Riders relish Rage

COLIN SMITH/Nelson Mail

BIRD BATH: Ralph Hetzel of Nelson, in unusual headgear, enters the water during the Rainbow Rage on Saturday.

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Perserverence finally paid off for birthday boy Joel MacMillan after he took line honours in Saturday's More FM Rainbow Rage adventure ride.

MacMillan, from Richmond, celebrated his 17th birthday on Saturday by recording the day's fastest time for the 106 kilometre journey from St Arnaud to the Hanmer domain.

It was the sixth time he'd entered the event, with his time of 3hr 44min 52sec easily eclipsing his own previous best mark of 4hr 50min.

It was well short of Tim Vincent's record of 3hr 29min 3sec set back in 2002, but still a satisfying return after an eventful ride in which he suffered an early crash and some late cramping. And it was still good enough to finish ahead of Hokitika's Shorty Allnutt in 3hr 48min and Blenheim's Richard Anderson in 3hr 49min 8sec after the trio had shared each other's company towards the end of the journey.

MacMillan had earlier suffered a spill, he said due mainly to his own inattention.

"I had a crash about 10km into the gravel [40km into the ride] and they all waited up for me which was nice of them," he said.

"I just got a bit close to Richard Anderson's wheel and I wasn't paying enough attention.

"He'd pulled off to the side to let me come through and I wasn't really watching what I was doing and just went down."

From there it was pretty much plain sailing, despite suffering some cramping late in the piece.

"Me, Richard and this other guy from Hokitika [Allnutt] ended up together for the last 40 to 50km. We had a group of six, but they were just slowly dropping off and it was just kind of the three of us doing the majority of the work.

"Richard punctured going through the last ford with about 20km to go and then coming into Jacks Pass, it was just me and [Allnutt].

"I cramped up quite a bit and he slowly pulled away from me and I thought to myself, `it'd be nice if he punctured', and then I get around the corner and he'd punctured, so I passed him and said `thank you' and carried on to the bottom."

MacMillan said he'd been looking to break four hours but never envisaged threatening Vincent's imposing record time.

"I knew what his record was, but I knew I wasn't going to get close to that.

"That's a pretty fast time, averaging almost 30kmh, and I'm definitely not strong enough to do that, even with a good tail wind."

Event organiser Mike Gane said the conditions were ideal with "a light headwind for the first half and a favourable tail wind helping them to the finish".

"The riders have enjoyed the best conditions for five years, I'd say," said Gane. "We did have a half hour delay at the start because the locked gate [to enter through the Rainbow Station] wasn't unlocked as promised, which was jolly frustrating.

"We'd have preferred that hadn't happened but everyone dealt with it in very good spirit."

He said there was one incident when a rider was airlifted out with a minor leg injury just before the halfway mark, although Gane said that was purely as a precautionary measure. He said the injury wasn't serious.

Meanwhile, Susie Wood retained her mantle as the first woman rider home, finishing 12th overall in 4hr 11min 58sec although, once again, she finished well outside the record women's time of 3hr 56min 47sec set, coincidentally, by Vincent's wife, then Sandy Kunz, in 2006.

Of the 501 entrants, 482 completed the distance, with the last rider home in 16hr 45min.

RAGE RESULTS

Results: (* denotes first in division) Joel MacMillan (M13-18*) 3hr 44min 52sec 1, Shorty Allnutt (M30-39*) 3:48.00 2, Richard Anderson (M13-18) 3:49.08 3, Bruce Cole-Baker (M19-29*) 3:56.58 4, Chris Sharland ((M19-29) 3:57.44 5, Thomas Hodgson (M13-18) 3:59.51 6, Sean Hambrook ((M13-18) 4:00.25 7, Kent Allison (M30-39) 4:09.45 8, Allan Killick (M40-49*) 4:09.45 9, Mark Dunlop ((M19-29) 4:10.21 10, Tim Bygate (M40-49) 4:11.40 11, Susie Wood (F30-39*) 4:11.58 12, Karl Strode-Penny (M30-39) 4:14.27 13, Henry Kersten (M30-39) 4:14.38 14, Michael Martin (M30-39) 4:15.36 15, Stephen Taylor (M40-49) 4:17.35 16, Aaron McGowan (M30-39) 4:19.43 17, Stealth Mode (singlespeed*) 4:20.33 18, Josh Findlay (M30-39) 4:22.26 19, Stephen Halligan (M30-39) 4:22.27 20. For full results check on-line www.rainbowrage.co.nz.

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