So i have jumped on the bandwagon and have started up a blog, this first entry is going to be pretty long so bear with me I have a lot of stuff to cover... here goes..
CHILE
So the for the last 5 months I have been away from New Zealand first, for 3 months, track building in Southern Chile. That went well and I made some new mates and had some good times. Track building was tough work though, working 9hr days and 6 day weeks was very demanding on the body. This was made even harder as I had to get training in aswell. So ontop of the 54 hours of work each week I had to try squeeze in 14-16 Hours of training in each week. As you can imagine riding
was th
e last thing I felt like after a hard day digging all day. I was pretty good at getting my training in for the first 2 months of the trip, going riding straight after work with night lights as it got dark at 6 and we only finished work at 4.30-5.
I would begin my ride by crossing a fast flowing knee deep river roughly 25 meters long that was so cold that it felt as if your feet would burst, I felt every single degree of the cold crossing in
barefeet as I didnt want wet shoes and socks for my ride, they would have frozen solid within in 30 minutes of my ride, that is no exaggeration
(our drink bottles would freeze every morning within 30 minutes of filling
them up). So I would be out on back roads deep in southern Chile, just me and my bike, riding for up to 3 hours atleast half of which would be in the dark riding with a light on my handle bars and a back up set on my helmet. It made for some exciting moments,
like riding in between a calf and a bull on the back roads, probably one of the scariest things I have done in my life. I was snorted and stamped at by far too many bulls to remember even got chased by a couple, lets just say I was quite frightened of taking a ride each day. I spoke to a member of my trail building crew about the menacing muscely beasts, Andrew, who told me that animals can smell fear so I tried to ignore my fear and think happy thoughts while I was around them. Definitely character building.
Though it was hard to get motivated to go out riding after a hard days work, it was by far my most favourite part of the day as the landscape in Patagonia is amazing in all its harshness. I rode the same road almost every day and
never got sick of the ride with the ever changing scenery, we were going from autumn to winter which of course meant it got colder and colder making the night-time rides more and more uncomfortable. But the Trees were changing colour, slowly losing their leaves and the snow on the surrounding mountains getting lower each day making the ride well worth it.
Before I knew it 2 months were up and we only had one to go, though we didnt know it this last month was going to be the most challenging month of the trip with temperatures rarely going above freezing. It was so cold that our water pipes froze solid, meaning that none of us could have showers for 2 weeks at a time. The cold
and snow made it impossible to go training every day as the river I had to cross to get to the roads had swollen so much that it was uncrossable so I had to do running instead, which is pretty good cross training and I was getting some good runs in but it wasnt ideal for a build up to get me to the level I needed to be for international racing. There was nothing I could really do about it so I ju
st tri
ed to make the runs count. Though the last month was uncomfortable to work in, it went suprisingly quickly and before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes to the maids and other crew members roughing it out for on another 3 weeks.
The Crew
This brings me to a new chapter of my travels, unfortunately the only name that would be a
ppropiate is:
A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS.
So in the last few days at the ranch I bought a nice Dakine bike bag from a fellow crew member (Dan McMullan who owns FreerideNZ a bike guiding company based in Wanaka) the bag has his signwriting on it, Dan was signed up for another 3 months in Chile, but at a ranch 3 lakes down from where we were staying. The day before our flight out of Balmaceda, all our bags were sent on a boat to the other ranch to make things easier the next morning. Unbeknownst to me on the other end there was a mix up and my bike bag was separated thinking it belonged to Dan. The next day we got a boat over to the other side of the lakes to a waiting taxi, jumping straight onto the taxi thinking all bags would make it onto the truck, we were soon off down the road on our way to our flight out of the arctic cold and onto nice warm temperatures. About 10 minutes after leaving the lake I had a feeling as if I was missing something. I got the taxi driver to stop so I could check the truck behind us to see if my bike was on it, as I had a sinking feeling that maybe there had been a mix up with the signwriting on my new bag. Sure enough, the bag wasnt there however there was nothing we could do about it, we had flights to catch and time was ticking and there were 7 other guys that had to get on the flight. I tried to get the taxi driver to get in contact with the manager back at the ranch so he could quickly get my bike to the airport before my flight, this was made incredibly hard with the taxi driver not speaking a word of english and me speaking very limited spanish. We made it to the airport an hour before the scheduled flight and I franticaly tried to get in contact with the manager back at the ranch. An hour later and I still didnt have my bike, last notice for check in was being called accross the speakers but I had made it onto a flight that was 5 hrs later which would give me more time to sort my bike out. After trying 5 different numbers on 7 different phones, I couldnt get in contact with anyone. I emailed 4 different people and got no replies. Meanwhile it had started snowing outside and was getting worse by the minute. 5 o'clock comes around and im waiting in line to check in, with no bike. Next thing a call comes over the speaker in spanish and the lady next to me translates, turns out the plane has been delayed 24hrs due to the snow. I am not too phased that I wont be able to make my plane as I figure it will give me more time to sort out my bike. I planned on sleeping it out in the airport but turns out it closed for the night. Now I was stuck, the nearest town to the airport was a 45 minute drive away and I had no way of paying for or getting a taxi cab. Eventually I managed to get on a bus full of fresh army recruits, and they gave me a free ride in to Coyhaique, the local town. Eventually i get to the city and its 8.30 and its dark, the streets are icy and its snowing, I have a 25kg hiking bag and I'm slipping and slidding around the streets trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. I try a motel, its booked. I try another, booked. Another, booked. 1 and a half hours later and I have tramped the length of town twice trying atleast 20 different places, all of which were booked. I have finally settled with the idea that I'm going to have to sleep on the street in the sub-zero cold for the night when I spot another backpackers, I knock on the door expecting no reply or to be told that its booked, but I am suprised to find that there is vacancy and I'll have a bed for the night. Stoked! I was so happy to have a bed that night that I left a very generous tip.
