Tour De Ranges

Location Clevedon, Auckland

Website http://www.tourderanges.co.nz/

Type Road cycling

Distances 30 and 110 km.

Time of Year January

Goodie Bag Drink bottle, snack bar.

Course refreshments Water (dismount and fill your own bottle) at halfway point.

Post-race refreshments Bottle of water. Food available to buy.

Post race details Massage available.

Prizegiving Standard. Prizes tend to relate to cycling as expected. MC quickly moves onto next in spot-prize list if current person is not present. Very good to see rather than spending lots of time waiting for non-existent spot-prize winners.

Finisher's medal No.

Competed in 2010.

Details

Much of the water supplied to Auckland come from reservoirs in the Hunua Ranges. From this, I hypothesised two facts:

1) The Hunua ranges have lots of hills to provide run-off to the reservoirs.

2) The Hunua Ranges experience a lot of rain.

Both of these hypotheses have been borne out by experience, with the inaugural TDR being very wet, windy, and very hilly.

The start time of 9 am for the 110 km and 9.30 am for the 30 km races are welcome for those who are not so keen to get up earlier than necessary. Possibly an earlier start time would work better on a hot day with less chance of sun protection, but in 2010, little sun was experienced and the start time therefore perfect.

The course is very windy (in both senses of the word) , and as the name suggests, very hilly too. The route is clearly marked. Some of the road surfaces leave much to be desired, although there were a fair number of road works too, indication perhaps that the local district council is attempting to redress the issue.

I saw no mountain bikes during the 110 km event, but there were a fair number of hybrids, and they may have handled the rough surfaces better than the numerous bikes that I saw with punctures. Rescue vehicles were in plentiful supply which was good to see.

Overall, a very good race and one that is likely to get even better each year. Hopefully there will be a little more at the end in the way of post-race nutrition at future events, but in the meantime, plan to pack your own.