Yeah! I finally managed to sort my pictures from the last bike trip down south over Easter. And ordered a new helmet and more importantly a copy of the Rainbow Rage DVD, which features the only German mountain-bike rider ever (me) been broadcasted on SKY. Now I can rest in peace after my TV appearance in the Southern hemisphere, following some minutes of fame in German television already. Not really the proper 15 min of fame, but at least it's a good start. 5:36 isn't too bad for the first time either, considering I was #18 in my group and #223 overall. And Karapoti wasn't exactly the right sort of training for that, next time I cycle long distances beforehand instead of granny gear climbs. The Rage was just the very first day to get the party started for more than a week, back on the good ol
d Cube. Overall I loved the Rainbow Rage, absolutely wonderful weather made it even nicer. Out of the three crossings of that track, I loved racing it most. And my Cube so much deserved at least one decent race, after it was too worn out last year to race it. Even tough I couldn't feel my hands on the last 40 km's down to Hamner, racing down Jack's Pass is a must for all serious bikers in New Zealand, being greeted by a lovely crowd that cheered me the last meters over the finish line. The coolest thing was that Mike Gane, the ride disorganiser in his words, shakes everybody's hands personally after the demanding 105 km's, respect for that.
So after a long day I decided to play around in the Hamner Forest with my hardtail, scaring Neil from Krank a bit with my much better condition compared to Xmas. We had loads of fun gunning up the tracks and gunning down as well, especially down Big Foot (o:
Monday I decided to start some serious biking again and gave the Molesworth a second try, after the little disaster on the trip with Jan. This time with two spare tubes, a spare tyre, enough food to survive another breakdown, enough tape and, most important, a tent. After I already cycled down Jack's Pass three times, I took the steeper route over Jollie's, which was a killer. The remainder of the day I made it to Acheron Homestead first, and then almost struggled to arrive on time at Molesworth Homestead. The nice DOC ranger was already on the track to pick me up, but fortunately I was just a few strokes away from the camp. A really but rewarding day! the Molesworth is one of the most beautiful bike trails on the South Island, beautifully remote, but nothing for normal tourers. I ate a lot of dirt that day, drank 7 liters of water and had a lot OSM's to eat, and was happy that we didn't made it up there the first time. It would have been a disaster to cycle that one only with backpacks, some angel from heaven must have known this last time and stopped us by bursting my tire. This time with panniers it was still demanding, but more enjoyable. After camping the second day was great as well, passing Upcot Saddle as the main obstacle and cycling a very undulating dirt road down towards Blenheim, The camp at Blairich was great, such a remote place (and free) deserved a second night staying there. Overall it was one of the best rides I had, the beautiful weather contributed wonderfully to that.
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