While cycling's elite currently compete in the Tour de France, four Kiwis are taking on another epic cycling race and representing New Zealand at the quad tandem world championships in Canada.
A quad tandem sees four people ride the same bike and, as you can imagine, it's no easy ride. They're just four Kiwis tackling the most challenging cycling race you've probably never heard of.
"It took us 15 minutes to do more than a straight line and not fall off," one said.
Vancouver-based New Zealanders Sam Noster, Tem Hodson, Juston Fanselow and Tom Cameron were only united with their bike for the first time last week.
"We crashed a whole bunch of times, because we learnt pretty quickly that it was a very slow turn," another declared.
The quad tandem world champs were first raced in 2018, between Canada and Great Britain. This year, they've been joined by Team USA, a Canadian women's team... and there's no guessing where this lot are from.
"Sam approached me at the pub one day and said they needed a fourth guy and here I am," they said. "I had to get him a little bit tipsy, you know," Noster replied.
On Sunday, they began their eight day 800km journey across British Columbia, some with experience of competing in Ironman and the opposite end of that spectrum.
"I couldn't ride a bike until about four months ago."
It's all for a cause, with the teams and event raising money for mental health.
The other goal is just making it to the end.
"You can get a lot of speed and you don't have a lot of brakes."
Sadly, Team New Zealand team have found out the hard way, but are now hoping some repairs can get them back on the road.
