Taupō Enduro crash: Cyclist injured after being hit by ute mirror on Poihipi Rd

Tod Penberthy was injured after being hit by a vehicle during the Taupō Enduro race on Saturday.

An experienced Pāpāmoa cyclist is glad to be alive after being hit by a ute’s wing mirror during the Taupō Enduro.

Tod Penberthy said he had completed about 200km of the 322km race – two laps of Lake Taupō – by Saturday morning when he was struck on Poihipi Rd by the mirror of a passing ute, which he estimated was going at 80-90km/h.

He was taken to Taupō Hospital in an ambulance before being flown to Tauranga Hospital via rescue helicopter.

“I couldn’t speak, I was in agony.”

The 67-year-old said he was left with road rash, six broken ribs and a laceration down his right arm through the muscle and to the bone.

“They operated to get all the grass and the gravel out of my arm and sewed it up,” he told NZME from his hospital bed.

“I’ll be here for about four/five days.”

Penberthy said he had been coming second in his age category and could have come first if it was not for the incident.

He said the woman driving the ute, which was towing a trailer, came back to apologise and hold his hand while he waited for emergency services.

Tod Penberthy was airlifted to Tauranga Hospital.

He claimed the driver had sped up to avoid hitting a car coming the other way and misjudged the distance between him and her mirror.

He believed that if she’d braked to let the other car pass, then drove around him, the crash would have been avoided.

Penberthy said his partner, Srikham Lertlar, had been waiting for him at the finish line for three or four hours and was panicking.

“She had a massage table set up to massage me at the finish line and then she started hearing people say ‘oh my God, we’ve seen Tod on the side of the road and he looks like he’s in trouble’.”

“The police came and told her that I’d had a bad accident.”

As a former policeman and firefighter, he said he had seen it all when it came to road cycling incidents, so he took safety seriously.

He said he had been wearing safety gear and staying far left.

Tod Penberthy (front) and his partner Srikham Lertlar pictured when they arrived in Taupō, excited for his race on Saturday.

He said he always had it in the back of his mind that something like this could happen, but having taken all the safety precautions, he was still surprised when it did.

Penberthy said he had been road cycling for 45 years, including competing overseas, and this was his 12th time riding the track.

“I have never been hit, ever ... it was a real shock.”

Police were notified at 10.15am on Saturday that a cyclist had been struck by a car on Poihipi Rd.

They said inquires were under way into the circumstances of the crash.

No charges had been laid.

Hato Hone St John said an ambulance hired for the event was called to Poihipi Rd at 9.53am and took a person in a serious condition to Taupō Hospital.