The Otago Peninsula Challenge

Top international mountain bike riders Marcus Roy, of Invercargill, and Kashi Leuchs, of 

Dunedin, finished eighth and 10th respectively in the 2009 R&R Sport Otago Peninsula 

Challenge. 

To the relief of the 750 riders in the field, the morning’s threatening clouds gave way 

to blue skies and a blustery southwesterly wind by the top of the first climb. This wind 

meant the 43km point-to-point course was buffeted predominantly by a tailwind. 

Christchurch rider Brendon Sharratt led the field out from the start and was the 

eventual race winner with a time of 1:56.54 – beating the record by about 15 minutes. 

The pursuing bunch included Roy and, at times Leuchs. Of that bunch Ash Hough, of 

Papamoa, finished second with a time of 1:59.36 and John Richardson, of Dunedin, 

rounded out the podium with a time of 1:59.38. Roy finished eighth with a time of 

2:02.23, Leuchs crossed the line in 10th with a time of 2:07.14. 

The Otago Peninsula Challenge is the second stop on Roy and Leuchs’ Team RoadCraft 

New Zealand Tour and holds a special place for the team as it is the home event of 

Leuchs. 

“I wasn’t sure what to expect from this race. It’s my first fast, hard race back into it 

after almost four months taking it pretty easy. The RoadCraft tour for me is more about 

enjoying the adventures and seeing the best of New Zealand and I think we saw some of 

the most amazing coastal landscapes you could imagine on this race,” Leuchs said. 

“Obviously, growing up here I have a bit of an affinity to it, so it was a really nice feeling. 

It was nice to ride from my apartment at Living Space straight to the startline,” Leuchs 

said. 

Leuchs joked that he was on the pace for “the first 300m”, but wasn’t ready to start so 

fast. 

“I lost contact with the leaders on the first climb, but then I caught them all at the 

bottom of the downhill – we all bunched up and I thought, ‘yeah, I’m back in it!’ that was 

short-lived – I got dropped on the next climb again,” Leuchs laughed. 

“I did my best, I never let up, but at the same time, I enjoyed the race and looked 

around a bit – what a day it turned out to be.” 

For Roy, the race was about staying in the pursuing bunch, but the wind had other 

ideas. 

“The start was just so fast. We had a tailwind and everyone was just going for it straight 

up the Karetai Track – the first big hill. It all settled in again on the descent of the Buskin 

Track and the second climb everyone relaxed a bit,” Roy said. 

“From that point I just had to stick with the chasing bunch on the hills and use the 

bunch on the gravel road sections. The wind was so strong that I actually got blown off 

the gravel at one stage and by the time I got back on the chasing group had gone. I lost a 

bit of time there, but was just out of touch from that point on,” Roy said. 

“It was a pretty tough course – a lot of up and down for 43km and 1500m of climbing,” 

Roy said. 

The next event on the Team RoadCraft calendar is the Brake Burner SuperD at Coronet 

Peak, a chairlift-assisted six-hour downhill event on February 7. The team will then head 

to the inaugural Alpine Epic 260km four-day stage race from Mt Somers to Tekapo from 

February 25 to 28. The 50km Motatapu Icebreaker starting at Glendhu Bay, Wanaka on 

March 14 and finishing in Arrowtown will conclude the tour.