One request before I begin. I have deliberately left out the name of the person involved because the case is under investigation by both the club I belong to and by BikeNZ. If you manage to figure out who the person involved was, I ask that you keep it to yourself. If you cannot do this then try not read on.
When I last left off we were 2 laps into the race. Nathan and Scott had slipped away after a minor debacle on Pig Track and I was now in third place. Coming up Nursery road at the start of the 3rd lap of the race, I was finally caught by a rider riding in the same category as I who then overtook me up the hill. He began to slow as we passed the tech zone. As we got further up the hill his pace slowed further to the point where it was obvious he had worked harder than he had been expecting up the hill and was now tired; he clearly wanted me to overtake so he could stream me up the hill. For those of you who have never raced me or seen me race, I do not go out and flog myself until I'm dead and hope that I have crossed the finish line before then. I race strategically. It is not uncommon for me to let a rider pass me so I can stream off them until they are dead, before breaking away and leaving them behind, now on fresh legs and ready to attack the course. That is what I did to this rider. He knew this and began to try and rile me so that I would get angry and try to break away. He tried to insult me, imply things about my character, make me mad. I did not rise to the bait. I answered any of his jibes in the most unexpected yet polite ways I could; I could tell my responses were not what he expected and were riling him. I would pass when I was ready to pass. Realising I wasn't reacting how he wanted, this rider began putting on some pace again as we entered Genesis.
This is where things began to get dark. As we rode through Genesis I could tell the other rider wasn't recovering, whereas I was feeling stronger by the second. Genesis finishes on a fire road, and it was here I knew the other rider was expecting me to overtake. I would not react to his expectations. I knew in Genesis that there was a section of track after one of the corners where it widened up enough for 2 riders to ride abreast. I new that with my recovered legs that I would be able to take the other rider through here and it would be the last place he would expect me to try. As we rounded the corner I went for it; I pulled left and opened up the mental throttle to go into a sprint. The other rider, hearing me gear up, looked left as I began to accelerate. The general rule of riding a mountain bike is "where you look is where you go." Seeing as this rider was looking left, he unconsciously began to pull left into my path...
What happened was the following. The other rider, having essentially cut me off, got hooked on my bar ends and we both went down. Hard. Seeing as he was slightly ahead, he fell down in front of me and landed on my front wheel. He was mad. Very mad. He believed I had caused the crash, and as he got up began swearing and verbally abusing me. By UCI rules this alone is a disqualifiable offence. Just before he got back on his bike he shouted one last cry of "F*** YOU!!!", backhanded me across the face with enough force to knock me to the ground, got on his bike and rode off. I will be honest with you now; I have never been struck in anger by another person before. What had just happened left me stunned for a moment, and it took a few seconds to realize what had happened and that my bike was still immobilised from the crash. The chain was dangling over the crank, and to make matters worse the fifth placed rider had just turned onto the straight where my bike lay. I managed to get the chain on and get moving before the fifth place rider, Josh Lee, caught me.
Once we hit the fire road another thing dawned on me; my front wheel was wobbling like crazy. I later discovered it was so taco'd I could probably have eaten it. If you could be bothered to hunt down my lap times, you would find that my third lap was significantly slower than my others. This is because I had to get up from the crash and ride gently at first to check if my front wheel was about to explode from under me. Luckily it survived the worst the track could throw at me throughout the third lap and I set to work trying to reel in my assailant. I could see him about halfway up Nursery road hill as I started my final lap, and as the distance to the finish line slowly diminished Josh and I pulled closer and closer...
We finally caught the rider as we passed the crowd for the final time heading towards Old Exit trail. I can honestly tell you he was exhausted. He had next to nothing left. We hammered down Old Exit trail, and I knew with all my heart that it was going to come down to a sprint finish. We turned the final corner, and as I stood to go into a sprint...
My. Chain. Jammed.
Turns out the impact of my crash earlier on had thrown everything out of alignment, and as such I was stranded just before the finish line at a snail's pace while the other two stormed across to finish their race. I have never been more disappointed, despaired, angry and upset at the same time before. I was gutted. I had missed out on the one thing I had dedicated the last four months of my life towards; a podium at Nationals.
As soon as I crossed the finish line I went straight to the nearest commissiare. I told him that I had been hit out on the course by another rider and his face dropped. He later explained to me that never in his long career as a commissiare had he been required to deal with an assault case at an MTB race. He immediately called the other rider over and said "did you hit this rider in the face?" to which the rider replied "yes, and he deserved it for cutting me off". That will stick with me for a long time; the look on his face as he stared the commissiare down and told him that I deserved what he had done to me. He was DQ'd on the spot and told further action would likely be taken.
I would just like to put this in perspective for a moment. If such an incident had occurred, for example, outside a bar, the police would likely have been called and there would be a chance of spending the night in a cell. This was a case of assault and would be treated as such.
The rest of the day past in a blur after that, but the aftermath did not. What the other rider did was so much more than a blow to the face. Under normal circumstances, fourth place at Nationals for an un-coached rider, on a bike that was broken for half the race, who only lost it at the end because of a mechanical would be AMAZING and there would be a lot of pride in that. But instead of any form of congratulations or celebration, I became "that guy who got punched in the face". I believe that the actual assault itself was not the biggest crime committed; I believe the fact that the aftermath completely sucked dry the rest of the day of any happiness whatsoever was the true crime. Four months of work had just been laid to waste. My parents, who aren't usually drinkers, had brought with them to the race a bottle of champagne for a celebration when I finished the race, but we were just too sad and preoccupied to open it or even contemplate celebrating thanks to the mornings events. It still lies unopened.
Thank you to everyone out there who was supportive of me that Saturday; who looked past the incident, still congratulated me, checked to see if I was alright and was just in general kind to me. It means a lot. Thank you to my family for being there for me and for standing by my side. Thank you to the friends who couldn't be at the race who phoned to see how it went and to check up on me. Thank You.
I cannot change the past. I cannot undo what was done. I know that forever more that race will stick in my memory as the time I almost got a national level podium. Next year I move up to U19 category where I know that being in the top half of the field will be an achievement; I can kiss any podium dreams good bye for a few years. This was probably my last shot at an NZ National champs. Nothing is going to change that. All I can do now is move forward, hope secondary schools fares better and try even harder. As for the rider who caused all this, in the unlikely event that you read this, I just want you to know that what you did was so much more than just a blow. It did so much more than that. Just think about it for a moment.
-Robin.
