Mountain biker Tsang Siu-keung was thinking of glory and could almost taste the victorious gulp of Gatorade when his cravings were cut short in the blink of an eye last Sunday.
Taking a blind corner along a trail up the Tai Lam Country Park, the Hong Kong representative, nicknamed 'Stone', came head on with a vehicle.
When Stone was thrown from his bike by the collision with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) Land Rover during the duathlon, little did he realise this incident would spark a widespread call for safer trails, and indeed more trails inside country parks, from the mountain biking community.
The brakes are off now. Stone's band of brothers is up in arms at the lack of facilities and government apathy towards their sport which is now an Olympic discipline.
'We are being encouraged to nurture the 'Olympic Spirit' in Hong Kong prior to the 2008 Games. It's surely better to do this by encouraging active participation in Olympic sports like mountain biking, rather than by just being passive spectators and consumers,' was listener Mike Bains' biting comment on RTHK's backchat programme this week.
The growing number of mountain bikers will agree with Bains' trenchant view. But there is a problem - an increasing number of mountain bikers coping with a limited number of trails.
Only a fortnight ago, the AFCD confirmed more than 6,000 people had applied for mountain bike permits in the past 12 months so they could ride on trails in Hong Kong. And how many designated trails are there? Only 10. An insignificant number when you consider there are more than 1,000 hiking trails.