"I was ready to throw in the towel."
He said when he finally started he had to overtake hundreds of riders and it took until the start of the third lap to build up a decent lead.
Along with most of the other 250 competitors at the 2013 Pig and Whistle New Zealand Singlespeed Champs, Weinberg chose to drink a bottle of beer at the end of each lap.
Riders who declined the beverage were made to ride a longer lap as a consequence.
"I didn't end up drinking anything else during the race except for those beers," he said.
"When the second beer kicked in I actually felt quite good and settled into a good pace."
After winning the race, Weinberg was quickly escorted into an office at the Waipa carpark to receive his winner's tattoo.
He said he needed to have a quick discussion with his wife about where he should put his fourth national winner's tattoo, deciding in the end to put it on the side of his rib cage.
The Maori design was also offered to the women's winner of the event - Dunedin's Erin Greene.
Greene, who won a 24-hour race in Rotorua last weekend, said she was surprised to win her first national singlespeed title on Saturday.
"I was more focused on my costume," she said after racing the 33km course in a zebra outfit.
"It was awesome, though. The tracks were great. It was pretty much all the tracks I haven't ridden before."
Other contenders for the men's title included Rotorua's Mark "Cabin" Leishman and Rotorua's Sam Shaw, who came in shortly after Weinberg.
Leishman said Weinberg was simply too good and he deserved the title. "Second to Garth is almost like a win. He is a weapon on the bike."
The New Zealand Singlespeed Championships will be hosted by the Rotorua Singlespeed Society again in 2015 and will be hosted by Dunedin in 2014.
The winner of the best costume during Saturday's event was Wayne Gedye, who competed dressed in a scuba diving outfit.
