The annual Ride Raro Tour de Raro Cycle Race is always the final event of Cook Islands Triathlon Association’s Festival of events and took place on Tuesday afternoon.

There had been serious concerns that the torrential rain and strong gusty winds would force the event to be cancelled, but Triathlon president Roland Neururer undertook a full lap safety check of the island an hour before race registration to assess conditions. 

Whilst the wind was not relenting the rain had stopped and the roads were drying out. Neururer was immensely grateful to Infrastructure Cook Islands who immediately attended to some potholes allowing the race to go ahead.

Over 40 hardy cyclists lined up on the start line, including one tandem bike cycled by Jakub and Edmund Postrygacz. Although the rain had stopped the wind was brutal which led to a relatively slow pace of around 33-35km/h for the first few kilometres. 

A breakaway then formed with top gun cyclists Mike Roigard, Brent Knight and Brendan Heal pulling away from those who had been initially leading into the strong headwind. 

With speeds approaching 50km/h the pack gave chase but the three tore off and held a slight lead for the next five kilometres before steadily building up an insurmountable gap. 

Behind them Roland Neururer, Lucy McDonald, Bryn Parry, Leighton Hunt and Joseph Aiona found their own rhythm and cycled through, taking turns at leading the pack for short periods into the still brutal headwind.

Behind them three or four more groups formed as cyclists found people to share the load whilst trying their best not to spend valuable energy at the head of their respective packs.

The headwind turned to tail wind on the south of the island and the riders had a period of relative reprise before hitting arguably the hardest stretch of the race, into the fierce headwind around the seawall. 

First across the line in a time of 46.08 minutes was Roigard who won the sprint ahead of rival Knight 46:09 mins and Heal 46:38 mins. First lady was Lucy McDonald (who also took the first local lady trophy) in a time of 50:46 mins ahead of Olivia Ritchie 55:47:20 mins and Adrianna Skurosz 58:56 mins.  First local male was Roland Neururer in a time of 50:46 mins.

Grateful thanks is given to Ride Raro who sponsored an array of cycling jerseys and wonderful prizes for our athletes.  This race concludes the triathlon festival for 2023.

The calendar will now turn to cycle training ahead of a BSP 100K road ride on Saturday, July 1 and the adventure series with The PTS & Uncle Tom’s BBQ Adventure Triathlon on Saturday, August 5. This adventure race consists of a 1200m SUP course, followed by a 16k mountain bike and 2km run, ahead of the big Ariki Challenge Adventure race on Saturday, September 16 2023.

Cook Island Triathlon would like to thank again Ed, from Ride Raro for sponsoring this great race, and Cook Islands Police who made sure we were all safe on the road.

• Cook Islands Triathlon