top of page

JEREMY AND ERIC RIDE 
TOUR AOTEAROA*

*on Raleigh 20s.
A Raleigh Rally, if you will.

because why wouldn't you? New Zealand is so little and Raleigh 20's are known for their all terrain capability, their craftsmanship and their copious amount of luggage carrying capacity ..

Home: Welcome

ABOUT US

We’re two friends who have worked together and ridden mountain bikes together for a number of years.

Without any particular experience in endurance events or very much forethought, with a relaxed training regime and a lot of optimism, we’re riding the Tour Aotearoa on our Raleigh 20 bicycles.
But aren’t they kids bikes, you ask? Well, umm .. who knows, really. (We'll keep you posted ..!)

​Starting at Cape Reinga at 7am on 17 Feb, we aim to make our way 3000km all the way south to Bluff without breaking down emotionally, physically, or mechanically. (We're on the road now, you can track where we are here!)

We’re raising money for Christchurch City Mission, a charity that does incredible work for underprivileged people in Christchurch. If you’d like to support us and make our insanity worthwhile, please give generously to City Mission here.

Thanks to those who have helped make this possible- our families for tolerating our silliness, Bevan at Frontal Lobe for helping with set up, our employers for allowing us time off but who probably won’t miss us, and you, for reading this blog.

Home: About
Home: Instagram
Home: Blog2

Subscribe Form

Stay up to date

Home: Subscribe
Search

An Auspicious Beginning

Updated: Feb 27, 2020

DAY 1


Any hour of the morning with a number less than 6 is night time. Yesterday morning we arrived at the airport during the night. This morning we also got up in the night time, except we had a bit more to do than stumble into a car! We packed up, and headed off on a short 6km trip to be at the Cape Reinga start line for a 7am start. Except the 6km was mostly uphill. Running late (which I’ll admit was my fault), in the dark, hurrying uphill, on quite a warm Northland morning meant we were rather well 'warmed up' before we even started.


We resisted the urge to start first with ‘competitive’ riders, switched on the UE Boom speaker to a mellow playlist, and headed off down the road to ride 90 Mile beach to Ahipara.


The sand had its challenges. Jeremy hoped he was in for a quick $10 .. instead we got a demonstration of some of the disadvantages of small, heavily loaded wheels on loose sand:

(For the record, the fine print specified Jeremy pedalling all the way to my bike and the judge's decision was final.)




While we’d like you to believe we toiled the whole of 90 Mile Beach in conditions like this (what heroes!), today’s typical conditions were far more like this:

Cinematography credit to Daniel, what a multitasking legend.

Also, the third participant here is Toby - hi Toby!



The front wheel kicks up a little bit of sand, apparently. Guess which direction the wind was blowing?

Bed looks real good right now!

(And for the record, today was actually awesome.)



Todays vital stats:

Max speed: 77.4 kph

Dead whales: 1

Max temp: 27 degrees

Water drunk: 10.5 L (both of us)

Energy burned: 9,000 calories (both of us)

Distance covered: 104.9 km**

Average speed: 18.2 kph

Dead fish: 13

Seagulls: 849*


*these are estimates, and the true figures may be +/- many fish and seagulls - there just seemed like a lot more than I anticipated.


** plus another 6km, late, in the dark, uphill, without breakfast (not that I'm bitter about it).






585 views2 comments

Recent Posts

See All

2 Comments


diannebosnz
Feb 19, 2020

Well done Gents. We too are following you on your adventure. Looking forward to more updates. Keep up the good work,

Like

Callum Thwaites
Callum Thwaites
Feb 17, 2020

Well done all of you we followed your progress here in the office on the website but obviously we miss a lot of the detail. Happy not to experience dead whale in 27 degrees! but I'm sure Rexona are working on it. Great effort, enjoy a big breakfast and day 2.

Like
bottom of page