A Kathmandu Coast to Coast veteran had a remarkable comeback over the weekend after snapping his bike in a dramatic a crash – before going on to complete the race on borrowed wheels.
The endurance race, held every February, challenges athletes to run, kayak and cycle from the West Coast’s Kumara Beach to New Brighton in Christchurch.
Despite completing the race 22 times, one of only seven to do 20 or more, Ian Walsh said this year’s event was his most exciting.
The New Zealander smashed into a temporary traffic light 5km into the 55km cycle stage, which damaged his bicycle’s derailleur gearing mechanism — but not his determination to finish.
Describing the crash, Walsh recalled: “As we got towards Kumara I thought, I better go and take a turn at the front of the bunch.
“I just dipped my head a bit and gritted my teeth to keep up. In that time, we’d come up to the cones but I wasn’t really looking ahead like I should have. Suddenly, I saw it coming directly in front of me. I swerved to the inside to avoid it, but my balance took me the other way.”
After the spectacular tumble, he scrambled back onto the bike but soon realised the gearing mechanism hadn’t got through unscathed.
More 20km later, the derailleur snapped completely, leaving Walsh stranded. With the time still ticking, Walsh began jogging with his broken bike, wondering how he was going to get to his teammate at the next transition.
“I knew he was busting to do the run and I didn’t want to let him down.”
Walsh thought about asking a nearby farmhouse if they had a bike he could borrow.
“Then I saw a camper van with an older couple watching the race, and the woman called out, ‘Do you want a bike?'”
It was a stroke of luck and goodwill in the shape of a fold-out bike.
“It was a small-wheeled bike that was ‘very substantially built’ with a big carrier on the back.
“Funnily enough, I was alright on the downhill and OK on the flat but, when I came to this gentle climbs, man I was burning the wick there. I think my heart rate was about 170bpm keeping up with the back of the group.”
Walsh completed the 55km cycle stage, and then returned the bike after tracking down the couple.
He said the crash was his own doing and the first he’d had in 35 years of road cycling.
“I think after doing some adventure races, you have to solve problems as you go.”
Tasmanian Alex Hunt won the Longest Day men’s multisport race at his seventh attempt and New Zealander Deborah Lynch claimed the women’s event in her third attempt.
On Sunday, RNZ reported the last time an Australian won the Coast to Coast was John Jacoby of Melbourne in 1993.
