"Police are saddened by the death of another Hawke's Bay community member on our roads. Our condolences go to the whanau affected".
This was the first fatality on Hawke's Bay roads in 2018. This death means that as of yesterday, more people have died in crashes nationwide than there have been days in the year.
This is also the third fatal crash involving a cyclist in Hawke's Bay in nine months. Two cyclists were killed in April last year, both involved in after-dusk collisions with trucks.
Cycling Action Network spokesman Patrick Morgan said every case was "devastating, for everyone involved".
"Any death on the road is tragic. It would be a shame if anyone was put off riding by this kind of tragedy."
Although the cause of yesterday's crash was not yet known, he said it was "puzzling, it's 10.15 in the morning, clear daylight, not an intersection".
"The question there is whether 100km/h is the appropriate speed limit for an expressway immediately next to a residential area. We know that lower speed limits reduce the chance and severity of crashing."
Their advice to cyclists and motorists was to ride and drive to the conditions, follow the rules, and for drivers to look twice for people on bikes.
Police were called to another serious crash in Hastings yesterday. A Police Spokeswoman said a car was rear-ended near the intersection of Williams and Totara Sts in Mahora.
St John Ambulance transported two people to Hawke's Bay Hospital, one with moderate injuries and one with minor injuries.
There was one fatal crash in Hawke's Bay over the holiday period. On Christmas Eve Waipukurau man Harry Nepe-Apatu, 65, died after the car he was a passenger in went down a bank on Pourerere Rd, Central Hawke's Bay.
Last year's Hawke's Bay road toll was the highest it has been since 2012, with 24 people losing their lives in crashes on roads from Wairoa to Tararua. Two were cyclists.
The cyclist's death brought the national road toll up to 11 - on par with the 2017 toll at the same time last year.
The toll for 2017 was the highest it's been in years, reaching 379 fatalities provisionally, making it the deadliest year on our roads since 2009, when 384 people died.