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Mr Versatile wins mountain bike gold
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
By Brooke Sheehan
Superbike rider Hayden Fitzgerald proved his versatility at the Uni Games, after winning the men’s mountain biking gold at Lake Mangamahoe.
Hayden Fitzgerald tackles the downhill mountain bike course. Photo / Stephen Neil
“It was a good, fun experience. There was plenty of student atmosphere,” the 24-year-old Witt student says.
The multi-talented athlete, who has raced Superbikes at the famed Isle of Man circuit, competed in the downhill and cross country and his combined times earned him the title.
The 19 riders had two chances to clock their best time on the 600m downhill and Fitzgerald missed out on a medal by just 1400th of a second, with a best time of 1 min 10.16 seconds.
Among the 17 men in the cross country, he finished the three-hour race in 14th place, thriving on the challenge.
“I loved downhill because I get more of a buzz from the adrenaline. Cross country is completely different again. It takes more guts and determination to try and finish.
“Halfway through lap one, I was ready to give up.”
A modest man, Fitzgerald was shocked when he was announced as the overall winner and had to check with an official to be sure it was him.
After confirming the news, he was soon celebrating his victory with friends at the closing ceremony.
Fitzgerald says he was able to put the experience he’s gained riding motorcycles to good use.
“The speed, skill and nutritional knowledge from motorbike racing has helped me with my mountain biking,” he says.
Competition manager and New Plymouth Mountain Biking Club president, Graeme Lindup, was thrilled with the result.
“It’s great to see Hayden’s getting back into mountain biking. Not every rider can do downhill and cross country - that takes discipline.”
A Visual Arts student in his final year, Fitzgerald works hard to juggle his time between his study, training schedule, racing, mountain biking hobby and the regular coaching he does at the Honda Rider’s Club.
But he isn’t ruling out taking up mountain biking professionally in future.
“We’ve talked about it already. At the moment though, I’m pretty well looked after in the motorcycling scene. There’s definitely the opportunity there to do well in the downhill.”
Brooke Sheehan is a Witt journalism student.
