Tour Te Waipounamu rider: Caleb Helkenn

Caleb is currently the only rider signed up for the Tour Te Waipounamu who doesn’t have a Kiwi flag next to his name! He arrived in New Zealand back in late February 2020 after six months in Antarctica, planning to spend about three weeks biking around New Zealand. Almost a year later, he’s still here! In this Q & A you can learn a bit more about his riding background, including his first bikepacking adventures in Alaska and what he hopes to get out of the Tour Te Waipounamu.

Caleb spent his childhood living in the small town of Kenny Lake in central Alaska, eventually settling in the big smoke of Anchorage in his early twenties.

His lifestyle has been quite nomadic for the past few years. “I’ve been working contracts for the United States Antarctic Program the past couple of years which has meant spending quite a few months each year in Antarctica and the rest of the time travelling and focusing on doing the things that I love. Mainly sporting adventures with close friends.”

In late February 2020, Caleb landed in New Zealand, excited to get amongst the outdoors after six months on the ice. He’d only planned to stay a couple of weeks but then he met a Kiwi woman and extended his ticket by a week. Then the pandemic hit NZ! Within a few days he decided to stay in New Zealand rather than return to a USA that was quickly closing down.  

After taking most of the rest of 2020 off, he spent a couple of months working at a bike shop in Nelson this summer before taking on a more serious job, back with the United States Antarctic Programme. “I’ve just accepted a new position working as the Communications Supervisor within the IT&C department.” He’s excited about this position as it allows him to work from anywhere (IE New Zealand) when he’s not in Antarctica. Currently in Nelson, Caleb is spending the final couple of weeks before the tour finalising his plans for the ride and dealing with the logistics of moving out of Nelson fully the day before the race starts!  

Riding background

How did you first get into riding bikes?

When I was 21 a couple of friends of mine encouraged me to get a bike so we could all ride together. With no clue what I was doing I bought a used small size dirt jump bike and proceeded to ride it on all the (primarily XC) mountain biking trails Anchorage had to offer. It didn’t take long before I was hooked and looking to get a proper mountain bike.

What’s your favourite style of riding?

I love long multi-day rides and just long day rides on backcountry singletrack. Things like the Old Ghost Road and the Heaphy Track in New Zealand, or like Resurrection Pass in Alaska. Just being out there in the wild with a few friends and bikes is pretty hard to beat. That being said having a ready supply of beer is also pretty hard to beat, so evening laps at the bike park followed by a visit to the local pub is a close second!

What other bikepacking races or adventures have you done?

My first time bikepacking was a ride from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. I had no idea what I was doing, but thanks to a lot of free time on my hands leading up to the ride, I sorted out a decent kit and had a blast with it. That ride firmly cemented bikepacking as something to pursue and off and on, I’ve been after it ever since. 

The biggest (and hardest) ride I’ve ever done was riding from Deadhorse to Anchorage. I had self imposed a tight schedule for myself on the ride and in trying to stick to it I failed to listen to my undertrained body and ended up experiencing a lot of pain and hardship during what should have been a pretty straightforward ride. I missed my goal by a day, but persevered through to the end. I learned a lot on that trip about listening to my body, and making good decisions about forward progress. On the other hand I also learned a lot about pushing through pain and relying on mental toughness for getting the job done. 

Later that year despite my better judgement I signed up for the notoriously tough Soggy Bottom 100, a 100+ mile mountain biking race starting and ending in Hope, Alaska. With another self imposed goal I set out to finish this race in under 10 hours. I fell short of that goal again but learned that I liked the racing mindset, and enjoyed being a part of the organized event. I remember at the time being really excited about competing in some more events and getting dialed in on the new aspect of the sport. It was a month later that I went to Antarctica for the first time and life has been a little bit hectic since then. I haven’t dedicated the time in my life to pursue biking in that aspect, as I was focusing more on rock climbing and skiing. 

This past year I’ve finally been able to get back to biking like I wanted to, and I see the Tour Te Waipounamu as the test for my prep work in the years past. I’m excited to see if I can put together those lessons learned on these rides and others to pull off a good attempt at the course. 

Do you have a favourite track to ride in Alaska? Tell us a bit about it.

This would probably have to be Lost Lake for repeatability. There are some better trails if you only have a chance to ride them once, but for riding over and over I think the Lost Lake trail takes the cake. It can be ridden from both directions but I prefer to ride it as a loop from the Primrose parking lot – beginning by riding the road to the Lost Lake side before getting on the track itself. The climb is gradual but consistent with some steep and technical sections requiring all out lung burning effort, or getting off the bike and walking it. Eventually you break out into the Alpine with expansive views all around but notably of Mt. Ascension on your left, and back down and out to the town of Seward and the ocean beyond. Lost Lake itself is of course an obligatory stop requiring a dip in the near freezing waters before you continue on through the rolling alpine ridges through to the start of the Primrose descent. Here starts a near 600 meter technical descent back to the parking lot and the waiting car.

You’ve spent almost a year in New Zealand now. What do you think about the riding scene here?

