agree!

Riding on, we climbed the hills fairly efficiently and made good use of the momentum gained on the downhills. Finally, the last hill into Dannevirke was just in front of us. We climbed this and rode down the main street of Dannevirke, still into wind, at over 40km/h to cross the finish line just after 8.16am in an official time of 6hrs 16m 28s. Not a bad mornings work!

Waiting at the finish line for the next rider, we waited, waited some more and then the organiser said we might as well go and have a shower and breakfast before coming back. He had driven to Hastings to record the times at the turn around and, on the way back, said we were at about Takapau when the next group was at Waipawa! As it turned out, the second rider finished 1hr 2m 16s after us. I think the tandem is a very efficient machine!

We could not have done the ride without the support of my brother Patrick and his wife Pauleen and we record our thanks to them for being the support crew and following us for the entire ride. It must be hard keeping the van at 22km/h!

The first five places in the official results are:

                                                                                                Hastings           Total
Jason Kelly & Shaun Batty (tandem)                                      2:42:57            6:16:28
Bill Armstrong                                                                        3:07:58             7:18:44
Marty Baldwin                                                                        3:07:58             7:26:29
Ken Hardie                                                                             3:07:58              7:26:29
Warren Nation                                                                      3:24:48             7:26:29           

We got the bike home and as we took it out of the van, discovered that the back tyre had punctured! This was certainly the best place to get a puncture as there had been nightmares of changing tyres and tubes at 3am on the side of a dark and cold road! Thankfully, they had not eventuated. The ride was complete and we had won. Our "crazy" effort had paid off.

Despite the distance being just a warmup for professional riders, I certainly slept well that night!