Robinson still rides the roads

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne cyclist Neil Robinson won the 20-kilometre time trial in the 75-to-79 age group at the New Zealand Masters Games in Whanganui yesterday.

His time was 34 minutes 59 seconds — 50 seconds less than the next-fastest rider, Whanganui’s Laurence Sunde.

It had been five years since Robinson rode an individual time trial, and windy conditions and roadworks made for a testing course.

Today, Robinson, 77, was to ride in the 1.6-kilometre hill climb. His final event at the Games this year will be the 45-kilometre road race tomorrow.

Robinson took up cycling as a sport relatively late. He started on January 28, 1959 — a date he remembers because it was the day before his 17th birthday.

Grass track racing at Childers Road Reserve was a big part of the sport in Gisborne then. In 1962 he moved to Auckland and was a member of the Point Chevalier club for four years.

His main cycling achievement during this time was victory in the Auckland-to-Wellington Dulux Six Day race, and his success in the King of the Mountains made him the first rider to do the double.

In 1965 he was in the New Zealand team to ride the 500-mile Tour of Tasmania. He was first Kiwi to finish, in fifth place. A year later he was a member of the first official New Zealand team to compete in the world road championships, in Germany.

At the end of 1966, he moved back to Gisborne to save some money. He rode the Dulux again in 1976, but ended up in Palmerston North Hospital after going over a bank. He broke a collarbone, was concussed and cracked two vertebrae.

In recent decades he has kept up his interest in the sport by competing in cycling events at masters games with considerable success.