On my way to the airport... the 2nd time
My next problem was going to be finding a way to the airport, fortunately I found the taxi driver that took us to the airport the day before and after an episode involving alot of miming and some bad 'spanglish' I managed to get on a shuttle bus to the airport which saved me $250 on what it would have cost had I taken the taxi in. The drive to Balmaceda airport was quite nerve racking with the crazy chilean driver getting pretty loose on the icy road. When I finally made it to the airport I quickly checked my emails to find that no one had replied to my pleas for help the previous day and it seemed like I was going to be leaving Chile bikeless. When I finally made it to Santiago I had to try and sort out my flight to LA, which was going via Panama City on Copa Airlines. Upon walking up and down the airport no less than 15 times searching for the Copa Air office, I try the information desk, another episode of spanglish later and I find that I will need to wait in the airport 8hrs before the Copa office opens where they will sort out a new flight for me. In the time I wait I polish off a book and a half (The Alchemist, a very good read and quite ominous concidering what I had been through in the 48 hours previously). I get on the flight and make it to Panama smoothly. In Panama I have an eight and a half hour wait for my connecting flight, in which time I read yet another book and sit around stewing and stressing about having no bike. By the way I still hadnt heard from anyone regarding my bike, anyone who has ever been to Chile will know exactly why (mañana). By the time scheduled boarding time arrives there is still no plane waiting at the gate. So after a 3 hour delay its finally boarding time, and I am glad because 11 hours of waiting in the airport has done my head in. As I give the airhostess my ticket at the entry to the gate, she asks me if I have completed a visa waiver form which is a requirement to enter the USA, I say yes but she cant see it on her screen. Turns out I filled out the form for my old passport, but it didnt carry over to my new one. Yet again I am forced to miss a plane, fortunately I was booked onto the next flight 5 hrs later giving me time to fill out the Visa waiver form online and giving me plenty of time to sit in the airport. When I finally get on the plane I feel the most intense rush of relief. The time goes slowly on the flight to LA, as time always does when you are excited about your destination. I got to LA fine and it was nice to see some fimiliar faces and especially nice to have everyone speaking the same language as me.
[I will continue on with the theme of this chapter and skip some bits out]. Me and Scott bought a sweet van for a good deal and made our way up to Edmonton, Canada. I finally got in contact with the manager in Chile and found out that it was going to cost $1000USD to get the bike shipped to me. I thought this was way to expensive so made another plan. I got someone who was on another crew in Chile, who was going up to Vancouver for a holiday to bring my bike up with him and I would arrange a way to pick it up from him. I booked flights to Vancouver from Regina in Saskatchewan to pick up my bike. But then guess what, Hamish's flights were delayed due to the snow aswell. So I had to cancel my flight, though the airline didnt give me a refund they just gave me a credit which turned out to be a good thing when I got word from Hamish that they would be in Vancouver in 2 days time, on the Saturday (one day before our race in Regina). This was fine and I booked my flights to get to Vancouver on the Saturday, this ended up costing WAY more than I expected. They charged me $600 on top of the $550 credit I had, obviously I was outraged but there was nothing I could do about it. Saturday came and I was on the plane early. Next thing I know a morbidly obese man starts walking down the isle of the plane towards me and I hope like anything he doesnt have a seat next to me, but he did. Next thing another guy the same size as the first, weighing atleast 200kg is walking towards me and sits down on the isle side, right next to me. So I had a 2 hr plane ride wedged between these two disgusting pigs with them sweating on me. I thought it was a joke and no kidding I was looking for the cameras. Unfortunately there were none to be seen. The flight was over finally and I finally got my bike in time for the race the next day. The race didnt go well at all, most likely due to the lack of time spent on the bike leading up to the race.
Three days after the race in Regina I find that my frame has cracked. I keep riding on the cracked frame for 3 weeks as I need to get my training in. The day of the race in Toronto comes along quite quickly and I am supprised that my frame has lasted this long. Sitting on the start line I hear a massive BOOM look down and my tyre has just popped, just then the start official calls on the loud speaker that there is 4 mins till start time. I quickly rush over to a team tent and get a spare tube to find that I had a big gash in my tyre, I do a McGyver trick and put some cardboard from the tubes box covering the hole. I make it just in time for the start and get a pretty good start. The good thing didnt last long though because 10 minutes later I get another flat tyre. I ended up pulling out of the race as my frame was getting worse and worse. So I get to Bromont and Talk to Ellsworth about getting a new frame, it seems that my luck has shifted when I find that they would send one out the next day but... they sent a 29er frame. Just my luck. Also at the World Cup race in Windham New York, my second race on my new alloy Cannondale Flash frame, I snapped my chain just as they were doing the final call up, so I had to quickly fix my chain (without a quick link) before the race start. Not the best way to be mentaly ready on the start-line for my biggest race of the year.
To pour salt and vinegar and anything else that stings into the wound; I crashed and broke the screen on my 2 month
old garmin GPS, my brand new laptops wireless stopped working, I broke my heart rate monitor watch in a crash yesterday, I got tiger balm in my eye, my $600 camera stopped working, our van broke down..while I was driving costing $500 to repair. Im sure there are more on the list just cant think of them now.So as you can see I have had some really bad luck on this trip. I am running with the theory that I am having some really bad luck now because I am going to have some insanely good luck in the (hopefully near) future. All I can do about it is laugh, so thats just what I've been doing.
The Crack in the frame
Despite all this misfortune and not getting the results I was after, I still had an awesome trip and it has left me with some memories that I will never forget. I have come away from it super motivated... now that I've got all that bad luck out of the way I figure that from now on everything will turn in my favor... I hope.
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