Surprise Winners Dominate Karapoti
Michael Jacques / 08.03.2010
More than 1300 riders from eight countries assembled for the event that kick-started New Zealand’s mountain bike movements 25 years ago. The 50k ride around Upper Hutt’s rugged and remote Akatarawa Ranges is renowned for testing both body and bike and while the forecasted rain and winds never quite arrived, storming rides from two unexpected winners were the talking point of the day.
The name of Tim Wilding didn’t feature once during pre-race build up for this year’s Merida Karapoti Classic. The Taupo mountain bike and off road triathlon specialist has been thereabouts on the national scene for several years, even winning a couple of national title, but a string of punctures and crashes have ruined any chance of success in New Zealand’s premier mountain bike event, to the point where even Wilding himself was surprised to find himself alone at the front of the race after only 15k.
When the race got underway with Karapoti’s famed LeMan’s style start across the Akatarawa River, all eyes were on defending champion Mark Leishman (Rotorua), 2008 winner Stu Houltham (Wellington) and current New Zealand number two Brendon Sharratt (Christchurch). No one mentioned Tim Wilding, and thus no one reacted when the 26 year old when straight to the front.
“I felt pretty good right from the start, so I decided to puish it and see if anyone wanted to come along,†said Wilding after the race.
No one did. Or not for long anyway. Houltham and Sharratt stayed close in the first 15k through Karapoti Gorge and the undulated approach to Deadwood Ridge, the first of Karapoti’s famed climbs. But once the route headed uphill Wilding went solo.
This wasn’t unexpected; Wilding is a former national hill climb champion. But with his record of disappointing Karapoti showings Houltham wasn’t unduly worried so early in the race. Sharratt, meanwhile, was focusing on Houltham, whose record on the gruelling course included a win and three other podium placings.
This was a sound tactic because Houltham did indeed start closing on the surprise leader as they approached the infamous Rock Garden, a 3k long downhill over soccer-ball-sized rocks and waist high drop-off’s. But no sooner said and Houltham experienced his own string of bad luck as a series of punctures suddenly saw him out of contention.
This left Sharratt stranded in no-man’s land. Well ahead of anyone else but not close enough to launch an attack on an inspired Tim Wilding, who led over the gruelling Devil’s Staircase bike carry section with close to two minutes in hand. That opened up to three minutes as he started the last long climb of the day up the Pram Track to the top of Doper’s Hill, but even Wilding himself still wasn’t convinced that this could be his day.
SleepMonsters
