Cycling: Hundreds clip in for lake race

The 2015 Bike The Lake event got under way on Eat Streat on Sunday. Photo / Mead Norton

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sam Gaze was the first rider across the line at the 2015 Bike The Lake event.

He headed a big field around Lake Rotorua to claim the win on Sunday, as part of the Rotorua Bike Festival.

The mountain biking specialist from Cambridge was in great form during the road cycling event, which saw participants complete two full circuits of Lake Rotorua.

There was also a one-lap option on offer with 585 riders entering the two distances.

Gaze, who regularly enters events in Rotorua, completed the main race in 2h 3m 43s, four seconds ahead of second-placed Nick Osten (Auckland).

Meanwhile, Bronwyn MacGregor won the women's race in a time of 2h 13m 32s, about two minutes ahead of Christine Render.

Bike the Lake organiser Shane Hooks said it was a good day of racing despite some wet weather. He said they were rapt with the number of entrants.

Hooks said due mainly to the wet conditions and technical roads out the back of the lake, there were some crashes during the event.

"There was a series of falls which required ambulance attention, all due to difficult conditions," he said. "Our best wishes are with the riders and I would like to commend the half a dozen riders that forwent their races to support those injured riders."

He said any bike accident that requires ambulance attention "breaks your heart as an organiser". The worst injury was a fractured hip, but the rider was "up and talking".

He said they had given the participants who stopped racing to help the injured riders a free entry into the Tour of the Bay of Plenty later in the year.

The Bike the Lake event has been running for 11 years and started in the middle of Eat Streat on Sunday.

-Men: 1 Sam Gaze (02hr 03min 43sec), 2 Nick Osten (02:03:47), 3 Jeremy Anderson (02:06:08), 4 David Venter (02:06:08), 5 Cam Riches (02:06:08).

Women: 1 Bronwyn MacGregor (02:13:32), 2 Christine Render (02:15:38), 3 Emma Cachemaille (02:23:13), 4 Petra Trust (02:23:16), 5 Joanna Sharpe (02:25:27).