NZ Challenge Day Three: Franz Josef to Haast

Day Three
Franz Josef to Haast
145km | 1500 climbing meters

In some ways today's ride was uneventful. Not overly hard, but the accumulated strain is still taking its toll. Over the past three days we have covered 532km at 177km per day, with around 5300 climbing meters. Some of the riders have injuries that have come about through lack of prior training (Paul T, Ben, Dan L and little Hedge) and they are just trying to manage them or cling on to the pack! That?s a lesson right there in prior preparation! Others (Marty) somehow did not train, wear army boots (seriously), and yet finish the day still looking fresh! He chose to take a bet that if he wore his army boots for the 1000km he would bank $550 for the cause! Nuts, but he seems to pull it off well.

The start of the day had the riders trying to get over three smallish peaks out of Franz Josef to Fox Glacier. In Fox we picked up a German cyclist Veit, (pronounced Fight!) who was hoping to make Haast - still 125km away. He was carrying 30kg in his pannier bags (he was 65kg at best), but managed to stick with the team. Though, after pushing so hard to keep up he cramped servery. Sophie sorted his cramps out (which was very amusing) and helped to get him back on his bike. So Veit if you are reading this blog you need to make a donation for our services! A big one.

So we are all traveling well enough. Our support crew are doing an excellent job and a massive thank you to our cooks who have been cooking up some amazingly good dishes over the last few days. We have a long way to go and some pretty awesome towns still to come. To get there won?t be easy but everyone is doing their best whether they are riding or supporting.

Reid