Jordan Pearson recently completed the Speight’s Coast to Coast, racing a gruelling 243 km’s from New Zealand’s West to East Coast, crossing the mighty Southern Alps and some of our merino country in the process. An Icebreaker sponsored athlete, Jordan put our GT Baselayers to the ultimate test.
“My first Speight’s Coast to Coast went better than expected with great results in all of my sections. My school team finished 3rd in the 2 Day School Boys section.
On the beach I received a lot of media attention in my R&R Sport kit, a bright yellow school team race bib with Icebreaker tattoos on my face. The race began well with an average run placing me in the third bunch up the road. Ok but the bunch wasn’t working well together so using my awesome Giant TCR Advanced I made the jump up to the second bunch. However, this bunch wasn’t working well together either, so when I got the chance I made a break up to the first bunch. With about 20km to go on the first ride, the individuals expected the team members to tow them to the run transition. This left me pulling along the first bunch without help. I soon got sick of towing them along so I broke away seeing if I could catch Steve Gurney. I didn’t quite catch him before the transition but still good enough to be 5th overall into transition giving my team runner a five minute lead over the other school boy teams. After a decent run by my team mate, we were still placed third, 20 minutes behind second place. A good day 1.
Day 2 began well, with Steve Gurney, Olivia Spencer-Bower and Kate Cambie in my start group. Steve and I charged through the bike catching other competitors easily as we worked together to Mt White Bridge. I was really pleased to actually lead Gurney while running down to the kayak. My Icebreaker GT layers were ideal for the paddle through the higher than normal gorge. Took a few waves over the bow but great fun and fast! The kayak was going well until just before Woodstock where the wind picked up to almost impossible conditions for paddling. Thanks to the wind and my relative light weight I had several swims which lost me at least 40 minutes. Even the elites and heavier paddlers were having major issues with the wind. After a fast transition, my team mate was flying down the final cycle until 2 punctures ended any chance of moving in to second place, crossing the line in an overall time of 14:10:00.
Overall, the race went well with only a few glitches. Thanks to Icebreaker for the merino layers.”
- Jordan Pearson, Icebreaker Sponsored Athlete
