Gaze's misfortune in mountain bike race

Sam Gaze had to withdraw from the gruelling men’s mountain bike cross-country race after 90 minutes’ hard slog today.

The Waikato 20-year-old pressed strongly in the early stages, but had the misfortune to puncture twice and also suffered a mechanical breakdown. He battled on, but was near the tail of the field.

He withdrew with one lap remaining, under the 80 per cent rule – he had drifted too far behind the leaders.

The race was won by Nino Schurter of Switzerland in 1h 33min 28s, a 50-second advantage over silver medallist Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic.