Chris Bennett's Bikepacking and Triathlon Blog

Elginism (ĕl’gĭnĭz’əm) n. 1801. [f. the name of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766-1841)]. An act of cultural vandalism. A term coined by the destructive actions of Lord Elgin who illegally transported the Parthenon Marbles from Greece to London between 1801 and 1805.

At 5 a.m. on 5 August I was standing alone outside the British Museum wondering where the others were. That was the time we were to begin our race to Athens to bring attention to the theft and refusal to return the Parthenon Marbles to their rightful home in Athens. This was a very unusual bikepacking race: one with a very important purpose, and as I was to learn, highlighting an issue of very deep importance to all Greeks.

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When Andi Buchs told me he had a new adventure—45 Southwest—it immediately became my ‘A’ race for 2023. While there are many events in Europe what sets Andi’s events aside is the effort he puts into planning them. I knew it would be challenging, scenic and above all safe. He doesn’t just pick roads off Komoot or Google Maps, but physically checks out the route. I also really like first year events as there is a completely blank slate and you have no ideal what to expect. Like windmills …

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I’ve had a number of people contact me about aspects of my bikepacking setup so thought I’d do a post on my favourite gear tips.

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For a long time one of my biggest annoyances with Garmin devices was the challenge with getting new routes loaded on while on a trip. It invariably requires a cable connection and can be such a hassle.

I was delighted to discover the Garmin Connect App GRouteLoader. You connect this to your RideWithGPS account and it will allow you to download the most recent 50 routes, or pinned routes. They also can be loaded directly to the device so you don’t need to save them to the Newfiles folder etc.

Absolutely brilliant. Highly recommended.

It was the 100th anniversary of my late mother’s birth when I stumbled across the Trans-Canada Ultra. This was starting June 2022 from Whitehorse in the Yukon to Newfoundland—some 12,500 km of cycling across Canada.

Advertised as “The hardest and longest self-supported bike race in the world” my interest was piqued. I still had my residual fitness from racing the Tour Aotearoa and  had always wanted to cycle across my country of birth. I was also chaffing for a return after the 2+ years of New Zealand being locked down due to Covid. These five years were the longest period since I left Canada in 1983 that I had not returned. Another attraction was this was the first time the event was run and these are the best rides to take: you have no idea what the ride will be like!

After getting my wife Lis’ approval, I entered and, 51:23:17 and 12,362 km after starting (238 km/day), with 82,454 m of climbing, I won—or should I say beat the only other person crazy enough to start!

With a ride of such magnitude it was really hard to know where to start in describing it. So I’ve taken an unusual approach: I asked a number of people who followed my daily Facebook posts what three questions did they have. The following is an attempt to give a picture of this great adventure based on these questions. Continue reading →

“Unfinished business” is what I would tell people who asked me if I had done the Tour Aotearoa (TofA), a 3,013 km brevet which runs the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga in the far north, to Bluff in the deep south. In 2016 I was going to ride the inaugural TofA with my riding buddy Rickie Cotter but the legacy of a prostate infection meant it was not a good idea. I came back in 2018 and was doing really well when just after km 750 I woke up in a ditch in the Pureora Forest having somehow crashed my bike. It was a bad crash and I ended up with a helicopter ride to Waikato Hospital, 4 h of facial reconstruction surgery, and a traumatic brain injury (TBI) which has led to post-concussion syndrome. Could have been worse… I could have been killed or drooling in a wheel chair!

With my brain injury having settled in to something that I can generally manage, it was time to get this done. So I trained hard to get my fitness up and was well prepared physically and mentally for this race. Promising my wife Lis that I would not overdo it, I looked forward to an adventure!

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It’s time for another attempt at the Tour Aotearoa. On a recent Facebook discussion I posted that my kit weighed in at 12.8 kg for the bike with tools etc. and that I had 5.2 kg of clothes and camping kit. I was asked to provide my gear list so here it is!

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I’ve never found quite the right bag for my handlebars. I have tried several, most recently the Apidura Racing Handlebar Bag, but it was just too small. None had the key features that I wanted when bikepacking.

So I decided time to get  Michael from Stealth Bags in Wellington to work with me and get what I needed.  He’s done me two excellent frame bags and is my ‘go to’ guy for creative solutions.  So I went to Michael with my wish list and below is what he came up with …

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This is a short film made by Rob Dawson of my Everesting 10k effort, with some background as well. Thanks for documenting this Rob!

With my racing season in Europe cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, I needed a new goal. So why not ‘Everesting’? It is advertised as:

“Fiendishly simple, yet brutally hard. Everesting is the most difficult climbing challenge in the world”

There are about 4,500 people who have Everested, and a much smaller number who have done the Everesting 10k (less than seven my age (60+) or older) where you continue on to do 10,000 m of climbing. The rules are simple.

• We can pick any hill, anywhere in the world and complete repeats of it in a single activity until we climb 8,848m – the equivalent height of Mt Everest.
• Has to be a single activity which means we can rest, stop for nutrition, but no sleep.
• Has to be a single climb—no loops, multiple ascents on the same mountain, etc.
• You have to record continuously on an approved device, and upload to Strava.

After 118 ups and downs of Tata Beach Hill’s 85 m climb, I managed an Everesting 10k.  This is what the ride looked like:

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