There might have been an old fixed-gear bike on Lake Hawea Station when Jerry Rowley was a boy, but he just wanted to run up gullies after his older siblings in pursuit of deer.
Jerry (52) vividly recalls the trouble he had as a 12-year-old trying to keep up with his brother Tom (59).
"He disappeared over the skyline and I still reckon to this day it helped my stamina and endurance. It hurt," Jerry said.
Last year, he finally turned the tables on Tom in their new passion of cycling.
Tom took up the sport five years ago to help his knee recover after surgery and in February last year invited Jerry to train and ride with him in the inaugural 95km version of the Contact Epic mountain-bike ride around Lake Hawea.
Jerry, then a non-cyclist, took the bait and beat Tom by about 30 minutes, finishing in about five and a-half hours.
Afterwards, the brothers - who have explored both sides of the lake they grew up beside but never done a circumnavigation - felt they had unfinished business.
So they are back again this year to "join all the dots" and do the longer 125km race.
Two weeks prior to Tom's invitation, Jerry had taken an old bicycle up to Lake Ruataniwha to cycle along the canal and watch rowing races.
"I got a really sore [backside] but it gave me a taste. When Tom asked me, it seemed like a hell of a good idea. Lake Hawea has always been our place," he said.
Tom has long stopped laughing at his surgeon's suggestion he take up cycling and credits the sport for keeping his knees strong for work about the farm.
He and his wife Adrienne [known as A] farm at Lake Hawea Station, near Johns Creek, and regularly cycle for leisure and in events.
The national debate between farmers and recreationalists about public access is highly relevant in the Upper Clutha district.
Tom is a trustee on the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust and enjoys seeing the development of recreational opportunities.
After some initial misgivings about what he might have got himself into, Tom believes the trust is a good example of people with left and right-wing philosophies bringing their talents together to try to resolve the issues.
"I think Wanaka will become a destination just for biking, if it is not already," he said.
Jerry, who left the district and farmed for many years at Fairlie and in the Maniototo but now lives on a small farm at Mt Barker, shares similar sentiments to his brother.
Like many others, they love getting outdoors and exploring the district by bike.
Training for Round Lake Hawea has sometimes taken all day, especially when they bracken-bashed a path down the shores of Lake Wanaka with friends or visited Green Bush, in the Hunter Valley.
But a life of mustering on foot with little food or water for eight hours a day probably made it easier for them to take up endurance sports later in life, they said.
Tom also blamed it on "hand-me down dogs", saying he could walk faster then the dogs he was given by his parents.
"They were about 12 when we got them," he said.
Jerry agreed there was a lot of "hob-nail heading" required from them while the dogs remained in place and barked.
While Jerry "absolutely" intends to be racing his brother and the clock on Saturday, Tom has other ideas.
"No, there is only me in it . . . It will be a bit of Tom chasing Jerry, ' he said.
How they fare will depend on food and the weather (a northerly is forecast with bad weather tomorrow).
Last year, Jerry's food plan was a disaster. His jet plane lollies froze and he only had one piece of fruit cake.
This year he will take more to eat and drink but confesses "I find panting and eating really hard".
Tom thinks he will stop for a picnic, but not a leisurely one. "When do you do it [eat?].
Going up hill and going hard or down hill, when you don't want to have just one hand on the handlebar?"
• The Contact Epic Round Lake Hawea 125km race is organised by LMS Events and starts at 7am with an Anzac Day service on the Lake Hawea dam.
The 95km race starts at the same time, with a service, at Kidds Bush.
Entrants are to be on site by 6.50am. Cycling starts at 7.15am.
