Olympian Kashi Leuchs, of
Dunedin, and team-mate Marcus Roy, of Invercargill, won the
inaugural 240km Alpine Epic which finished in Tekapo on
Saturday.
The pair crossed the finish line in 13hr 27min 47sec in front
of a 200-strong crowd on the shores of Lake Tekapo.
Endurance athlete Mark Williams, from Queenstown, and
team-mate Scott Wilder came in second, 12min later.
"It was a real challenge," Leuchs said in a press release.
"Four days of cross-country mountain bike racing over 240km
is hard going.
"Having said that, the track is absolutely beautiful and you
get to see incredible picture postcard scenery all the way.
I'll definitely be back for another go."
Former New Zealand mountain bike representative Megan
Dimonzantos and Sadie Parker Wynyard beat Denise Thorne and
Georgie Mclean to claim overall female honours in a time of
18hr 48min 55sec.
Jamie Fitzgerald and Rob Hamill, both past winners of the
Transatlantic Rowing Race, competed together and found the
course extremely challenging but said the camaraderie and
evening campsites made the whole experience lots of fun and
very memorable.
Race director Nick Ross said the event was a huge success.
"We knew it had huge potential because we've competed in
events like this overseas, but were absolutely stoked that
it's proven so popular from the get-go," he said.
"We weren't expecting to have a full field in our first year
of running the event but we had to close off entries early
and even had a wait list."
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