René Heyde, born in 1954, won the national 4000m individual pursuit title in 1973. But he really came to national prominence during the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

The Canterbury cyclist rose to the occasion at his first major international meeting and he, Blair Stockwell, Paul Brydon and Russell Nant came away with a bronze medal in the team pursuit.

In their first ride, they qualified second fastest with 4min 50.40s. Despite having gone more than 3 seconds faster than Australia in their heat, the New Zealanders lost their semi-final to Australia and were timed at a disappointing 4min 58.05s. New Zealand made a false start, which was not recalled as they’d expected it to be, and Australia rode smoothly into the final.

However, in the ride-off for the bronze it all came together well and the New Zealanders swept to victory in 4min 45.90s, beating Scotland by 12 seconds.

Heyde could well have had two medals at those Games. He also competed in the men's 1km time trial, recording a time of 1min 12.16s to finish 4th, a bare 0.01s behind bronze medallist Ian Hallam of England.

Though he didn’t have a long career as a top cyclist, Heyde has returned to the sport to compete at veteran level and, what’s more, he’s used his cycling ability as a means of raising money for charity.

In 2023 he organised ‘Rene’s foster hope charity ride’, working with Foster Hope NZ. It was a challenging bike ride to raise rounds for Foster Hope in New Zealand. The ride took him from the Marlborough Sounds to Milford Sound – 1500km, with 800km of off-road tracks and trails. The ride took in an average climb of 650 metres a day.

René explained that Foster Hope resonated with him because as a child of 10, he and his two brothers were uplifted by the police one night and place in welfare homes for the next four years.

Money he raised was used to supply backpacks to children who’d been uplifted from their homes. The packs contained essential items, such as underwear, toiletries, pyjamas, books and a teddy bear.

He eventually completed the arduous, uncomfortable ride, no mean feat for someone close to 70, and raised in excess of $11,000.

Heyde, a community work supervisor, was in the news a few years earlier for a more tragic reason.

He performed CPR to try to save the life of a 17-year-old Christchurch girl who died after inhaling butane.

Interviewed about the incident, he said her death was “a bloody waste” and that he could not understand what drove young people to huff solvents. “Something needs to change” to stop them getting access, he said.

Heyde said he’d been was driving home when he noticed the girl lying on the grass with another girl leaning over her and stopped to give assistance, though ultimately he could not save her life

Rene Heyde

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