Loose bolt ends bid

Every sporting event has its hard-luck story, but that was scant consolation for Wairarapa's Reuben Vermeer at the weekend.

The 29-year-old pest control officer from Masterton was heading for a racing career-high result on Saturday, charging through the field ahead of hundreds of the country's top off-road motorcycle experts at the annual Acerbis Four-Hour Endurance race on forest land near Taupo.

The Yamaha man was closing in on the No1 spot in the ironman category, one of the rare breed of heroes who opt to ride solo for the duration of the gruelling gut-buster, within sight of the class leader, Taupo's Brad Groombridge, with six of the seven arduous laps completed.

But just as Vermeer looked to make a last-bid effort over the final 35-minute lap to overhaul Kiwi international Groombridge, everything came tragically unstuck.

"An accessory bolt holding my after-market handlebars in place sheared off," he said.

"It gave me quite a fright. I could feel and hear something wasn't right but, when the handlebars suddenly came loose, I had real problems."

Fortunately, plenty of plastic Acerbis track marking tape was on hand and Vermeer scavenged some of that to bind the handlebars in place.

"It was pretty cool to have the race sponsor's product right there at trackside," he said.

"It was enough to get me back home, although I had slipped down the field quite a bit."

Vermeer eventually had to settle for 40th overall in the 200-plus field, although that was still good enough for fourth overall in the ironman class.

"I had been doing pretty well too because Brad had a bigger fuel tank fitted to his bike so he could bypass the pits and only have to stop every second lap to refuel.

"I had to come into the pits each lap and that cost me quite a bit of time.

"It was certainly disappointing, it could have been my best ever result."

Vermeer had finished fourth overall at the Dead Toad Enduro race in Auckland two months ago, an event won by fellow Yamaha rider Adam Reeves, of Palmerston North - and he is rising fast up the national cross-country ranks.