Coast To Coast Veteran Crashes, Snaps His Bike, And Finishes On A Borrowed Fold-Out Bike

For 58-year-old Ian Walsh, the Kathmandu Coast to Coast is familiar territory having competed 22 times, but this year’s race turned into his most “exciting” yet.

Just 5 km into the first 55km cycle stage, Walsh found himself tangled with a temporary traffic light, sending him on a wild ride that included a crash, a snapped derailleur, and a surprising rescue from a campervan couple armed with a fold-out bike.

Describing the incident, Walsh recalled, “And 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 a heavy collision with a traffic light, he managed to brush himself off, straighten up his seats and handle bars and carry on.

However, his troubles weren’t over. 20 kms later, the damage caught up with him when his bike’s derailleur snapped completely, leaving him stranded. With time ticking and limited options, Walsh weighed his next move.

“I was jogging along with my broken bike wondering how I was going to get to my team mate at the next transition because I knew he was busting to do the run and I didn’t want to let him down,” said Walsh.

“I was thinking about maybe asking at a farmhouse if they had a bike I 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?’”

In a stroke of luck and community spirit, Walsh was offered a fold-out bike by the camper van couple.

“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 170 bpm keeping up with the back of the group.”

Walsh ended up completing the 55km cycle stage before tracking down the generous couple and returning the bike.

He confesses, though it was his own doing, the incident was the first crash he’d had in 35 years of road cycling.

“I think after doing some adventure races, you have to solve problems as you go.”

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