• Hard Luck Stories
  - Brendan
  - Timothy Burrell
• Cutest Race Stories
  - Quinn Francis
• Greatest Days
  - Rob Wadmore

... I can laugh about it now...

I had been training quite hard for the Colville 72km, which is also a pre-cursor race to the 300km Odyssey in 2 weeks. I was amped and ready to go. First part of the race was going really well, I had noticed my climbing had improved and was happy overall with how my personal time was going and the improvements I noticed in myself.

Then about 10km into the race, just after that long gradual climb on the gravel road, we got to the top, and I had been talking to a nice lady about how much more I enjoy going downhill than up. Got to the top and started my descent, and as my speed built, I was comfortable with it, but because I wasn't watching my speedo and concentrating on the road, I didn't realise I'd gotten up to around 40km/h, so coming into a corner, my bike started to fishtail, tapping on the brakes didn't help so I pulled them a little harder, locked out the back wheel, and from there it went horribly wrong. The bike started sliding sideways fast, I unclipped the foot facing the way I'd come, but couldn't get my other foot out. I leaned backward to avoid being flipped over forward at that speed, and just when I thought maybe just maybe it might be ok, I hit the dirt hard, left leg still clipped in and twisting painfully at the knee. I slid for awhile before coming to a rest in the middle of the road. Bike off to the side, still clipped to my foot, bleeding from the gravel rash in several places......then the bikes following started whizzing round the corner, flying past with yells of “crash” and “you alright mate?” before speeding off.

Eventually this older gent stopped to help me, (thanks Ian ) cleaned up the wounds and waited till I managed to get back on my bike with the plan of coasting to the bottom and waiting for tail end Charlie as I was in quite some pain and thought my race was over. Got to the bottom and found that as long as I was clipped in, with the exception of my leg feeling wobbly and a little sore, I could pedal. So pedal I did.....for the next 40km...apart from the evil big hill which I walked(limped) like everyone else.

At some point however, the iliotibial band in my right leg started to hurt from possibly overcompensating. At first it was a little niggle, then became painful and them more so, and so on. At the bottom of the other side of the big hill, I stopped at the paramedics, determined to finish the race, so I asked them to strap up both legs good and tight which they did....and that helped for a little while. But it got progressively worse and worse till at last, at Fantail bay, after I had finished the toughest sections of the course, I had to stop pedalling as it just simply hurt too much, and there was a radio station there. So my race ended 21km short of the finish line, after the toughest section, after all the effort I'd put in.....gutted. Great to watch the tail end riders fly through there, gutting to not be able to be one of them.

I got a lift back to my tent from fantail after being mangled by sandflies, where I pulled off my number and hobbled over to the finish line to hand it in, just as the hard luck story prize was being handed over....too late even to enter that. Luckily though, I did manage to get the leftovers of the pre-paid Barbie I had been looking so forward to.

My left knee is now a much rounder looking version of my right knee, but feels on its way to healing.

Next year....I will be back, but maybe a little slower on the downhills......maybe.

Brendan.

I think my story would fall into two baskets - hard luck with a silver lining.  Drama that didn't even occur at the race, but before it.

It seemed so ironic that a family wedding just happened to fall on the same day as the Kona Colville Connection, all the more so that it was close to Colville - at Matarangi.  “Great!” I thought. “A good excuse to do the 40km ride at Colville .”

The bad luck all started at Thames .  My mum tried to convince dad to fill up with petrol at Thames but he refused.  So he drove on to Coromandel and discovered the petrol was empty.  This was at 9.30 pm - nothing was open.  So we had to make an emergency call to State - and paid $50 for 10 litres.

But the bad luck didn't end there.  And this time it affected me.  We were all set to leave Matarangi at 8am.  But my dad proceeded to drive into an electric circuit box which was conveniently in the middle of the driveway of the house we were renting.  Oh bother, that set us back an hour, just lucky the guy actually came!

I was demoralised when coming into Colville as the 40km had started on the first climb and I figured they would have a 20min lead on me by the time I started.  Lucky there was a 24km option!!!! 

So I started the race in dead last, and immediately launched an attack.  I kept picking off people and I think people were intrigued that such a fast rider was wrestling his way through the field - I could picture some of the riders thinking who is this guy and why is he passing me now?  I ended up 6th and even I couldn't believe the amount of people I passed - all 422 of them!

Big ups to the friendly organisers and for the spot prize that made my day.  I promise to get my license next year so if I hit a power box it will be only me to blame!

Timothy Burrell

Dad thought since I had turned one it was a good idea to take me on a MTB race.

The Kona 72km ride sounded perfect I thought……Dad said unless I pushed some of the hills then the 24km was what we would do on account of my fat butt and  wet nappy.

I convinced Nanny, Poppa & Mum to join in and we ended up in Coville.

I was quite impressed with the turn out and had a perfect vantage point from my pillion seat behind Dad….. even if the air wasn't that fresh.

We started off along with the clown family and the nice lady with the bike trailer, I was quite jealous because the trailer looked a bit more up market than my pillion seat.

Fortunately Dad had a good supply of Hot Cross buns and I sat back and enjoyed the view.

The first hill I thought was a breeze and yelled loudly at Dad when he stopped and pushed….I then had to apologise when I realised he had stopped to lend a chain tool to some poor bloke who lost his chain at the bottom of the first hill.

We continued on from there at a steady pace.

1x nappy change, 4x hot cross buns, 5 x moro bars, 1 x beach visit, several photo stops, 3x hills, 2 sleeps, 3 ½ hours and 24km later I crossed the finish line to a mighty cheer from the crowd.

Thank you to all the riders who supported my efforts through out the race and kept Dad motivated…..(Particularly the ladies that took photos of me and Dad with his camera) its good to see some great sportspersonship out there.

Next year I plan to be in a trailer with a few pillows and snacks at hand instead of in dad's bag.
Maybe a blanket or two and a pillow as well.

Cool event guys thank you.

Quinn Francis (Age 1 year)
Waitakere

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I've done the 72km ride a few times in the past, but a car ran over my leg last year and broke my tibia (which now has a Titanium rod) and seeing I only got back on the bike 3 months ago I decided to do the “easy” 24 km Family ride (Hah give the man a Tui!)

Well I had a great time. Doing  a few decent training rides during Summer was part of the fun and on the day had a great ride and now I no longer feel like the cripple I was for the second half of last year…looking forward to doing the 40k or 72 next year.

The 24 km is a respectable ride and great intro to the sport. Its got a bit of everything, gravel roads, clay roads and I loved that fast reasonably technical downhill on the singletrack.  I did feel pity for the poor families I saw pushing up the hills!

My ride had a funny ending. I decided to have fun and enjoy the ride rather than be competitive so I was the joker with the Jesters Helmet (yes it was NZS whatever approved).

Anyway I really took my time on the first half of the ride, taking photos, waiting for my son and texting, but decided to go hard out after that and when I got to the turn off before the last hill decided to cane it to try and bring my time down under 2 hours. I was overtaking everyone when about 1km this bloke sped past me  and I tried to catch him but he was a bit too fast, Then all these people started cheering and everything and then I found out I'd been chasing the first man home from the 72 km ride!

So if you have any footage of that bloke being chased by a Jester on the home straight, it was I!

Rob Wadmore.