The Karapoti Classic mountainbike race will run for the 30th time next month. Who is behind it and what’s the secret to its sustained popularity? Chipp finds out.
Jim
It was just one of those bike shop conversations. Somebody said: ‘‘Someone should organise a mountain bike race.’’
The year was 1985 and mountainbikes had been around for just a couple of years. ‘‘ Someone should,’’ thought Paul Kennett.
‘‘ Nothing happened, and I thought, ‘ OK, I’ll do it then’,’’ Kennett recalled.
He was 20 and untroubled by any sensible notion of what he should or should not do.
It turned into a bit of an event, he said. ‘‘I called it the national championship, because I could.’’
Just 45 riders took part in the inaugural 1986 Karapoti Classic, from all around the country.
It will run for the 30th time on March 7, with 1000 riders expected to line up for the traditional splash across the Akatarawa River at the start.
Kennett will be there to fire the start gun again.
He was involved in the first 17 races, together with brothers Simon and Jonathon. Current organiser Michael Jacques took over in 2002.
That 1986 race was one of the first to have qualified first aid support, provided by Kennett’s mother, who was a nurse.
Tough as the race is today, Kennett’s original plan for the route was even harder, crossing Akatarawa Saddle on the way to Otaki Forks.
‘‘I was really keen to make sure it was so hard a roadie couldn’t do it,’’ he said. ‘‘ That’s a really hard course – no roadie was going to win that.’’
Fortunately, more moderate voices prevailed, pointing out that what took Kennett and his mates eight hours could take a slower rider 12, and that would involve search and rescue operations after dark.
The first race began at Akatarawa Saddle, descended the Rock Garden and went on to the course riders know today.
Among the first favourites was Canadian Dan Maddess.
‘‘ He was really intimidating because he was doing jumps and skids,’’ Kennett said.
Karl Young claimed to know the course so well he would definitely win.
Neither did. Punctures in the gorge near the end hurt them both.
Tim Galloway was first male champion and Anne Butler the first female.
Riders begin each race by fording the Akatarawa River.
In those days it was out of necessity, because the road bridge did not exist, but the tradition continues.
‘‘It’s just such an iconic part of the race,’’ Jacques said.
Jacques heard through the grapevine the Kennetts were open to moving on and he took over.
He had been involved in managing other events, including the Crazyman and the Christchurch Marathon and had managed media relations in the Coast to Coast.
‘‘I’m a keen supporter of the cultural side of these things – the original events,’’ he said.
The traditional events, such as the Karapoti and the Coast to Coast, are the core of multi-sports.
All events are founded on sponsorship but Jacques said they had to be sustainable through their entry fees alone to get them through lean times.
The Karapoti Classic is not as expensive to run as the Coast to Coast, but will still cost about $80,000 to stage this year, compared to $39,000 in 2002.
One of the expenses may be a surprise – $5 per rider for the use of Wellington Regional Council’s tracks, but Jacques said he didn’t begrudge concession charges.
‘‘The regional council does so much for us to keep the track active. I shudder to think how much is spent clearing the track for us after an unseasonal weather event.’’
One year a slip closed Karapoti Rd just before the race.
Jacques decided he could live with it by starting the race before the slip. Riders would just have to traverse it.
‘‘You could get across it, but you just couldn’t get 1000 riders across in 10 seconds,’’ he said
Jacques was camping out at the start-finish line the night before and when he got up late in the night he saw lights in the sky – Upper Hutt City Council workers were out busily clearing away the slip.
Starting a new event such as the Karapoti in a fledgling sport would be almost impossible today.
‘‘If you had a sport that didn’t exist now, it would be pretty hard because the events industry has got so big,’’ Jacques said. ‘‘I don’t think it would get started because of the hoops you have to jump through.’’
In 2012 Jacques was forced to cancel the race because of bad weather. Although the Akatarawa River was fordable, the Akatarawa West River, close to the finish, was not.
Jacques ran another race on the course a fortnight later as a gesture of goodwill to disappointed riders and said it cost about $20,000 to do so.
Kennett said the numbers change the risk management strategies.
‘‘With 1000 riders you start to run the numbers on outliers – people who are inexperienced,’’ he said.
‘‘When you’ve got that number of people any number of things can happen.’’
Jacques said it took him the equivalent of about three months fulltime over a 10-month period to stage each race.
Including council staff and volunteers, about 70 people are involved on the day, and there is a core group of five paid part-time staff.
Upper Hutt community, including Rimutaka Lions and Search and Rescue, assist.
With so many entries, the elite riders were ‘‘crazy good’’, Jacques said, but the overall standard had probably fallen slightly because more ordinary people gave Karapoti a go.
Most modern-day mountainbike races are held on 20-minute loops on man- made tracks, Jacques said.
‘‘ Karapoti is a hark back to yesteryear. These are the events that get people out to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t do.’’
Jacques said he was reluctant to introduce the children’s race because it meant more work, but in the long run he is seeing riders returning after cutting their mountainbiking teeth in it.