[important]Final 2014 Centurion announcement![/important]

Welcome to the final announcement of the fifth edition of the Annual Atyrau Centurion Ride !

The highlight of the AtyrauOutdoors biking season will take place on Saturday September 20^th . Hopefully you’ve started picking up the riding since the previous announcement of the dates as we’re up in two weeks!

2013 Centurion finishers posing at Dostyk

[warning]The Centurion will be postponed with one week to Saturday September 27^th in case of unfavourable (wet) weather.[/warning]

If you joined recently, haven’t gotten more intimate with the Centurion ride or simply haven’t trained yet this year, here are the principles:

Who

[pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”30%”]”What’s this Centurion business?”[/pullquote]

Participation to the Centurion requires that you regularly ride with the A-riders group. Although the Centurion should (and will) be a significant physical and mental challenge, every participant should be able to do this distance in a comfortable and healthy way. Considering the Atyrau B*&%$ch WindFactor (=strong winds) and potential for sandy surfaces, a 100 km ride is very demanding and we don’t want to push anybody over his / her limits.

We’re not trying to put people off, but it is un-fair if the whole group has to wait for one un-prepared rider. If there are people who want to do the route a bit slower, they can do what they want, but they should get in touch with each-other. We will not be making any arrangements for them….

Rider Prep

We want to cycle as a group for social and logistics reasons. It just makes a hell of a difference if you as a potential participant have ridden at least a few rides of 65/75 km. That will roughly allow you to  make the ultimate jump to 100 km; it will usually be the last 30 km’s or so that prove to be most demanding.

Bike Prep

[pullquote align=”left” textalign=”left” width=”30%”]Be good to yourself and social to your fellow riders and prep well and serious[/pullquote]

You do yourself and your fellow riders a big favour here if your prep your bike well and take enough spares.
So start the Centurion with a clean bike that you have lubed and inspected thoroughly, make sure your tyres and tubes are in good and predictable shape.
Also one spare tube is not enough, this just gets you home. Take 2, or better still 3 with you. Consider strong tie-wraps for ripped tyres or better still, even bring a spare, as well as a spare mech hanger. (yes it has happened, they do break in Atyrau)

Bring plenty of energy and drinks. one doesn’t get around on one bidon, take around 4-5 litres -one for every hour- if you can. Bananas, nuts dried fruits, well just bring lots of it !

In the Bag

Don’t forget to bring a cell phone, some cash, and an ID, in case you get stopped by police.

Stops

The planned number of stops during the Centurion Ride will be limited to 3 and the duration of every stop will be around 10 minutes. We aim to do the Centurion in 5.5 upto 6 hours. Although we all love biking, we want to avoid it becomes a whole day event. Too many and too long stops extend the duration of the Centurion Ride significantly…

Early exits

A very early exit point exists at Levee junction and gets one back to town with around 40 km’s in the legs.

Another early exit point exists at Atyrau Mountain and gets one back to town with around 65 km’s in the legs. This point is also the point of no return. You decide to continue here means you WILL make it!

Speed

We will try to maintain an average speed of 22 km/hours. To achieve this average we have to target a steady pace of 24 km/hours. On the other hand, we will not have  “peaks” up to 30 and (much) more. Referring to the previous paragraph, we want to avoid some people waiting for 20 minutes every 10 km while others are struggling to catch up…

Route

The Centurion route has been set out and tested. Some brand new tested tracks unlocking Almaly offroad are combined with some existing tracks. The full route has been tested.

The route can be downloaded here and can be uploaded to a GPS as a course.

• Instructions for Garmin owners: Copy these files to the “newFiles” directory on the device. After startup of the Garmin device, goto <Menu> , <course> or <location> and select 2014 Centurion. This will get the course and waypoints automagically created.

• Instructions for non-Garmin owners: Download a KML version of our track and load in Google Earth ….

The Starting point will be in front of Old RiverClub on the boulevard at the big satellite dish (near the pedestrian bridge over the Ural).

We start riding at 07:30. So this is NOT 8 o’clock starting time as otherwise normal during this time of the year!

Please arrive at 07:15 as we will take some group pictures while we’re still fresh.

The Finish point will be at Dostyk village, where refreshments and a BBQ will be waiting, including the possibility of a swimming pool dip. Finish time estimated around 13:00.

Summary description of the route (See map section below for full details):

Start RiverClub Sat dish
Via boulevard, Balikshi to Pete’s villa
Pause at Pete’s Villa (22km)
To Levee Junction (very early exit point)
To Horse Bath
To the Mines
Via Mines highway to Atyrau Mountain
Pause at Atyrau Mountain (52km) (early exit point and point of no return)
Via Pelican pond follow brand new “northern dog trail” to A27 crossing
Via Almaly village (possibility to resupply in small shops) to Almaly lake
Pause at Almaly lake (74km)
Via “wheeping willow loop”
Via Ural river
Back to town along canal
Finish at TCO Dostyk village (102km)
BBQ, drinks and swimming

So as you can see the route does not come past Atyrau half way; we stay away from town the whole route.

Supporters

Supporters are welcome for those who make it back alive: Family members and friends of riders are welcome to join at Dostyk to hear us brag about this remarkable milestone and smell our suffering and to join in with a BBQ! Young supporters are most welcome as well, and if brave enough, can opt to go for a swim.

We will share the costs of the BBQ and this is estimated at around 3000-4000 KZT per adult and half that for children. Costs to be settled in Cash with Jeroen. When participant numbers are know, we will know the exact costs per person.

Jeroen Brantjes (cloggies[at]mac.com) acts as focal point for our Dostyk arrival.

Liability

[pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”30%”]”Man… Why did I try this… Had I only known!”[/pullquote]

AtyrauOutdoors is not associated with any professional, overarching riding organisation. Not in the Republic of Kazakhstan, not anywhere else. It simply consists of a bunch of very enthousiastic and posibly fanatic riders.

This means if you join us for the Centurion, you are in it on your own account. Don’t fingerpoint if you don’t make it, break your bike, have to take off work for recovery, can’t breastfeed because of dehydration, or whatever else you may not like.

And hence this very extensive description!

Now don’t despair. We will give each other a little supportive nudge when someone is falling to shambles!

Register

So you made it to here. Still interested?

[important]Then register with us. This is mandatory and required for logistical purposes.

Register for riding and who (including family names please) and how many people will join at Dostyk afterwards and who will indulge in the BBQ.[/important]

And as always:

 Ride with the winds, not against them !

Your cohort scouts,

Map