Strong GLCC Team For 5 Passes Tour
Once again GLCC are fielding a strong team for the upcoming 5 Passes Tour. This is the 3rd year that we’ve been able to enter a team. The last 2 years have been difficult, due to cover and Auckland lockdowns.
Considered the best stage race in New Zealand, it offers something for every rider. Over the course of 4 days, the race takes your in a circuit from east to west coast, and over the Southern Alps. Covering a distance of 650 kilometres and 5,000 metres of climbing. As the name suggests, you ride over 5 passes. Starting in Christchurch,day one takes you to Hanmer. Day two sees you go from Hanmer to Greymouth, the Queen stage.
The shortest stage of the tour is day 3. Travelling just over 100km, many consider this to be the toughest of them all. A moderately short bunch stage of 60 km, followed by an Individual Time Trial (ITT) up and over Arthurs Pass. With gradients above 20% in places and 6.5 kms in length, it’s a real brute of a climb. Not for the faint of heart. If a truck has to stop behind you, you pretty much shut down the South Island. It’s so steep in places that a truck wouldn’t be able to get going again, and a tow truck would be needed. No pressure, eh!
Day 4, the last day, takes the riders from Arthurs Pass village back to Christchurch. Everyone is feeling a little tired on this day. Accidents happen when the riders are tired. So best not to go too hard on days one and two.
So until mid November, train hard!
THE GLCC Team are: Michael Hope, Simon Malpass, Cam Spath, Keiran Mclean, Peter Savoy, and myself, JB.
