KEY POINTS:
Organisers of a Coromandel race in which a cyclist was seriously injured are confident riders were on the correct side of the road when being overtaken near a blind corner.
Although seven witnesses have sent messages to the Herald blaming an overtaking ute for a pile-up of cyclists on the gruelling K2 race at the weekend, its organisers have been put on the defensive by police claims that some were hogging parts of their 192km circuit around Coromandel Peninsula.
"Most of the feedback we've had is that the cyclists were all on the left hand side of the road," co-organiser Andy Reid of Adventure Racing Coromandel said yesterday. The crash was on a foothill heading north from Whitianga to Kuaotunu.
He was unclear how many cyclists were riding in a bunch overtaken by the ute, having heard reports of "from 50 to over 100".
Inspector Earle McIntosh of the police northern communications centre raised a storm after being quoted in the Herald on Sunday as saying "the cyclists were using the road as if they owned it and came round a blind corner and met a milk tanker".
But he later told the Herald that reports from police around the peninsula were of some cyclists using both sides of the road at various points of the circuit, in defiance of a pre-race safety briefing, and not necessarily at the crash scene.
Race cyclists have accused the ute driver of cutting in on them from the wrong side of the road to avoid hitting a milk tanker which emerged from the blind corner.
Mr Reid said he was unaware of cyclists using both sides of what was an open public road, but was keen to hear any concerns from the police and the Transport Agency at a briefing on Thursday.
He hopes to visit injured 40-year-old cyclist Brett Burton at Auckland City Hospital today.
The crash was the first serious mishap in the seven years in which his non-profit organisation had run the race.
East Waikato acting police commander Rex Knight said the crash was still under investigation. It was too early for the police to make any recommendations.
Race competitor Alastair Borwick said the cyclists at the crash scene were "left of the centre-line on a narrow twisty bit of road. The motorist was impatient, passed on a blind corner, with disregard for the safety of the other road users."
