Liverpool legend Craig Johnston was in awe of wheelchair racing legend Kurt Fearnley on Steve Waugh's charity bike ride.
Craig and Kurt - both proud Novocastrians - took part in the ride, which raises money for rare diseases.
On a 120-kilometre ride, Craig was riding behind Kurt.
"What he was doing was so much harder than what the rest of us were doing," Craig said.
"What we were doing with our legs, he was doing with his arms and chest."
Craig has been around top sportspeople all his life.
"I've never come across a human being with so much guts, character, strength of mind and purpose," Craig said, of Kurt's effort on the ride.
"When you see his muscles rippling, it is gruelling, heart-wrenching stuff."
On the final hill of the day, the road was "incredibly steep".
"All the way up, I was just hanging behind him. He nearly got to the top and I'm thinking, 'You beauty, he's made it'," Craig said.
Then Kurt broke a handle. Other riders went past because the finish line was close.
Craig stopped, but Kurt told him: "Mate, you go."
Craig replied: "I'm not leaving you. You're finishing this. You've come all this way."
Craig found the missing nut in the dirt and fixed the handle.
"He kept going and he finished. It was one of those moments I'll remember forever," Craig said.
The story was also recounted on Kurt Fearnley's Tiny Island podcast.
Kurt said it was one of the toughest rides he'd done and "longer than what I'd ever done".
He said Craig had fixed the handle with his fingers.
"I had already tried," he said.
Kurt was thinking he'd have to crawl to the finish line or jump in a car. He said Craig refused to see him not finish.
"It was a really nice moment," Kurt said, as Craig held back tears on the podcast.
The pair also shared a joke about Craig's case of osteomyelitis as a six-year-old when he almost had to have his leg amputated.
Craig: "We saved the leg, which was good because it would have slowed me down on the wing."
Kurt: "You would have been one of our mob."
Craig: "I'd have been racing you up and down the Fernleigh Track."
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