Newsletter – Spring 2015 | Kiwi Randonneurs

Our Randonneuring year didn't stop with Paris-Brest-Paris with brevets in the Waikato, West Coast, Cormandel and the Manawatu rounding out our year.

Our apologies for not having a newsletter out sooner, but I can assure that the machinery of Kiwi Randonneurs has been hard at work. It has been a busy time at Kiwi Randonneurs HQ organising the 2016 ride calendar and getting your brevet cards and shiny medals sorted and into the post.

Randonneuring continues on a rapid growth curve, as can see in this "Hockey Stick" shaped graph.

Total Randonneuring Kilometres ridden in New Zealand 2007-2015

Ride Calendar 2016

Our extensive ride schedule for 2016 was published a few weeks ago. A huge thanks to the ride organisers who have volunteered to help us all find more adventures on our bikes in 2016.

Gravel Rules?

Does Gravel Rule? Well Andrew Kerr definitely thinks so. Starting with 2016 we are now offering Ride Organisers the choice of running gravel rides under either the traditional BRM or our own Gravel Brevet rules. Rides under our own rules allow more relaxed time-limits that are more suitable for rough surfaces and give additional choices to Ride Organisers for the accepted methods of confirming the passage of riders through controls.

We expect that flat gravel rides such as the Hauraki Trail will continue to operate under BRM, and that these new rules will be used by Ride Organisers to introduce us to new places in more rugged terrain.

Membership 2016

2016 Membership subscriptions will be available from our website from 1 November. Be sure to sign up at https://www.kiwirandonneurs.org.nz/events/categories/membership.

As with 2015, all we're asking for is $18 and a Cycling New Zealand license. This offer comes with your first four rides randonneuring rides free (via $10 coupons for signing up through our website). Riders who ride more than four events pay the same $10 nominal fee per ride to contribute to the running and enhancement of the club.

Call for Volunteers

As per the graph above, due to the increased activity in the club we're looking for a few more warm bodies to help out with our ongoing operations and promotional activities. There are plenty of ways that you can add value to the club.

We're hoping to have several people help out for a small time commitment each. After all, we do all like to spend time riding our bicycles. I am sure that some of you would even find some of these items fun.

Editor/Communications
- We're looking for someone to help write and maintain content on our website and social media channels. Ideally you know a little html, and are a well understood written communicator that is able to tell others exactly what it is that we do as Randonneurs. This could also include other any channels we might use for marketing purposes. We would expect this person to be appointed to the Committee (1 Skype meeting per month).
Cue Sheet Tweaking and Event Loading
- This task would someone with an excessive eye for detail and a love of maps and topography. The task is essentially to assist Ride Organisers to get their routes loaded into RideWithGPS and verify the accuracy of the cues. Also assist with loading events into the events system on our website.
Maintain Photo Libraries
- As Randonneurs we're out there to explore. Often there are many photos taken but from a Club perspective they are lost into the ether. We're looking for someone to accept and scrape photo contributions from our rides into structured albums in FlickR. In the future, we would like to stream route specific photos onto relevant route information pages.
Art & Design
- Are you creative and have ideas for event posters, or designs for medals or badges for awards created by Kiwi Randonneurs? We would greatly appreciate some assistance so we can get some of these items over the line.

Brevet Processing

Brevets and medals for the 2015 season should be in your mailbox soon. Randonneurs have been keeping posties employed since 1904. Thank you for your patience while we have been catching up on our administrative tasks. The Gran Turismo Brevets are not included in this mailout, as we're waiting to get some GT Award medals minted.

ACP Awards

There are some awards administered by Audax Club Parisien and we'll need your applications soon if you would like to claim the bling.

Everest!

