Thousands Ride Across Harbour Bridge in Multiple Sclerosis Fundraiser

Mountain bikes, tandems, unicyclists and even a penny farthing were amongst the thousands of bikes ridden across the Auckland Harbour Bridge this morning’s annual Bike the Bridge event.
 
Auckland’s largest cycling event started at sunrise from Smales Farm in Takapuna and this year’s new family friendly format proved to be a winner, selling out 24 hours before the start with many of the cyclists choosing to ride both ways across the bridge to double their enjoyment.
 
Shane Price can claim to be the first person to ride a Penny Farthing over the Harbour Bridge. “I think I clocked about 23 kilometres an hour at one stage over the bridge,” he said after completing the course.
 

Over 100 buses acted as a safety barrier between cyclists and motor vehicles. Photo © www.scottiet.com

60-year-old Rosie Garner and her 70-year-old husband John, from Auckland City, have ridden in the event since it began in 2011 and they both enjoyed the chance to bike over the bridge. “It’s been great this year because we’ve never biked in the south direction before, and I like the fact it gets you on your bike,” she explained.

The new format’s shorter routes also opened up the event to many more youngsters, like 12-year-old Ethan Griffiths who joined his grandfather Hugh, a veteran of previous events, who was delighted to be able to take part with his grandson this year. “It was fun, really cool, especially going down the bridge, but the up was a bit challenging,” said Ethan.
 
“We got a bit of practice in beforehand and cycled a couple of hills as training for this,” added his 71-year-old grandfather Hugh.


Thousands took the opportunity to bike the bridge both ways for the first time. Photo © www.scottiet.com

Levi Matthews, Brayden Thompson, Jayden Williams from Arahoe School, West Auckland, unicycled the entire 7km from Smales Farm to Westhaven with their teacher Megan Connolly. “It was really cool, but it did hurt. We trained hard for this and it only took us 45 minutes,” said 11-year-old Levi.
 
The mammoth event is manned by an army of 300 volunteers who act as marshalls along the route. Westlake Boys High School volunteer Chris Munroe was up on top of the bridge at 5am to marshall the cyclists and help raise money for the school’s cycling team. “It’s a good way to help out the club and it’s not often you get to stand at the top of the Harbour Bridge,” he said. You can really appreciate how much goes into making events like this happen, just seeing how much has gone into getting the buses in place to line the route,” he said.
 

This year's family friendly format attracted a variety of different bikes. Photo © www.scottiet.com

Over 100 commercial buses were used as a safety barrier between the motor vehicles and the cyclists. “We started moving the buses at 9.30pm last night and we’ve moved at least six buses each and got them in place ready for the 6am start,” explained Ritchies Coachlines bus driver Nick O’Sullivan. “It’s the first time I’ve ever done this and it’s been really enjoyable. It’s colossal setting it up, everything has to be coned off before we can even start parking up,” he added.

Bike the Bridge raises thousands of dollars for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Celebrities who took part included Miss World NZ, Deborah Lambie, Miss Tourism NZ Ceri McVinnie and Miss North Harbour, Brooke Houia, who rode across the bridge with her mum Maree, a Multiple Sclerosis sufferer, and boyfriend Eru Bennet-Paul from JGeeks in a tuk tuk.

Cyclists assemble at Harbour Park to ride back over Auckland's iconic Bridge. Photo © www.scottiet.com

Organiser Callum McNair was delighted that so many people had taken up the challenge. “It’s been a fantastic morning and it was great to see such a huge variety of bikes out there on the bridge”, he explained. “The new format has been really popular and the feedback from the families who took part has been extremely positive.”