Safety concerns may put off triathlete’s training on road
A car T-boned Luke Taylor, sending him flying off his bike and into the windscreen.
The Hamilton-based Ironman competitor was on Marine Parade, heading back into Mt Maunganui, nearing the finish of his June 23 training ride.
His bike was totalled in the midafternoon crash – and he’s currently unable to run – but he escaped without serious injury.
It’s one of a string of crashes involving triathletes which has Taylor worried, and reconsidering whether he trains on the road.
In May, his coach, Simon Cochrane, posted about a truck wing mirror smashing off a piece of his helmet as it passed on a 100kmh stretch of road.
‘‘Another 10cm closer may have taken my head off!’’ Cochrane wrote in an Instagram post.
In early July, Taylor’s Ironman idol Terenzo Bozzone was hit by a truck while training, and Stuff recently reported on a 2017 case in which top triathlete Lizzie Stannard was knocked off her bike in Cambridge.
The driver in Taylor’s case got an infringement notice for failing to give way, a police statement said.
It was a young driver who probably won’t make the same mistake again, Taylor said, and his father apologised at the scene.
Taylor’s injuries include two sprained ankles, a collection of bruises and bone bruises, and a delayed concussion.
It’s lucky he’s a health and performance specialist, because he’s about nine weeks out from the World Triathlon Championships on the Gold Coast and ‘‘just hacking my body as much as I can’’.
But he’s pleading for drivers to be more aware of cyclists, and for better, more joined-up infrastructure.
Even keeping the road edges clear and pothole-free so cyclists can stay outside the lane would be helpful, he said.
About five athletes have recently told Taylor they won’t train on the road any more.
‘‘A lot of them are Ironman athletes, so it’s going to be a lot of boring times in the garage,’’ he said. ‘‘Our training rides are four hours up to, sometimes, six hours.’’
Cyclists have the same right to use the road as motorists, he said.
However, they also have their part to play, such as wearing hi-vis clothing and not riding two abreast on small roads.