South Is crossing
Coast to Coast women’s champion Simone Maier thought her race was over after colliding with a van on her bike on a one-way bridge.
The German-born Kiwi overcame a tonne of adversity to capture her first longest-day title at her third attempt in the
243km multisport race on Saturday.
Nearly 1000 competitors featured over the two days of the Coast to Coast with 137 international athletes competing. They had to endure warm weather as they made their way into Christchurch on Saturday, with the temperature topping 30 degrees Celsius.
Wanaka-based Maier crossed the finish line at New Brighton Beach in
12hours, 56min, 36 sec, but it could have easily been very different.
Maier endured a horror stretch after completing the 30.5km mountain run, where she was hit with a two-minute penalty at the bike transition at Klondyke Corner, near Arthur’s Pass.
One of her support crew removed her bike from the rack, which only competitors are permitted to do.
She didn’t know about the punishment at the time, but worse was to come. Maier crashed into a van on the first one-way bridge out of Klondyke Corner shortly after.
A strong tail wind pushed her into the path of the vehicle and Maier, who was leading by 10 minutes, lost about three minutes while trying to check for damage and steady herself.
‘‘I was like, ‘S..., my race is over and then the brakes locked up. It was a bit of hard work,’’ she said.
‘‘I don’t know what happened, but they released again, so I could just carry on slowly.’’ Maier got partner Marcel Hagener, a successful adventure racer, to check her bike, which she needed again for the final 69.5km cycle into Christchurch, while she was tackling the 70km kayak on the Waimakariri River.
She was worried about damage to her brakes and back wheel, but was able to finish the race fine. ‘‘I thought, ‘Oh my God’. I’m not going anywhere, then [the brakes] started squeaking and I was like ‘Oh s...’, I’m not a bike mechanic.
‘‘It was just the brake that kind of locked up. I don’t know what I did, but it unlocked itself.’’
Maier found out about her two-minute transition penalty after the kayak and initially believed it was for ‘‘being bitchy’’ to a group of male bunch riders on the first bike leg of the day.
The 38-year-old, who has lived in New Zealand for 12 years, finished 10 minutes, 34 seconds, ahead of Nelson’s Elina Ussher, who was gunning for a fifth women’s longest day title, which would have equalled Kathy Lynch’s record.
She saluted her support crew, which included three-time longest day champion Emily Miazga, and was elated to have won the race for the first time.
Maier’s victory completed a Wanaka double with Dougal Allan victorious in the men’s longest day race for the first time too. ‘‘To actually finally win the Coast is pretty amazing.’’