President elect, Gerald, in order to support Motor Neuron Disease, took part in a cycle ride across the United States. Members were kept up to date with the huge undertaking in a series of emails that Gerald sent as the ride progressed but at our last meeting we were very pleased to hear from Gerald in person.
As he noted-
"We cycled 5,147.74 kilometres and climbed 40,250 metres
The wheels on my bike are 700mm circumference; based on the distance above they each rotated 7,353,914 times!!
We spent over 212 hours cycling (that is after deducting time for water/rest/lunch breaks) – almost nine days!"
Starting and finishing at sea level meant there were as much down hill as up hill but that 40,000 plus metres [four and a half times the height of Mount Everest] involves a great amount of effort.
With stunning scenery, great fellowship, the chance to meet ordinary Americans and ending with a police escort into Central Park, New York this was a great adventure adding to the many other major rides that Gerald has been involved in.
A full run down of the trip is attached. Well worth reading. You never know you might be inspired to take up an adventure of your own!
The photo of Gerald in his underwear was not because funds were running low but because a donor had promised to double the donation if he took that challenge. That white suff in the photo is snow not sand!
I have taken on a new challenge which involves cycling from San Francisco to New York. The purpose of the ride is to raise funds for Motor Neuron Disease NZ. There are riders from the UK participating and their fundraising will go towards MND UK. We start on 18 May and ride into Central Park on 22 June.
It is rugby related and linked to Doddie Weir (ex Scotland and British Lions) who passed away from Motor Neuron Disease in 2022. I participated in a Wellington to Auckland ride in 2017 and we raised funds for the Conductive Education charity; this ride has been organized along similar lines and by the same UK team lead by Peter Winterbottom (ex England and British Lions).
You will see several ‘Anonymous’ donations; most of those donors have actually advised me of their donation but wished to keep their names private; I will certainly respect that request for privacy but at the same time am pleased to know who the donors are.
Training has been going well and a variety of outdoor riding around Howick, Flat Bush, East Tamaki and Bucklands/Eastern Beaches. Indoor riding using a ‘Zwift’ ( www.zwift.com ) machine has been invaluable; plenty of variety in routes and difficulty but with the convenience of cycling at any time of day or night and best of all, staying dry when its raining outside!
Here are the details of what is coming up:
- Fly out of New Zealand on 14 May
- Cycle from San Francisco to New York (5,150 kilometres)
- We start from the Golden Gate Bridge on 18 May and ride into Central Park on 22 June.
- The purpose of the ride is to raise funds for Motor Neuron Disease NZ (to date in NZ three of us have collectively exceeded $22,000.00)
- There are also riders from the UK participating and their fundraising will go towards MND UK
Two nights in San Francisco and two to go until we start our ride across the continent.
Having only arrived on Tuesday (local time), yesterday was a 'gentle' 48km ride over the Golden Gate bridge, around a few hills on the Northern side and a coffee break in Sausalito. It was a good opportunity to make sure our bikes (which we had needed to reassemble after the travel) were working properly but more importantly to make sure our bodies were working properly!
Parts of the route bought back great memories as many years ago I met Bekah, my daughter who had been working on Camp America in Virginia, in San Francisco and we cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge down to Sausalito, ferrying back across the bay to the city.
Last night we were joined by most of the UK contingent; riders, drivers, chef, physio, & bike mechanic. Today was a combination of them sorting their bikes and logistics but we Kiwis managed to convince a couple of them to join us for another bridge ride and coffee in Sausalito.
Tonight was a function to promote the USA connection with the ride. MND is better known as ALS in the US and we heard from two people who had brothers pass away in the past few years from this disease. One of those speakers will be joining us for the ride. Peter Winterbottom and Mike Teague (both riding and ex England and British Lions rugby players) also spoke about the Doddie Weir connection. Ironically as I write this there was a piece on the NBC news regarding an ex San Francisco 49ers player (Dwight Clark) who passed away from ALS (MND) in 2018. This is certainly a disease that is widespread.