Congratulations to Andrew Morrison on completing his Everest Challenge during the Kapiti Epic event organised by Brent Atkins. Although this was not a randonneuring style event, up and down the same hill for 3 hours, 6 hours, or until the total ascent was greater than the elevation of Mt Everest is a very Epic long distance ride.
Read more: Everest!
Read more: Kapiti Epic

Rides coming up

Ride Name	Date	Start location	Dist	Type	Organiser
Manawatu Midnight 300	Sun, 1 Nov	Ashhurst	300	Road/BRM	Jeremy Rowe
Bell Hill Beauty	Sun, 1 Nov	Greymouth	200	Road/BRM	Duncan McDonald
Colleridge Return	Sat, 7 Nov	Christchurch	200	Road/BRM	Shane Davidson
Pongaroa Pub Ride	Sat, 14 Nov	Ashhurst	200	Road/BRM	Tim O'Brien
Martinborough Muster	Sat, 21 Nov	Martinborough	200	Gravel	Andrew Kerr
Milford 200	Sat, 21 Nov	Milford	200	Road/BRM	Kelvin Spicer
Milford 300	Sat, 21 Nov	Milford	300	Road/BRM	Kelvin Spicer
Twin Rivers	Sat, 21 Nov	Christchurch	300	Road/BRM	Shane Davidson
Taupo Challenge	Sat, 28 Nov	Taupo	300	Road/BRM	Craig McGregor
Apiti Gravel	Sat, 5 Dec	Ashhurst	200	Gravel or BRM	Tim O'Brien
Paparoa Loop	Sat, 5 Dec	Greymouth	300	Road/BRM	Duncan McDonald
Marlborough Marvels	Sat, 12 Dec	Picton	400	Road/BRM	Craig McGregor
Alpine Passes	Sat, 12 Dec	Christchurch	600	Road/BRM	Shane Davidson
Canterbury Circle	Sat, 19 Dec	Christchurch	200	Road/BRM	Shane Davidson
Queenstown to Picton	Sun, 20 Dec	Queenstown	1000	Road/BRM	Simon Henderson
Mid Canterbury Meander	Sun, 27 Dec	Methven	300	Gravel	Andrew Kerr

A gentle reminder to Ride Organisers that they can load their own rides into the website. Pretty please

Brevets

12 September: Te Anga 200

200K BRM	Name	Time
477398	COULDREY, Christine	10:00
477399	JOHNSON, Thomas	10:00
477400	MCGREGOR, Craig	12:47
477401	TEGEL, Annetta	10:00

19 September: Westport Wander 200

West Coast Wander. Photo Andy Trevelyan

West Coast Wander - Photo: Andy Trevelyan

19th September 2015

Five starters, two of whom had never ridden 200km before.
Weather was fine and cool as forecast, except that there was a very strong gusty wind for the first part of the ride.
Traffic was much lighter than I had feared it might be.

The first part of the route is flattish and fast until we passed through Rapahoe and reached the Strongman Mine memorial.

There were plenty of stops for photo opportunities and regrouping.
The scenery is spectacular and I spent far too much time using my camera.
Perhaps I will do it again without time constraints just to capture the beauty of the area.

Andy and Mike were well ahead by the time we turned off to take the Carters Beach loop and by the time we got to the checkpoint they were ready to leave.

Ryan & Mark had come from Nelson and were staying together most of the way.
Mark was slowed with aching knees and eventually realised his shoes were disintegrating.
The rocks and Nikau palms around Punakaiki were backlit by the lowering sun filtering through the clouds. No wonder the area is a major tourist destination.
Mark had to stop near Charleston and the three of us were clearly running out of time.
We all stopped at Punakaiki for a feed and while I continued on, the others took advantage of a lift home.

It was a great day out and even though only two finished within the time limit.
Congratulations to Andy and especially Mike, who completed his first 200.

Duncan McDonald

More photos on Flickr

200K BRM	Name	Time
479278	PAPA, Mike	13:08
479279	TREVELYAN, Andrew	10:00

26 September: Waihi Goldrush 300

300K BRM	Name	Time
174203	JOHNSTONE, Art	14:05
174204	RUTTERSMITH, Leon	14:05
174205	TEGEL, Annetta	14:06
174206	ROWE, Jeremy	13:50

10 October: Apiti Hills 200

200K BRM	Name	Time
480534	EADE, Gavin	9:37
480535	MARSHAL, Neil	9:18
480536	MCGREGOR, Craig	12:10
480537	ROWE, Jeremy	8:25

October 24: Apiti Pongaroa 300

200K BRM	Name	Time
Pending	ROWE, Jeremy
Pending	WAIKER, Anders

Ride reports, photos and other contributions are always welcome. We aim to have our Newsletter published after the last scheduled ride of each month. Email your contributions to newsletter @kiwirandonneurs.org.nz