Locals climb aboard tour bandwagon

A Kaitaia man has joined forces with organisers to encourage more road cycling enthusiasts to sign up for the Tour of New Zealand - whether it's doing all eight stages of the North Island leg or just the first leg from Cape Reinga to Kaitaia - when the 2nd annual event gets under way on Saturday, April 20.

Riding the first stage as an individual but planning to do the entire North Island leg in the future, Colin Horsfall hoped that by promoting a greater awareness of the event within the Far North community, more locals would participate.

A member of the Far North Flash Club, the 71-year-old retired man said he will use this year's tour to build up for the Cape to Kaitaia Challenge in June. He had been inspired to take up cycling relatively recently after a visit to the doctor.

"I learned my cholesterol levels had gone into bad figures. He said you can either take this little white tablet every day or control your weight," Horsfall said, adding changing his eating habits had also helped and the progress he'd made since was very pleasing.

"I would like to see more people of my age and older keeping themselves fit. You don't have to go into old age staggering about," he said with a grin, adding he also would like to see younger people taking better care of themselves and looking at the bigger picture, perhaps the local cycling club would one day be able to offer a junior section.

Tour spokesman Peter Yarrell noted Horsfall was one of a good crowd of Far North locals taking part on the first day in a field of 60 so far and growing. Others include Bruce McDowell, who's apparently entering a team, Lorna Denmead, Phillip Gibbs, Hinerangi Waikai and a "great group" made up of students from the Kaitaia Abundant Life School doing the first day in relay.

The first stage of the South Island leg which gets off to a simultaneous start from Bluff already has around 120 riders; with an estimated 25 per cent of riders overall coming from Australia, England, US, Hong Kong and Japan.

Yarrell said numbers were starting to spike dramatically as the closing date for registration looms. As well, he said every rider will carry a thimble full of sand from the beach of Cape Reinga (ie those doing the North Island tour leg), while those doing the South Island tour will ride with a pebble picked up off the beach at Bluff. "These will be mixed together and put in a glass urn with the tour logo and koru attached and presented to the five chosen beneficiaries of the tour, along with the cash raised by the competitors, at the prizegiving in Wellington," said Yarrell. He added this would be "a significant presentation representing the journey and the two courses meeting at Wellington".

The North and South Island legs of the tour leave Cape Reinga and Bluff at 8.30am on Saturday, April 20.

For the North Island leg, the cyclists will cycle to the first day finishing line at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom in Awanui, with the top riders expected to complete the 111km transition in around three hours depending on conditions, and prizegiving set to take place between midday and 2pm approximately.

From there, the riders will pack up their bikes and drive to Opononi for the Day 2 leg on Sunday. This will see a "free-ride" taking place from Opononi to the official start line at Tane Mahuta before pedalling the remaining 70km to Dargaville. (Apparently this section of the ride will be covered by Trenz, an organisation promoting New Zealand businesses and based at the Copthorne Hotel in Omapere on Sunday.)

Day 3 of the event on Monday has the cyclists riding from Dargaville to the Brnderwyns before packing up and driving south to restart day 4 in Tuakau where they will ride 84km to Raglan. The remaining four days of the tour will see legs cycling from Waitomo Caves to Taumaranui, National Park to Wanganui, and Pahiatua to Masterton, eventually winding up with a special stage on the final day 8 in front of the Beehive in windy Wellington on Monday, April 29.

More information can be found on the event website www.tourofnewzealand.co.nz.