Well who would have thought I would be sending an email from the middle of the Nevada Desert. Camp tonight is in a layby close to the New Pass Summit at a height of 6,348 feet above sea level. Totally clear sky so hope to see a great showing of stars later. It is almost a full moon so that may hide a few.
It has definitely been challenging but I am pleased that the training over the past few months has paid off.
A change of State yesterday; Nevada to Utah. No real change in scenery until today although we did pass the Salt Flats late yesterday afternoon. Not sure what the reason was for placing the border where it is; the land either side appears useless it would seem to be a liability to be responsible for it! Today we rode as far as Spanish Fork and are camped in a small RV park overnight. On the descent of the last 'hill' we rode over Rocky Mountains appeared with a huge valley of green farmland; quite a contrast to the desert and dry areas.
Also today we encountered our first storm. Not too disruptive but a spectacular sight with thunder, lightning and a brief shower of hail.
I thought it is important to let you know about the support crew with us. We have four large camper vans plus a van that travels with us en-route. There is a bike mechanic, physio and not forgetting a great chef who supplies ample meals plus food for the day. There is no reason to go hungry!
Special thanks to Somerville Rotary Club (my previous club) which recently made a donation of $750.00.
Yesterday was the ride to finish day 10; our first 'double figure' day. Today was day 11 and we are staying in Craig, Colorado overnight. Two more days until our first rest day. Varied temperatures and scenery over the past week. We have consistently been over 5,000 feet and reached 9,114 feet yesterday; even that will be surpassed tomorrow as we approach the Rockies.
We have set a fairly aggressive but achievable target for each day and stick fairly well to the same routine. This will probably be confusing as the distances below are in kilometres but mostly we are working on miles as that is what is on all the road signs and distance markers. We aim to start riding at 8am and split the day into three main blocks; 30 miles then sandwich stop, 30 miles then longer lunch break and the balance to the campsite for the night. Finish times have varied from 4.30pm to 7.30pm depending on the weather (mainly heat so far), terrain and distances. As we are closely followed by at least one support vehicle the three 'blocks' are interspersed with stops for drinks, sustenance and gear/clothing changes.
Most riding is in peloton style with the lead rotating; hills, whether up or down, is generally at individual pace with regrouping at the top or bottom.
Unfortunately day 13 proved to be quite an unlucky day; I am not superstitious but it did seem quite ironic that it was day 13. We were scheduled to ride across the last pass of the Rockies for a 120 km ride; the pass was closed due to snow and ice. The only alternative was a 220 km route using Interstate roads which do not allow cyclists. We could have ridden secondary roads but the distance would have been even greater.
Safety is paramount on this trip so the decision was made to forgo cycling for one day. The drive itself was spectacular and required reaching an altitude of over 11,100 ft and even then driving through a tunnel to avoid an even higher altitude. It was amazing how some of the areas on the decent resembled Swiss/Austrian villages with similar scenery and house designs.
Today was officially a rest day and we all took the opportunity to look around Estes; very much a resort town and not dissimilar to Queenstown with its tourism focus. Today (31 May) is also Peter Winterbottom's birthday so an opportunity for a few celebrations.
I need to acknowledge two recent donors; the Rotary Club of Pakuranga for their donation of $1,000.00 to MND. The other donor I need to mention is Frith Jenkins of Howick Village Optometrists. Frith originally made a donation of $100.00 but said she would double it if I sent her a photo of me riding over the Rockies in my underwear. I did, and Frith honoured the commitment.
Scenery and temperatures have changed considerably over the past few days. We are now approximately 3,500 ft above sea level; a huge contrast to the consistent 5-8,000 ft levels we experienced for over ten days.
Tonight we are camped in Arapahoe Nebraska. Since leaving the Rockies cycling has been mostly downhill with vast stints of straight (and seemingly never ending, roads). Most land has been ranch pasture but this area is dotted with huge cattle feedlots. These are where cattle are held to 'finish'(or fatten) before becoming hamburger patties! The scale of these is incredible! We stopped for lunch near the entrance to one yesterday and there was a continual stream of massive truck loads of freshly cut silage being delivered. Quite a production line!
