18th Dec 2015
Rookies & Record Breakers Keen for Karapoti
Karapoti Classic record holders Ben Mitchell and Kim Hurst were among the first to sign up for the 31st year of New Zealand’s longest running mountain bike race.
Established in 1986, the Karapoti Classic is renowned as the longest running mountain bike race in the Southern Hemisphere. The feature 50k distance is an uncompromising tour of Upper Hutt’s rugged Akatarawa Ranges. The 2016 event is scheduled for March 5th and among the first to enter were two of the event’s record holders.
In 2014, Wellington’s Ben Mitchell became the youngest ever finisher of mountain biking’s most historic race. Aged nine he completed the 50k course with his father in 4hrs 41min, beating a good many adults in the process. He raced again in 2015, at the ripe old age of 10, and was recently the first person to sign up for the 2016 Bike Barn Karapoti Classic.
Another serial Karapoti competitor is women’s record holder, Kim Hurst. In 2013 the Upper Hutt doctor created history by becoming the first Upper Hutt resident to win Karapoti. She returned in 2014 to set a new race record of 2hrs 45min 29secs, and later that year also won the 24-hour world title.
Little wonder that Hurst has something of a love affair with her local event. Even a fractured wrist couldn’t keep her away in 2015, when she rode with a cast and only a few weeks training to finish second behind American-based Kiwi Jenny Smith. It was Smith’s 2007 record that Hurst had bettered in 2014, so organisers are hoping for a rematch in 2016.
First and foremost, however, the Bike Barn Karapoti Classic is a people's race. As the Southern Hemisphere’s longest running mountain bike race it has become an unofficial annual gathering for the sport. As well as the feature 50k Classic, the 20k Challenge and 5k Kids’ Klassic provide an intro to the Karapoti culture for off road rookies, supporters, kids and active families.
Wellington’s Ben Mitchell is a classic example of Karapoti being an event with something for every age, ability and aspiration. He has grown up alongside the Karapoti Classic, with his father riding it, then Ben himself participating in the Kids’ 5k Klassic at age seven, then the 20k Challenge at age eight, and then becoming the youngest ever to finish the feature 50k Classic.
Ben was just a month younger than Porirua’s Eden Cruise, who had also been age nine when he rode it in 2009. By 2015 Cruise had morphed into one of the country’s most exciting young talents when at age 15 he became Karapoti’s youngest ever winner. Compare that alongside recent Commonwealth and world champion, Anton Cooper, who won Karapoti four years ago at age 16 and then returned two years later to smash the race record by 10min with 2hrs 07min 57secs.
Kim Hurst, however, remains the Karapoti Classic’s biggest fan. “Surviving Karapoti is a rite of passage for every mountain biker,” says Hurst, who in the last two years has sponsored first time teenagers and women into the event.
This year she is keen to see more local riders trying Karapoti and with local builder and Karapoti finisher, Ross Hammersley-Myers, they sponsored a “Karapoti Virgins” competition to select a man and woman from Upper Hutt to try Karapoti for the first time. The winners were Glen Woods and Kathryn Grace, with Woods sending in a record 11 reasons why he should be chosen. Grace, however, had personal demons behind wanting to tackle Karapoti for the first time.
“I chose Kat because she has a story of overcoming adversity and that’s what the Karapoti Classic is all about,” explains Hurst. “A few years ago, she wanted to do Karapoti and went for a race recce with her husband only to crash heavily at Cederholm Creek. That dented her confidence and she didn’t line up, but Karapoti had remained in the back of mind. Since then she's got through cancer treatment, has got back on her bike and wanted a big goal for 2016. So, Karapoti it is!”
Whether for the first time or, like Wellingtonians Francis Hoen and Peter Schmitz, for the 26th time, the Bike Barn Karapoti Classic is limited to 1000 riders. Held annually on the first Saturday in March, the event often sells out by February. For further information and online entry, visit: www.karapoti.kiwi.
