Graham Jarvis won his fifth Red Bull Sea to Sky on the weekend and regarded it as his greatest win ever, not because it's another trophy for the mantlepiece but because he did it with a broken clutch.
The win did not come easy for the 42-year-old Husqvarna rider after a bad start saw him in 10th position as the race began its climb up Turkey’s Olympos Mountain.
Six Stages into the 12 Stage race Sherco’s Wade Young held a comfortable lead over teammate Mario Roman with Jarvis two minutes back in third. The running order remained unchanged for the next five stages. The South African could taste victory after leading the entire race but with 10 minutes to go Jarvis found a line around the Sherco rider and scampered up the last rocky climb to take the win.
However, Jarvis’ was lucky to make it past Stage 6 where he had a small but potentially costly fall in the forest, snapping the clutch perch clean off the handlebar.
Jarvis’ helmet camera tells the story. He runs over to pick up his bike and sees the clutch perch hanging on by the hydraulic line. He lets out a long, frustrated “Nooooo”.
He limped his bike to the next checkpoint where he whipped out the duct tape, cable ties and string and rigged up a dodgy system to hold the clutch perch in place.
To his relief, the combination of tape, string and cable ties held for the remaining fives stages as Jarvis picked off rider after rider until he finally got around Young within minutes of the finish line and claimed the win.
So next time you bend a lever on a trailride think about poor old Graham Jarvis before you complain to your mates over a bag of Allens Snakes.
