Just tri to stop Mick
Gutsy 60-year-old doesn’t let bike crash hold him back
WANDANA Heights champion triathlete Mick Varker, pictured, has endured one of his toughest weeks, competing in the Bali International Triathlon less than a week after a serious bike injury.
Six days out from defending his title, the 60-year-old suffered a crunching fall, ripping open his stomach while riding at 50km/h.
“I don’t even know what I hit, but it bounced me forward on the bike and I was laying on my tribars with my chest, so basically I didn’t have any steering at all, and then I went in sideways down into the side of the road,” Varker said.
“I woke up and thought, ‘S---, I don’t know what happened there’.
“I couldn’t run, I ripped my guts open about half an inch from the old fella, pretty battered and bruised and bark off everywhere.
“I knocked myself out, so I was probably concussed.”
He picked himself off the canvas to defend his overall title six days later, before finishing 7th overall.
“I was nine minutes slower than last year and based on last year’s time, I probably would have won it again,” Varker said.
“But I’m very happy to do what I did and awfully pleased I could actually race.
“I knew that I’d struggle in the run, and I’ve never run 5km that slow in my life. But I jogged it out. I took a scalp along the way; I beat Jens Voigt off the bike — lucky he can’t swim.”
Varker came out of the water in third and off the bike in the overall lead, before slipping back six spots.
He still took out his over-50 category by more than six minutes, finishing 33 seconds outside the top five.
Varker said his next target would be in Elwood on November 26 in Round 1 of the 2XU Triathlon Series.
“I’ve never run 5km that slow in my life. But I jogged it out. I took a scalp along the way; I beat Jens Voigt off the bike — lucky he can’t swim.”