Trio of elite riders humbled by crash

An action-packed first stage of the 2011 BDO Tour of Northland left a question mark as to whether three of the top contenders would finish the four-day cycle race.
Around 40 elite riders left Tikipunga Sports Park ahead of 410 fellow competitors yesterday and headed west along Three Mile Bush Road and Kokopu Road, Titoki, Pakotai, Tangowahine and on to the finish line at Dargaville under blue skies.
The 92km first-stage course previously began at Otaika, but was changed this year to avoid the busier route, which travelled through Paparoa.
However, nothing could prevent a trio of elite riders from clipping each other's wheels and crashing at the 25km mark, along Kokopu Road. Whangarei's Lee Johnstone, Auckland-based Nick Lovegrove and Jeremy Smart found their first day of the race abruptly shortened.
They were all up and walking after the accident but were taken to Whangarei Hospital via ambulance to get a check-up.
Tour organiser Stephen Cox said he was not sure if the riders would line up again today for stage two.
"Lee Johnstone has a possible broken collarbone and there were also a couple of broken bikes so I can't tell you yet whether they will ride again tomorrow but everyone was up walking," he said.
Meanwhile, William Bowman and James Oram led the group home and shared the stage win crossing the line in 2h 22m 27s, five minutes ahead of blind cyclist Rob Matthews, riding tandem with Justin Kerr, in third place.
The 84km stage two leaves Dargaville today at 8am, headed for Opononi via the Waipoua Forest.