Our camp last night was in Haigler, Nebraska. A couple of miles before getting there we were stopped at some road works and got chatting to a car driver also waiting. The usual discussion of what we were doing eventuated but when we were given the go-ahead to proceed that discussion ended. We learned when we arrived in Haigler that the driver had left some money on the bar at the local pub for us to have 'few' drinks. We could not turn down that hospitality!
A photo of the interior of the bar is attached; I think it would be fair to say that this was probably the biggest crowd there for a while!
There is also a photo of the sky after we left. Our timing could not have been better as whilst we were in the bar there was a huge storm.
We have now cycled 2,374.89 kilometres and climbed 18,529 metres - as a comparison, Mt Everest is 8,848 metres tall (I am in no way suggesting that our feat remotely compares to the effort required to climb Everest but wanted to give an identifiable measure).
I need to thank my wife Tricia for managing these posts for me and doing a great job of keeping the information up to date. A map of each day's ride is on Strava.
The first thing I need to let you know in this email is that Daniel Faitaua is having a segment regarding this ride and our MND fundraising on TVNZ Breakfast around 8.40am on Monday 10 June. Please spread the word. I have been in touch with Newstalk ZB but to date there has been no response.
Today we cycled across Missouri and are close to the border with Indiana. Our puncture count increased substantially as we had seven in total; fortunately only one was mine but one of our group achieved a hat-trick before lunch! According to our mechanic the cause of all these was a combination of the hot road surface softening tyres and the volume of debris on the cycle paths. Apart from the annoyance of dealing with these, one of the worst aspects is the frustration of breaking our established riding pattern and then having to start again.
The past few days have seen temperatures as high as 38 celsius so not pleasant riding conditions. Fortunately the terrain has been reasonably easy and surfaces smooth (neither of these factors helped with the punctures though!).
Tonight we are camped in Hannibal, Missouri, the town which was the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Like many of our stops there has not been a huge amount of time for sightseeing but I managed to walk to the Mississippi (adjacent to the campsite) and also take a tour of part of the Mark Twain cave complex.
A special shout out to Pakuranga Rotary Club (of which I am a member) who have donated $1,000.00 to MND New Zealand. You can be assured that my pedals will continue to turn!
We have been riding in Ohio for the past two days and tomorrow head into Pennsylvania and then West Virginia.
The ride has gathered more publicity recently with James & Craig being on TVNZ breakfast and when we were in Indianapolis Peter Winterbottom and Mike Teague were interviewed live by Sky Sports UK. For my part I had a chat with a journalist at Newstalk ZB; that was recorded and was to be played on Sunday morning (NZ time – not sure if that happened but sure to find out over the next few days.
The past week has been fairly straight and flat. Today it was good to have some variety with hills again; it did mean a bit more effort was required but kept the concentration levels higher. Weather has remained hot and dry with in the mid 30’s Celsius. Plenty of drink stops required; we have also tried starting at 7am some mornings to avoid the heat later in the day. Over the past week or so I have also taken to pouring iced water over my arm sun protectors and even at time filling them with ice; make for great mobile airconditioning units!
Tonight we are camped near Miltonsburg, Ohio.
We are not getting too excited however tomorrow we are on Day 30 so not too far to go until R&R time in New York; there are still a few miles to cover and concentration needed at all times.
A special shout out to Pakuranga Rotary Club (of which I am a member) again who have donated another $1,000.00 to MND New Zealand. A great gesture and well appreciated.
It has been quite a hectic last few days.
The ride is all over and we have achieved our goal. Of the eight cyclists, five completed the full route. Three New Zealanders, one USA and one UK.
