Aaron Bleakley is back. He overcame two big hurdles to get back on his mountain bike after a major crash 13 years ago.
The Dunedin bike mechanic for Cycle World hit a tree when travelling downhill at 50kmh and badly injured his pelvis and shoulder.
"I gave up racing for 10 years," he said. "I have been back on my bike for three years but this is my first win."
He continued to eat like a cyclist when sidelined and his weight ballooned to 140kg.
"It was very hard when I got back on my bike," Bleakley said.
He gradually lost weight by a mixture of exercise and diet. He now weighs 75kg which was his target weight when he resumed cycling.
"I plateaued between 80kg and 85kg and it was hard to get the last 5kg off," he said.
The other obstacle he had to overcome was the fear of racing fast and the risk of more accidents. Bleakley was a promising road cyclist in his youth and won the New Zealand secondary schools road time trial when he was 17.
He finished 12th in the Peninsula Challenge last weekend and he gained his first win since the crash when he won the expert men's aged 30 to 39 grade yesterday.
It was on the new cross-country course at the Wakari circuit. He won the five-lap race in 1hr 54min 12sec.
Merrin Brewster (37), a librarian at the University of Otago, won the women's expert grade aged 30 to 39 four-lap race in 1hr 45min 32sec.
Paula Owen (45), an Invercargill police officer, won the expert women's grade aged 40 to 49 three-lap course in 1hr 34min 30sec at her first Masters Games.
Dunedin real estate manager Craig Bates took a break from organising the event and won the expert men's aged 50 to 54 four-lap race in 1hr 38min 18sec.
The oldest competitor was Invercargill's Ron Riley (72) who won the men's over-70 two-lap race in 60min 07sec.
