Tomorrow, he’ll spend about 12 hours in the saddle, making his way in what may be fairly challenging conditions, biking from Queenstown to Invercargill, helping to raise money to keep the Otago Rescue Choppers in the air.
Macdonald, 34, is one of a hundred-odd riders who’ve signed on for this year’s Westpac Chopper Bike Ride, an annual fundraiser for the Lakes District Air Rescue Trust, and while he’s used his road bike as a training tool over the years, he’s used to more "short, explosive stuff".
"If it was a race, I would definitely be up shit creek," he laughs.
"But I think we have a certain speed, so I don’t think it’ll be too bad — I’ll be off the back of [TV personality] Paddy Gower all day."
It’s not the first time Macdonald’s raised money for rescue choppers.
In 2020 he and three other pro mountain biking mates — Eddie Masters, Charlie Murray and Anton Cooper — ran half marathons in their quarantine hotel rooms, ultimately raising $25,000 which was split between the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and Christchurch’s Burwood Spinal Unit.
The latter’s a place Macdonald became intimately familiar with after an horrific crash at the world champs in Quebec, Canada, in September, 2019.
Three-quarters of the way down his first run, he hit an exposed root and went flying over the handlebars, sustaining serious fractures to his T12 and L1 vertebrae.
"I lay on the side of the mountain [for five hours] waiting for a helicopter to show up.
"I couldn’t feel from my hips down . . . that was probably the worst time of my life, just because I was in the unknown.
"When you’re in a situation like that, all you want to do is get to the hospital and be assessed."
Macdonald says, with spinal cord injuries, time’s of the essence — the longer treatment’s delayed, the greater the chance of permanent paralysis.
He ultimately had to wait about 20 hours before surgery, noting he was in the best possible hands, and when he came out he had "full sensation" from his hips to his knees, but nothing from his knees down.
"But in my mind, I wasn’t leaving without being able to walk and ride my bike again."
A phenomenal amount of rehab, including four weeks at Burwood, followed as Macdonald set himself a goal to race in the 2020 world cups.
"The biggest goal for me was to walk out of Burwood . . . no assistance needed.
"And I did that."
Macdonald then returned to his Rotorua base, kept working with a physio and eventually got back on his bike — "honestly, I could ride a bike easier than I could walk" — then later had some of the rods removed from his spine.
A year after his crash, he was back in Europe eager to start racing again, though there was one goal he was still to tick off. Crashing.
"That was probably my biggest fear.
"A week before I went into the race, I was like, ‘the last thing I need to face is crashing’, because I wanted to know whether I was able to handle it or not.”
That happened when he ran over a ski pole and was, again, thrown over the handlebars, and landed straight on his back.
"My right leg instantly went numb.
"But I think it was just the impact on the nerves . . . I stood up and it was like the best thing that happened to me in the world because I was like, ‘no way, I’m all good’.
"I’ve achieved some pretty cool things through my career, but being able to walk and race my bike again has definitely been the biggest achievement."
He’s acutely aware, though, of how easily it could have ended differently and while eternally grateful to the Canadian rescue chopper, believes we’re "very fortunate" in New Zealand.
"Those guys are to you within 40 minutes.
"I think what those guys do in a day-to-day work environment in NZ is amazing . . . they do an insane job.
"For us to be able to raise funds for them to keep going, because it’s not a cheap operation, and to be able to support them is awesome.
"It’s literally saving lives in remote areas that an ambulance can’t get to."
Tomorrow’s Westpac Chopper Bike Ride’s the 15th edition — this year riders aim to raise $150,000; by deadline yesterday, they’d surpassed the halfway mark, with $75,247 donated via the Givealittle page (Westpac Chopper Bike Ride 2026).