I will send a more detailed email in the next week but the last week of the ride, in parts, was quite torrid! As you probably know, the temperatures have been extremely high and we needed to very cautious and ensure there were plenty of water stops. Ironically, the closer to New York we got, the road surfaces improved but then we not only had to deal with the heat from above, but the heat reflecting off the black tarmac. It only took 30-45 minutes for iced wated in our bottle to become tepid.
Our entrance to New York was spectacular. We ferried across from New Jersey to Mid-town Manhattan. There we were met by some riders from the NYPD cycling team and they, along with several motorbikes and cars, escorted us to Central Park. We did not have to stop at any intersections as the cars blocked the streets to give us a clear run; a lot of people on the pavements wondering what was happening with these cyclists in tartan riding through red traffic lights!!
Yes we did have a ‘small’ celebration which restarted later at the Pig & Whistle pub; that event was arranged by some UK expats.
Final statistics for the ride:
San Francisco warmups - Distance 119.55km total climbing of 1,315 metres
Day 1 - Distance 128.99km total climbing of 1,094 metres
Day 2 - Distance 119.60km total climbing of 2,361 metres
Day 3 - Distance 165.33km total climbing of 1,498 metres
Day 4 - Distance 166.04km total climbing of 1,119 metres
Day 5 - Distance 152.02km total climbing of 1,363 metres
Day 6 - Distance 166.48km total climbing of 1,740 metres
Day 7 - Distance 162.40km total climbing of 1,237 metres
Day 8 - Distance 152.11km total climbing of 889 metres
Day 9 - Distance 146.02km total climbing of 1,796 metres
Day 10 - Distance 149.59km total climbing of 1,017 metres
Day 11 - Distance 144.77km total climbing of 1,370 metres
Day 12 - Distance 149.72km total climbing of 1,657 metres
Day 13 - Enforced rest day due to road closure
Day 14 - Rest Day
Day 15 - Distance 195.62km total climbing of 464 metres
Day 16 - Distance 188.09km total climbing of 386 metres
Day 17 - Distance 188.11km total climbing of 538 metres
Day 18 - Distance 178.17km total climbing of 1,019 metres
Day 19 - Distance 150.36km total climbing of 672 metres
Day 20 - Distance 166.58km total climbing of 927 metres
Day 21 - Distance 156.01km total climbing of 1,059 metres
Day 22 - Distance 161.15km total climbing of 856 metres
Day 23 - Distance 177.60km total climbing of 1,057 metres
Day 24 - Distance 151.60km total climbing of 341 metres
Day 25 - Distance 156.22km total climbing of 744 metres
Day 26 – Rest Day
Day 27 - Distance 163.69km total climbing of 625 metres
Day 28 - Distance 182.02km total climbing of 913 metres
Day 29 - Distance 160.88km total climbing of 1,836 metres
Day 30 - Distance 150.95km total climbing of 1,881 metres
Day 31 - Distance 152.92km total climbing of 2,609 metres
Day 32 - Distance 126.35km total climbing of 2,314 metres
Day 33 - Distance 161.55km total climbing of 1,350 metres
Day 34 - Distance 113.96km total climbing of 1,321 metres
Day 35 - Distance 89.38km total climbing of 625 metres
Day 36 - Distance 53.91km total climbing of 257 metres
Hard to believe that it is now over two weeks since we finished our ride in Central Park, New York. The time since has been relaxing although there has been a little cycling and kayaking and quite a bit of walking. Nothing overly energetic; more to keep some level of activity!
The ride had many highlights but the greatest has to be the ride into New York and Central Park on the last day.
A few statistics (and trivia) for the ride:
We cycled 5,147.74 kilometres and climbed 40,250 metres
The wheels on my bike are 700mm circumference; based on the distance above they each rotated 7,353,914 times!!
We spent over 212 hours cycling (that is after deducting time for water/rest/lunch breaks) – almost nine days!
As you know, I enjoyed the ride, the comradery of the other cyclists and the support crew, and the support of you all. My thanks for your emails of encouragement and again, apologies for not being able to reply to each individual one.
Not too sure what the next challenge will be. Maybe time to have a real holiday!!