Young Riders Win NZ’s Oldest Mountain Bike Race

The Gazley Skoda Karapoti Classic is renown as the Southern Hemisphere’s longest running mountain bike race. So, it was fitting, on its 40th anniversary event, the race should be won by an old hand and rookie.

Established in 1986, the Gazley Skoda Karapoti Classic is thought to be the longest running mountain bike race in the Southern Hemisphere. Certainly, it is New Zealand’s eldest. Based in Upper Hutt’s rugged Akatarawa Ranges near Wellington, the course is an old-school adventure ride featuring huge hills and river crossings amid remote, rugged and historic forest trails.

Certainly some of the riders are old school. Eighty-year-old Peter Schmitz (Wgtn) was back for his 35th Karapoti and former organiser, Simon Kennett, was back riding the same bike he rode to win the race in 1988.

The winner amongst women, however, was definitely new school. On a rugged route that is supposed to favour course experience, Christchurch’s Mary Gray moved to the front on the first big climb up Deadwood Ridge and stayed there for the rest of the day.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Gray after her surprise win ahead of Nelson’s Emma Bateup, Wellington’s recent Coast to Coast winner Deb Lynch and Namibian Olympian Michelle Vorster.

“There were quite a few women quite close early on, which was nice. So I just decided to ride hard and see what happened.”

What happened was that she rode away to win by almost 8min in 2hrs 59min 55secs to become only the 24th woman in forty years to break Karapoti’s magical three-hour barrier.

A year ago Palmerston North’s Caleb Bottcher executed almost exactly the same sort of race – keying off others for the first quarter of the race before suddenly finding himself in front and deciding to go for it – to take his first win at Karapoti.

“This year I felt like the guy everyone else was watching,” said Bottcher after crossing the finish line in 2hrs 17min 03sces. So I thought, ‘oh well I better just go for it’”. And that’s what he did, eventually winning by more than five minutes , as only 23secs separated second and third placegetters Connor Johnston (Rotorua) and Glen Haden (Palm Nth).

First and foremost, however, Karapoti has been a people's race for riders of all age and ability. Catering for everyone from elite to also-rans to mountain biking’s off-beat fads, Karapoti celebrates all aspects of the sport. As well as the feature 50k, there’s a 20k introductory race and a 5k kids’ event. And while the pro’s race for cash, there are amateur age grades and special categories for corporates, families, tandems and even unicycles, the best fancy dress and the worst luck. This year even sees something for cycling’s latest fad – Ebikes!

“On top of that, says Jacques, the feature 50k route has remained unchanged since 1988. So everyone one who races Karapoti can compare their results with the same results for 40 years.

Of course, if you’ve been racing Karapoti for 36 consecutive years like Marco Renall, you tend to compare with your own results from last year or 10, 20 or 30 years ago!

Full results at www.karapoti.co.nz/history

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