The latest craze to grip sports-mad Wanaka has wheels - road bike wheels.
Those who love road cycling say the catalysts include the town's culture of healthy lifestyles, the need for active rehabilitation from injuries and growth in events. Marjorie Cook reports.
Wanaka physiotherapist Ginny Rutledge arrived in Wanaka 19 years ago as a climber who enjoyed back-country skiing.
She injured her knee and took up mountain biking for rehabilitation with fellow climber Anna Cook.
They bought second-hand, steel-framed 10-speed bikes, went to the Himalayas armed with a beginners guide to mountain biking and came home months later as cycle converts.
The town has long been a hub for snow sports enthusiasts and many started cycling as rehabilitation from injury incurred in other disciplines. Rutledge is just one of the many.
But, until recently, bike shop staff used to laugh at unfortunates who brought their road bikes in for maintenance.
Triathlete Merryn Johnston (31) told the story at a Challenge Wanaka media conference of moving to Wanaka several years ago, when sports shops were all about skiing with a summer sideline in mountain bikes.
Her road bike was greeted by a local bike mechanic with raised eyebrows and the comment "What's that?"
Rutledge can relate to that.
She was the first customer Doug Hamilton, of Black Peak Cycles, sold a road bike to, in the early 1990s.
"I paid about $250 for it. It was a blue Princess Peugeot and it has had at least three ownership changes since then.
It arrived at the physio last week with someone on it, so it is still around somewhere," Rutledge said.
"When I first arrived, road cycling was really rare. We all had mountain bikes and parapentes and went back-country skiing. We had the desire to do nutty things . . . road biking now seems like the new golf."
As a physiotherapist and multisporter with multiple Coast-to-Coast team titles under her belt, Rutledge (46) has a finger firmly on the pulse of Wanaka's sporting culture.
She believes the main reason people come to live in the town is because they want to make a difference to family wellbeing and part of that is to bike together.
"I think that's a wonderful reason for moving here. It is a little bit of a luxury to be able to live here, but good on them for making these lifestyle choices," she said.
Doug Hamilton, a dyed-in-the-wool mountain-biker, began Black Peak Cycles in 1991 and until recently worked from the Racer's Edge sports shop.
Hamilton is still dedicated to mountain biking - he was the first veteran male home in the Coronet Peak Brake Burner in February, completing 16 laps of the straight-up and straight-down course (83km) in six hours - and he, too, has swung in behind Wanaka's road bike revolution.
"Now, 75% of my riding in summer is on the road, commuting to work, training and the very occasional race," Hamilton said.
It was only four or five years ago that he began to sell road bikes in appreciable numbers.
Two years ago, he would not have stocked aero bars, but this summer Racer's Edge opened a second shop completely dedicated to bikes of all types.
Wanaka's "Wednesday Night" group, an informal collection of road cyclists, is probably the closest thing Wanaka has to its own road bike club and was formed by injured skiers more than five years ago.
Between four and 20 road riders meet each Wednesday, while others just starting out or wanting more support ride informally on Tuesdays with Kevin and Sharyn Gingell-Kent.
Many locals have also joined the booming Central Otago Wakatipu Cycle Club, representing at least 70 paid-up members from Alexandra, Cromwell, Wanaka and Queenstown.
Dozens more turn up to weekly races on a casual basis, paying a small fee to compete.
Wanaka club captain Paul Hellebrekers, who took up road cycling four years ago while recovering from a foot injury, is now a stalwart of the road cycling scene.
No-one organises the Wednesday night rides.
People just turn up and sort out together what they want to do, he said.
He has noticed a big growth in the sport in the four years he has been doing it, particularly among older men.
"Four years ago, we knew everyone riding on the road because we knew them anyway, but now there's a heap of different riders you've never seen before.
"And I think it has been backed up by the opening of a new bike shop in town. I know they sell a lot of road bikes," he said.
The latest story around town is of a young Australian man who walked into the bike shop "naked" and left with the full kit.
"That's the classic case of someone moving to town and wanting to take up riding.
He's coming along and is right into it," Hellebrekers said.
Cycle club president Paul Berg, of Alexandra, said members had always been road cyclists but then mountain biking took off in a big way, because of the Central Otago Rail Trail and the availability of mountain bikes.
With many riders strong in both disciplines, road biking quickly caught up again in popularity and Wanaka now provided a large number of riders at weekly club races, he said.
Berg was unable to pinpoint any particular reason for road cycling growth in the district.
He attributed it in part to Invercargill's velodrome (the club is affiliated with Cycle Southland) and in part to the growth in events such as the Gold Rush, Challenge Wanaka and women's and children's triathlons.
Rutledge credits Bill Godsall, of Central Otago Sports at Cromwell, with getting the events ball rolling 20 years ago, and agrees Challenge Wanaka sparked the lastest boom in road cycling.
But perhaps there's another catalyst for change - seats that do not hurt your backside.
Hamilton said he had found a new sub-group of cyclists coming on stream: the 70-year-old retiree who had not ridden for decades and had discovered the comforts of a modern bike.
No-one believes cycling will go through a recession.
"Overall, cycling is staying strong and purchases seem to be similar to last year, which was a very good year.
As for the industry in general, Hamilton said the feedback he had been getting from other dealers and people around the country, was that people were buying bikes.
"Cycling is definitely on an upswing, and that's across the board as well," Hamilton said.
