EVAN PEGDEN, WAIKATO TIMES

Former Olympic and Commonwealth Games rider Stephen Cox would love to get back into regular cycling and return to the scene of past glories in the Wellington-Auckland seven-day race.

But instead, he and his son Nathan are too busy organising the annual Lion Foundation Wellington to Auckland Cycle Challenge he initiated four years ago based on the old Dulux tour of the North Island he used to compete in.

"I don't ride my bike enough to do it," Cox said.

"One year I'd like to ride enough again to possibly do it, but at the moment I hardly ride.

"Nathan works fulltime with us now, organising the events because all the events we do got way too much for me to do on my own and something like this, it's hard to explain just how much work it takes."

This year's event starts in Lower Hutt tomorrow, finishing at the top of the Rimutaka Hill, with the second stage the same day from Featherston to Masterton.

The riders work their way up the North Island with two stages each day until they hit Hamilton, having the afternoon off after racing from Tokoroa. The event finishes next Saturday in Pukekohe.

The event has grown steadily in popularity despite the daunting nature of the ride.

"We started the first year with 95 riders and we're like 155 this year so each year we've had an increase and so that's the most positive part of it.

"The feedback has been really good and I think we're making good progress."

Cox's event attracts a wide range of riders, this year ranging from 18 to 73 in age and from elite riders to nurses, chartered accountants, farmers, builders and computer programmers among the field of individuals and relay teams.

Former All Black captain Ian Kirkpatrick, who has been cycling for fitness for the past six years, is riding in the event for the first time at the age of 65, joining an array of riders from New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the Netherlands.

"There's guys like Blair Stockwell, who is now 60-plus but still a very fit cyclist, Jack Swart has done it a couple of times, although not doing it this year.

"There's very much a 45-plus age group there so it's attractive very much to the ones who have a little bit more time, a little bit more of the discretionary dollar to spend and can take a week off work," Cox said.

This year there were about 30 women competing and he said that group was growing each year also.

"We're getting husbands and wives doing it, dads and sons, brothers and we've had a few Americans over and obviously a few from Australia, so I think we're making good progress."

Cox said there were about 20 to 30 serious riders who raced competitively, while the rest of the field aimed just to finish the ride.

"You'd be surprised how competitive some of them still are and sometimes I have to tell them it's not the world champs and they need to treat it a little bit more safely and cautiously, but you can't knock that competitiveness out of the top 20 or so of them."