A team of cyclists have conquered a 100 kilometre cycle ride on Rarotonga and smashed a national record.

In a time of 2.45.49 the lead pack of Alyce Edwards, Lucy McDonald, Roland Neururer and Jason Moorfield crossed the line to beat the previous record by four minutes in the BSP 100K (kilometre) cycle on Saturday.

Not far behind were Mike Carr, Adrian Hopwood, Andrew Whittaker and Bobby Cervantes (Bobby completing his first ever 100K). 

Organisers gave a congratulations to the cyclists as well as masters cyclists Geoff Stoddart and Mike Tait who cycled with the second pack to assist them with the workload and themselves completed 80 k - a massive achievement by everyone.

The weather on Saturday was perfect for the annual event.

A team of ten lead by Roland Neururer departed Arorangi at 2pm for the marathon cycle. 

The cyclists formed two packs - a lead group aiming to break the 100k record and a second group which had a mix of very experienced cyclists and also some attempting the arduous ride for the first time.

The warm afternoon had a moderate south- easterly wind which made for some easier stretches when it was a tail wind, but also proved challenging when heading into it.

Both packs orchestrated seamless changes of leader every 2 km to ensure an even distribution of work into the wind was taken by all, and allowing the draft from the leader to give some respite and time to drink, and fuel up before working up to the front to take a share of the harder workload again.

The route saw the cyclists head into town twice and through the Arorangi straight four times, with very appreciated encouragement from bystanders and supporters, cheering from the road at various points. 

For the past couple of months, the cyclists have been visible on Rarotonga our roads on Thursday and Saturday afternoons.

There was a steady training build up ahead of the event

Cook Islands Triathlon Association president Roland Neururer led the training programme which had seen the cyclists building stamina by climbing hospital hill repeated times and working their way through ever increasing distances in preparation.  

Cook Islands Triathlon Association thanked BSP Bank for their sponsorship of the cycle series, Tom McDonald for cooking an excellent feed of ribs and beef for the hungry cyclists, and once again congratulated everyone for a massive effort in completing the event and achieving a new national record. 

For some Movember fun CITAI will now be holding a mountain bike series with proceeds donated to the men’s health charity – Movember.

The series will kick off at 2pm Saturday October 23 from the Tikioki Tri site.