Rich, who is visiting with his children, decided to take part in the bike ride as something to do and entered with his bike that he had brought with him. 

Unfortunately for Rich, things went awry very quickly as a puncture forced his early retirement from the ride, but in a twist of fate Rich was the winner of a brand new mountain bike from Tathra Beach and Bike. 

Rich emerged ecstatically from the crowd to claim his prize after his name was drawn at the conclusion of the ride. 

He hopped immediately on the bike and was literally seen riding off into the sunset. 

A member of the support crew described Rich's misfortune, and subsequent good fortune.  

"His bike was really unprepared for this kind of event, it was a very classic old thing," the crew member said. 

"I took one look at him and had a laugh, I said 'you've had that in the garage for a while' and he said to me 'yeah'.

"So he got to the bottom of the hill at Goat's Knob, it's the first big hill on the course and he got a puncture.

"He pushes the bike all the way back up the hill and asks if we have a puncture repair kit or something like that. 

"But we didn't and so we gave the poor fella a lift back to the club."

The story travelled quickly among riders and some jokes had been tossed around about the idea of Rich being able to win the new bike. 

Meanwhile the crew member said Rich's kids had been able to complete the ride easily because they had hired bikes for the task. 

"They left their bikes at home and hired ones for this, he was the only one to bring his bike and wasn't able to finish the ride,

"He told us he was really disappointed not to finish and said he will have to come back next year, well at least now he will have the bike for the job. 

"It's really great to see the bike going to someone who actually needs it and will put it to good use," the crew said.