Gruelling challenge for Oamaru brothers
THE Rush brothers will be living up to their name when they line up in the Pioneer mountain bike race starting tomorrow.
Tim and Kris Rush, of Oamaru, look forward to seven days of gruelling riding from Christchurch to Queenstown over the Southern Alps.
Tim (26) has had an impressive year on the bike, on both road and mountain, and will probably be one of the strongest riders on the event. He has won the Gutbuster, in which Kris was fifth, Naseby 12hour (solo) and the Bannockburn Classic in late December, in which Kris was fourth.
‘‘I have done a few events but this is the next level. It is the unknown for both of us, how we go and how we treat things day to day is different to a road tour. We are green on that side of things,‘‘ he said.
‘‘It is about being smart about things, taking it day by day and not going into the red too often.’’
Tim said he was improving with every ride, but admitted the skills on the dirt were different to the road.
‘‘I love the suffering and the long climbs, but the downhill and technical parts we will struggle, albeit we are not going to have much of them which is good. But my experience is lacking racewise for sure — I have done half a dozen races only.
‘‘I am worried about the whole week to be honest and not knowing how we will handle it. There is no rest on the mountain bike, you are always working, you can’t sit on or have a break down a hill, you are always concentrating.’’
Kris (22) is certainly the ‘‘junior’’ of the two riders, both in age and experience, only taking up riding just over a year ago. But he is fast learning the ropes and knows he must be at his best to stay with his older brother.
Kris said the partnership for the race just happened without a great deal of talking.
‘‘Tim was pretty much saying ‘if you want to ride with me you have to get a lot better’. He is such a good climber so I know I have work to do in that area. He was looking to see who might be interested and I guess by default he has me.
‘‘I am not really feeling pressure though. I remind him of how he started six years ago in a similar space to me and finally this year he is getting something out of it. So I remind him I am only a year in and I think I am going OK but yeah, we have plenty of banter.
‘‘I have only really started to get to know him lately, what with him being overseas and me being away. This is about the first time in our lives we have had that time and got on well with each other. We only really started training together this year.
‘‘But we are in this to win it for sure . . . Tim is a far better climber than I am, but I think with the days being long many of the climbs will be ridden at full intensity anyway.’’
The teams of two can not be more than two minutes apart in the event or they will be disqualified.
Another leading southern contender is the team of Alexandra rider James Williamson and Scott Lyttle.
Both are former professional cyclists and Williamson coached a few riders in the inaugural event last year.
Lyttle, who was born in Napier but has spent time in Dunedin, is now based in Boulder in the United States.
Queenstown’s Kate Fluker and Mark Williams are back to defend their mixed team title with likely competition to come from Sonya Looney and Gordon Wadsworth, from the United States, and Antonio Gasso Navarro and Eva Tomas Sanchez, from Spain.
Erin Greene, of Queenstown ,will team up with Ingrid Richter to try to defend her title.