Hardly any spills at Forrest Graperide

It was a post-quake bounce back for the country’s ‘‘original bunch ride’’.

Riders returned to Marlborough for the annual Forrest Graperide cycle race, with 300 more participants than last year, but still short of pre-quake levels.

The ‘‘elite’’ 101-kilometre event, dubbed the ‘‘Speed Bunnies’’, was taken out by Christchurch duo Michael Vink in the men’s category and Jeannie Blakemore in the women’s.

Event organiser Duncan Mackenzie was ‘‘thrilled’’ to see the number of riders heading in the ‘‘right direction’’ after the competition took a ‘‘huge hit’’ from the November 2016 quake.

‘‘It’s nice to see us reverse the trend from last year, we got badly hit by the earthquake because it cut us off from State Highway 1 and that had a huge impact on the number of people coming through from Christchurch.

‘‘We missed the Cantabs [and] they are starting to come back. There’s still a lot of them a little bit nervous about that road but we’ve just got to build things up slowly,’’ Mackenzie said.

This year’s event also saw a new course record in the ultralong 202km ‘‘Magnum’’ event, with Christchurch’s Paul Odlin beating his previous record, posting a time of 5 hours 7 minutes and 25 seconds.

It was also a record-breaking year for a lack of injuries.

‘‘And that was a very gratifying thing yesterday [Saturday], it’s the lowest accident rate we have ever had.

‘‘Normally when the conditions are so good, everybody is pushing as hard as they can to go fast and that’s when the spills occur,’’ Mackenzie said.

Two riders were taken to Wairau Hospital, in Blenheim, after falling off their bikes, one of whom remained overnight for ‘‘precautionary observation’’ but was released on Sunday morning, he said.

There were the ‘‘usual’’ skin grazes but it was largely incident free, Mackenzie said.

However, the Bunch Police were called up on numerous occasions.

‘‘They’re always needed, the Bunch Police did a number of jobs helping with punctures and general helpful input to riders,’’ he said.

The influx of international riders, particularly from Australia, meant a lot of ‘‘banter’’ about the course.

The Forrest Graperide was capped off with the traditional grape crush which would be made into rose wine for next year’s competitors.

‘‘It was a particularly energetic grape crush yesterday, so we’re looking forward to the result of that,’’ Mackenzie said.