Renegade Muster a different way to travel the central North Island

The field for the inaugural Renegades Muster in 2021.

Bikepackers and adventure racers will take to the backroads of the central North Island once again as part of the third annual Renegades Muster.

The muster is a self-supported bikepacking race, with participants tasked to complete an 843-kilometre loop around the Whanganui, Ruapehu, South Taranaki and Taranaki regions, beginning and ending at the Durie Hill Tower.

Event organiser Peter Maindonald said 75 people had entered for the event so far, slightly more than last year’s edition.

He thought the kind of person drawn to the event would be wanting a challenge and looking to see parts of the region they hadn’t before.

“The nature of our event is that we’re trying to create an event that challenges people,” Maindonald said.

Last year, 40 per cent of entrants did not finish.

“Some people just ran out of time because it was a little more than they anticipated. Other people had injuries - there were some mechanicals.”

While the event didn’t have to be a race, organisers were trying to emphasise the competitive elements of the muster, as people use it as training for the Tour Te Waiponamu, a race across the length of the South Island.

“It doesn’t have to be a race, not everybody has to race, but we’re trying to promote the race aspect.”

For those taking it competitively, he said the event would come down to strategy as much as it would to endurance, particularly around if and when riders sleep.

The first-place finisher of last year’s event got back to the Durie Hill Tower without sleeping at all, but had been getting caught by two riders who had slept early in the event.

“If you don’t sleep, a rider will slowly slow down. They’ll get slower and slower.

“In these events, particularly overseas, the sleep strategy can be quite important,” Maindonald said.

He was interested to see if finisher numbers would be higher this year because at least half of those taking part were returning riders.

One of the people taking part in the muster is Whanganui & Partners’ strategic lead of visitor industries Paul Chaplow.

Chaplow said he was drawn to the event from his history with backpacking and adventure racing.

“I’ve always loved journeys that are slow enough to get a real sense of the place and enable you to interact with others... it’s quite a nice way to see places, but also cover a decent amount of ground,” Chaplow said.

He and his wife had previously taken part in cycle tours both in New Zealand and abroad.

As well as working and looking after their three children, training has mostly been kept to riding a smart bike in his garage, with his wife also training for a separate event.

“I feel like I’m coming into this one fairly undercooked, but I’m also trusting that I’ve got muscle memory [from] having done quite a bit of this stuff before, and I kind of know what it’s like.”

Chaplow said was giving himself five days to complete the route, meaning he’d have to average around 170km a day to make it back to the finish in time.

“That’s going to hurt quite bad, but the good thing is that by the time we do this, the daylight’s quite long, so it’s just a matter of getting up in the morning, getting some food in and starting the journey for the day.”

Registrations for the event close on October 31.

The event starts at the Durie Hill Tower on Friday, November 10.

For more information, visit the Renegades Muster Facebook group.

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.