GSB Day 1

All 39 brave breveteers congregated outside the Tekapo community hall for the briefing from Dave. Paul started to get a little anxious when he realized he was the only one with skinny tires. Plenty of CX and skinny tired bikes had completed the Kiwi Brevet but the GSB was different - for a start the KB has around 400km of tarseal for its 1100km length while the GSB has less than 150km for about the same overall distance (by my rough calculation). I noticed I was the only singlespeeder again. I had been very nervous about being the only one in the 2010 Kiwi Brevet but I was totally relaxed with my choice now.

Just after 11.00am we rolled out of Tekapo from the Church of the Good Sheppard onto a nice fast flat tarsal canal road. Immediately a big group got into peloton mode and powered off the front with me watching them disappear helplessly as I furiously spun my very low 34-22 gear. We turned off this smooth effortless road and abruptly everything changed. We rode the next few hours on the old Tekapo riverbed (masquerading as a track). It was the bumpiest flat track I have probably ever ridden. You had to take it at speed to get through the endless river boulders without stalling. The pounding was relentless. I passed many breveteers stopped on the side of the track resecuring their loads. Paul was one of these. I passed saying 'see you soon' as I expected him to catch me further up the road when things improved. I never saw him again.

I rode with many people during this section as we were still reasonably bunched up including Nick Kelly, Petit Brevet vet Graeme Noble and Kiwi Brevet vets Barryn Westfield and Trevor Woodward. I would see these last two many more times in the coming days.

All suffering comes to an end - and so it was when we eventually reached the Haldon Arm camp to be greeted with smooth gravel roads at last. My hands, wrists and bum had taken a real pummeling on my rigid bike and were quite sore - a real worry only a few hours in. The smooth gravel road turned into a gentle climb up a valley that progressively became less gentle until I was off my bike walking for the first of many hike-a-bikes to come. Once again I rode with many people including kiwi brevet vet Nathan Mawkes, Anja McDonald and Tristan Rawlence. The scenery was spectacular (a common theme throughout the GSB) and riding across the Benmore Dam was special.

I made it to the Otematata store 5 minutes before closing time to be greeted by a big crowd of breveteers all fueling up for what was looking like a very strong head wind grovel to Omarama 25 km away. We formed a peloton which I immediately dropped off unable to keep up. I passed Arran Pearson - the lone Aussie entrant - on the side of the road trying to stretch out severe leg cramps. This was turning into a tough first day. It was a long hard demoralizing slog into the howling headwind before I could finally sit down with relief for fish and chips at the Omarama pub.

There was still a few hours of daylight left and after an internal debate about whether I should stay in the relative comfort of the Omarama campground cabins with showers and real beds I decided to man up and bivy out at the base of the Omarama saddle 20 km away. It was a nice late evening ride in with Arran to be greeted at our camp area by Tristan and Anja setting up their tent - what luxury! Arran and I crawled into our bivy bags and a warm but restless night ensued watching clouds skud across the awesome starry sky above.