Dunedin carpenter Ray Hope used his experience to regain his 52km mountain bike title at the ninth annual Coastal Classic race yesterday.
The heavy October rains made the course a lot wetter than usual and the muddy patches tested the perseverance of the riders.
Hope (47) took the lead in the last 10km and won the race by the convincing margin of 3min 56sec in a time of 2hr 21min 03sec from Nick Beekhuis (Dunedin) 2hr 24min 59sec, Lochie McGregor (Dunedin) 2hr 25min 41sec and Brendon Alceroyd (Dunedin) 2hr 25min 41sec.
Hope rode with the bunch for the first 20km and then pulled away with a lead group. He handled the difficult downhill muddy section better than the other riders.
Mountain biking is the Hope family sport. Ray's wife Linda and daughters Samantha (17) and Shannon (15) also competed in the race.
Beekhuis (39), a Dunedin tour guide, came with a late rush to take second place at the line in front of McGregor to claim the open men's title.
Hope took the masters men's title.
McGregor (15), a promising Otago junior road cyclist who finished in the top 10 at the national road championships, was the top junior.
Kate Fluker (24), a Dunedin property valuer, retained the women's title that she won last year.
She pulled away from experienced international Erin Greene early on and was never challenged in the women's race. She came home mud-spattered after crashing on the last muddy downhill section.
Mathematics student Andy Pohl (23) took the lead after 19km and went on to win the 39km race in 2hr 4min 08sec from Wanaka graphic designer Jeremy Town (29) 2hr 12min 32sec and Tom Kaminszky (Dunedin) 2hr 15min 24sec.
"I broke away on the hills but I got leg cramps toward the end and found it hard to stay on my bike on the muddy downhill stretch near the finish," Pohl said.
The women's 39km race was won by Angela Roy (Dunedin) in 2hr 22min 24sec from Forsyth Barr investment adviser Haley van Leeuwen in 2hr 32min 56sec.
Van Leeuwen's chain broke when she crashed into a tree stump 2km from the end.
The 15km mountain bike was won by Michael Porter (Dunedin) in 45min 39sec from Oli Chignell 48min 44sec and his father, Mark Chignell, 48min 45sec.
Simone Johnson won the women's 15km race in 1hr 04min 50sec.
International track runner Rebekah Greene (Dunedin) stole the show in the 12km run when she beat all the male runners and won the race in 51min 35sec from Gary Bouner (Dunedin) 51min 40sec and Nick Kensington (Dunedin) 52min 30sec.
Bouner was the men's winner and Kensington was the first veteran male home.
Greene's time was a remarkable 8min 21sec faster than the winning men's time in last year's race.
Miranda Mirosa (30), a lecturer in consumer food science at the University of Otago, finished fourth in the race in 57min 5sec and was second in the women's section.
It was a day out for the family with her 4-year-old son Luca competing in the walk and her husband Romain carrying Mateo (1) around the walk.
A Dunedin senior police sergeant, Mel Aitken (35), was a convincing winner of the women's 21km run in 1hr 39min 22sec from Megan Balchin 1hr 43min 17sec and Emma Lloyd 1hr 47min 43sec.
Aitken, who has only been running for a year and won the women's section of the Dunedin marathon, scooted away from the start.
King's High School chemistry teacher Ant Rodger had to work harder to win the men's 21km in 1hr 27min 22sec from Adam Keen (Dunedin) 1hr 27min 44sec and Danny Garrett 1hr 32min 35sec.
Andy Town (Wanaka), who was third home in the race in 1hr 31min 20sec, took the veterans title. The top veteran female was Monica Aarsen in 2hr 10min 24sec.
Queen's High School attendance officer Julie Edmunds won the 12km walk for the third year in a row in 1hr 19min 23sec.
