INSIDE THE PIONEER
Now going on four years strong, our Digital Editor Srbastian Jayne crossed the Tasman to take on The Pioneer – would it really deliver on its promises?
When I’m looking for races to ride or adventures to tackle, I try to look for something unique. Something that will take me somewhere new or offer an experience like no other. Along with my cross-country racing throughout the year, I always try to add a stage race or a marathon into the mix. In the past I’ve done races like the Alpentour in the Austrian mountains and the Belgian Mountain Bike Challenge in the Ardennes. Races like these offer vastly different experiences and have an individual ‘feel’ to them.
The Cape Epic, The Pioneer and Swiss Epic make up the global Epic Series and offer riders a chance to experience three incredibly unique and vastly different events all within one series. The rugged South African bush during the pinnacle event the Cape Epic offers a different ‘feel’ compared to the Swiss Alps of the Swiss Epic. Far removed from those two is The Pioneer down south in New Zealand. Rugged backcountry riding through rarely seen terrain is a bucket-list opportunity.
To experience all three locations outside of an event would take a lot of planning that most people’s busy lives couldn’t handle. The
Epic Series aims to do the heavy lifting of route logistics, accommodation and food to let you focus on the adventure.
The Pioneer 2019 was the final year the event would be held out of the New Zealand South Island city of Queenstown. For four years, The Pioneer has lived in the Southern Alps and taken riders on a guided, and timed, tour around within this epic location. The last two years were focused on Queenstown, but in 2020 the race moves to Rotorua and the North Island.
The Pioneer aims to have racers ‘ride beyond’ what they thought possible and the six days of
mountain biking planned by course designer and former winner James Williamson certainly looked tough on paper. When designing the course, James and the team looked to ‘improve the ride experience and improve the course as a race’ and with around 50% of the course being new compared to the previous year it was anticipated to give riders different experiences but still hold true to what The Pioneer is all about.
TACKLING THE PIONEER IN 2019
The race featured stages ranging from 26km for the prologue to 112km for the Queen stage. Most stages weren’t super long compared to other stage races around the world but the rugged farm roads and singletrack along with the climbs made for a proper challenge. The Queen stage was a highlight of the week, offering a bit of everything for riders and remained largely unchanged from the previous year. The stage started with a fast run out of the town of Alexandra into the hills that would be the mountain bike playground for the day. Tough climbs on roads and singletrack opened up into flowing descents with tough technical challenges to remind riders that this was a mountain bike race.
The first sections had an Alice Springs feel to them with loose rocky trails. This changed in the second section with more loamy dirt and rock slabs punctuating the trails. This was a common theme at The Pioneer with multiple trail types all coming together in one package. If you were to ride Alexandra self-guided it would likely take a good chunk of the day to get your bearings and explore one of the areas. But zooming along with the bunch and sticking to the bunting meant you could experience a good taste of all the area had to offer within one ride. Albeit one 5-hour ride!
RAIN AND WIND
Some of the adventures planned for the week were cut short unfortunately due to some crazy weather (probably typical for New Zealand though) hitting the race. The first nights’ entertainment was cut short when a huge gust of wind hit the Moke Lake campground just before dinner and toppled the giant social tent! But with a quick plan B coming together we were able to fuel up with only minimal disruption.
More bad luck would hit later in the week during stage three and four when nasty weather came in and cut both stages short before they had started. After all the work that had gone into planning a course and building the anticipation for hitting the high peaks, it was disappointing to not be able to experience the true backcountry adventures that had been planned. I’ve raced enough races to know that for all the things you can plan for, the weather isn’t one of them. Being able to come up with appropriate substitute courses almost overnight in some cases and handle the freak wind gusts was a testament to the planning by the organising team beforehand and adaptability during the race. A well-coordinated organisation team is what you want when you’re potentially travelling halfway across the world to race a race like this.
#CAMPLYF
The camp life is a quintessential aspect of races like The Pioneer and Cape Epic. You can choose to stay in a camper or local accommodation, which after a long and wet day in the mud can sound pretty enticing. But the #camplyf is what a large part of The Pioneer is about. Out of a 24-hour day you might only be spending 3-5 hours on the bike so where and how you spend the rest of the time can make a big difference. Hanging out with friends or making new friends over breakfast or dinner in the social lounge while warming up beside the fire definitely adds to the experience.
The meals were sometimes hit and miss in the camp. A big bowl of pasta with meat or veggies would have been a little more to my liking than the fancier options that didn’t quite seem to cook as well for the large group. I did have to do a few town-runs to grab food from the local Mexican restaurant during our time near Alexandra.
TEAM MATES
The whole Epic Series of races are centred around pairs racing and when looking at everything involved in a race like The Pioneer, the most important thing is your team mate. When it’s been raining all day and you’re four days into the race and you hunger bonk, having a team mate you can have a laugh with about how much fun it is to ride bikes, even as slowly as you’re going, can make all the difference. Getting through the tough times with a laugh or having someone there to watch when you hurtle into the bushes after missing a corner and reminiscing about it later, usually at your expense, can really make a difference in such a tough race.
PIONEERING REFLECTIONS
The Pioneer still felt like a chill race to take part in and to be around. It’s not nearly as busy as the Cape Epic or the Swiss Epic perhaps due to being in New Zealand, or the youngest of all three. It is also the only race in the global Epic Series that doesn’t carry a UCI status – which might attract more top riders from around the globe.
I typically look for unique adventures when I’m choosing my longer races, so heading across the ditch to ride bikes with a mate through an epic location certainly ticked that box. The race had a completely different feel to races I have done in the past in Belgium, Austria or elsewhere. Even with the shortened stages, the race was still challenging with tough courses and tough weather conditions. The trails offered a great blend of technical challenges and flow that either kept you on your toes or put a massive grin on your face. The shift north to Rotorua in 2020 is sure to carry on the tradition of The Pioneer with the epic trails and rolling roads of the region offering a new challenge to those returning riders.