07 January 2015

Happy New Year Brevetters

Hi everyone, Happy New Year from both Jo and I.
I hope you all enjoyed a break, some great weather, a bit of time getting in "credit" with the family and a lot of riding!
Jo and I managed to get away for a couple of quick camping trips in-between working hence the lack of communication over the silly season.

We are well and truly in the Brevet swing now though.
I will email out cue sheets and a .gpx file by the end of next week. This .gpx file will be the official .gpx file, so if you choose to use your own .gpx file and go off course don't blame me ;-) Please note I have made a couple of slight changes to the map on mapometer, so if you have downloaded your own .gpx files from that you will need to do it again sorry. You can find the updated Brevet map here and Brevette map here.

Please note that although we are providing cues and a .gpx file you need to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You cannot rely on the .gpx to be 100% accurate, or the cues for that matter.  This is a SELF SUFFICIENT adventure :-)

We have spent a lot of time trying to get these as accurate as possible but things do change over time. I have overlaid my .gpx files from last year's Brevet to ensure accuracy of the file we are providing BUT it could still be slightly different on the ground.
Don't spend the entire time staring at the pink line on your GPS, lift your head up and take in the awesomeness that you are riding through! It is a wonderful country we live in (or you are visiting), take in as much of it as you can. Stop, smell the honeydew, take photos and enjoy it!
It isn't the World Championships or the Olympics, if you see something cool, stop and check it out, remember there are no medals on offer.

The hirage of the SPOT trackers is being managed by Tony at SpotNZ. Next week I will email out a link to the registration form. The cost is $125 per unit which includes hirage, a fresh set of batteries and tracking.
Those of you who have your own units I will send a separate email out asking for your ESN and Share Site page details.
Tony will be at registration to hand out the SPOT units and answer any questions.

Speaking of registration, our plan is to have a meet n greet on the Friday night and the actual event briefing on the Saturday morning.
The event briefing will be held at the Top Town Cinema at 8am on Saturday morning, that's right 8am. Start time is 10am this year, it's a long way to Hanmer ;-)
The meet n greet venue and time TBA.
We will be sending out registration forms prior to the event requiring emergency contact details etc. PLEASE fill them out before arriving in Blenheim and give them to us on the Friday night or Saturday morning.
We also want to get a photograph of EVERYONE and their bike. We would love to get some done on Friday night so if you can, turn up on your bike (preferably fully loaded), otherwise we will do it Saturday morning. Don't be shy, we all want to put a face to the "blue dot"!

The aim is to have more regular updates from this point on.

Keep up the training, enjoy some adventures and remember to have fun.

Until next time, Scott and Jo