I really like the riding scene here in New Zealand. I’m always amazed that nearly every little town I drive through seems to have its own little (or big!) mountain bike park, or pump track, or some other form of biking related construction. It seems like sport (and not just team sport) is really a massive part of the culture here. Kids are encouraged to find things they’re passionate about at a young age, and then to keep pursuing those things as they get older. 

I’ve never been anywhere where things like orienteering or rogaining, adventure racing, or other such forms of sport are as popular as they are here in New Zealand. That same passion is evidenced in the bike community by the plethora of biking events to choose from and the excitement of the curators of those events. Things like the Kiwi Brevet, the GSB, Tour Aotearoa and the multitude of 100km, 24hr, and 8hr races show the interest from a lot of different riders in this particular type of riding. The climate in New Zealand also plays a role in this as it’s almost never actually too cold to stop riding, except maybe in a few very specific spots. I’m definitely excited to delve further into the scene as I spend more time in New Zealand.

Training and build-up for the Tour Te Waipounamu

What has your build-up for the Tour Te Waipounamu looked like?

Training has been pretty loose and mostly based around trying to get in longer (100km+) rides with copious amounts of elevation gain each week. Unfortunately I have had a persistent shoulder injury that has kept me from riding anywhere near as much as I wanted to. I’ve been off the bike for nearly all of January in fact trying to get the shoulder sorted out! I got in some good long training rides back in October, November, and December though, and while I’m not where I want to be going into the event, I think I’ll be alright. In December I mostly focused on training to increase power, and I’m thinking that will have stayed with me. Right now training is mostly about strengthening my shoulder and my core, and in the final two weeks before the event I’ll get some more long rides in hopefully. 

Tell us about one of your most memorable training rides from the past couple of months.

Favorite training ride would be the extremely unofficial and definitely not organized Kahurangi 500! Riding from Murchison to Murchison in 58 hours via the Old Ghost Road, the Heaphy Track, the Rameka, and the Porika track with road mixed in was brilliant fun, and we had brilliant weather for the whole ride. What a stunning experience. Always fun to be out on a track that you know other keen bikers are on as well, suffering just as much as you are. Suffering was at a minimum on this ride though, with a shower and a soft bed both nights. 

Riding the Tour Te Waipounamu

What’s your bike set up?

I’ll be riding my Why Cycles S7 hardtail for the event  She’ll be shod with 29” wheels and a mid 2” variant of some XC tyre on it, probably Ardent Race. Not the fastest tire, but good peace of mind when it comes to the burly sections of track. No dynamo setup so just charging off of a power bank and trying to avoid using too many electrons. The bike is equipped with Shimano brakes and a Sram drivetrain with a 30t chainring and a 10-50t cassette. Lighting is from a Lezyne Macrodrive 1300 XXL and an old BD headlamp. A full complement of Revelate bags rounds out the setup, all stuffed with probably more stuff than I need that I’ll be cursing while pushing my bike over the numerous mountain ranges on route. 

Have you made any interesting modifications to your bike or other equipment for the race? 

I’ve put a lot of thought (as have many riders I’m sure) into whether or not it’s worth it to have a backpack that you can strap your bike to for the hiking sections. While I’m not sure that it is, I’ve prepared for the eventuality with a clever (at least I think it is) minimalist backpack/bum bag combo. I just finished putting it together though so it has no real world experience. The TTW seems like the perfect testing ground for such a thing! Keep in touch to see if it works out or not. 

Do you have any specific goals for the race and what do you hope to get out of it? 

I had originally set a goal of finishing in seven days, and not being absolutely destroyed by the end. I wanted recovery to be a matter of days, not weeks. But with the persistent shoulder issue I’ve given myself a lot more room to get it done, backing it out to ten days. My goal is to perform as well as possible in the race while maintaining a sustainable dialogue between me and my body. There is always pain in an event like this, but my hope is to not make the issue worse than it already is. 

Over the course of the race I hope to gain a deeper understanding of my own body, and mind. I hope to gain a deep sense of satisfaction at having achieved something difficult – or if I fail, at having given everything I reasonably could along the way. But more so I’m just excited to ride my bike for so long and see such an amazing view of the South Island while riding through it. 

How are you feeling about the race now?

I feel prepared, but there’s definitely a part of me that is worried about my body giving out during the race. I’m definitely excited for the race, right now, but I know that will change in the next couple of weeks. I’m expecting to go through the “over planning phase.” Where I’ve already taken care of everything I need to but find myself obsessing over tiny details that don’t matter or are already sorted. And then the phase where I just want the race to hurry up and start so I can stop thinking about it and just do it. 

You can follow Caleb’s progress on the MAProgress live tracking map. You can check out the route via that link now but the race (and live tracking) starts on 14th February. Other blogs we’ve written this week linked to the Tour Te Waipounamu:

• Learn more about the  Tour Te Waipounamu
• Meet Kath Kelly, one of eight women currently signed up for the TTW
• Meet Andrew Trevelyan – hear about a training ride through the Two Thumb Range