Duck v Whale
Felix Marwick at NewstalkZB reports:
It seems cash as well as pride will be on the line in a cycle race between Labour MP Trevor Mallard and right wing blogger Cameron Slater.
The two will go head to head in Auckland later this month with both antagonists already talking up their chances online.
It has now got to the stage where money is involved.
Blogger and potential ACT candidate Cathy Odgers is offering to put $1,000 on Mr Slater to win.
Trevor Mallard’s asking if she’s prepared to take the bet to $2,000, and is confident he and his colleagues will be able to match it.
Readers may recall I also pledged $1,000 to charity based on the race outcome. The Crippled Children’s Society (CCS) if Trevor wins and the Mental health Foundation if Cameron wins.
The race looks to be on Sunday 21 August in Auckland.
Sadly our stupid nanny state gambling laws means it is illegal for anyone but the TAB to run a book on the outcome of the race. It is even illegal for iPredict to do a futures market on the race. It would be fascinating to see what the market prediction would be.
I’d have to say that Trevor would be considered the favourite and Cameron the underdog.
Trevor is basically a professional full-time cyclist, an amateur part-time blogger and an occasional MP. He did the 160 km Taupo cycle race in under 5 hours in 2009. Off memory he was in the top 5% of cyclists for his age group.
Cameron got on a bicycle around three months ago for the first time in 10+ years. Now Cameron has been training pretty hard, doing 20 km rides most days. But Trevor used to be able to do 20 kms in around half an hour. Whale does have a slight advantage with the course being local to him.
Now of course the big factor is Trevor’s bike crash and broken bones. If Trevor had not had his injury, it wouldn’t even be a contest. What we don’t know is to what extent Trevor is still injured. The crash was just over four and a half months ago which normally would be enough time to rebuild some of the leg muscles etc. And I suspect his overall level of fitness is still pretty good.
So in two and a half weeks we’ll find out whether Trevor remains king of the road, of if the underdog manages to beat the man he calls the cripple. The only thing certain is that the winner will gloat!