Stories behind World Champs selections

Jeremy Presbury (l) and Tom Beadle

Cycling Southland enjoyed one of its proudest weeks over the past seven days. In a 24 hour stretch eight of our Club members were named in New Zealand squads to represent their country at world championships and each and every one of them has got there on the back of a huge amount of hard work, sacrifice and dedication individually and by their support teams and families.

To have five Cycling Southlanders in the black skin suit taking on the world’s best in front of a home crowd at Junior Worlds in August is the beyond our wildest dreams. But it’s the manner in which these young men and women have earned selection which gives me the most enjoyment.

Liam Aitcheson was lying in a hospital bed last year after a serious head injury after coming off his bike. He turned up and rode the Southland track champs in December with little experience on the boards but his rides in the points and individual pursuit made many put a line under his name as “one to watch.” He backed that up with a superb victory in the Points race at the Nationals and basically gave the selectors no option but to pick him.

Tom Beadle’s talent on a bike can’t be questioned but after 12 months of overcoming curve-balls thrown at him by his body, he produced a superb National Championship campaign to lock down selection. Sophie Williamson has also triumphed over injury and health issues this past year. She again showed her mercurial talent in winning the Points gold at Nationals on a limited build-up and is a great chance to improve on her bronze medal from last year’s worlds.

Cycling has a habit of taking late-starters and turning them in to national reps in a short space of time. Kate Dunlevey is another example. She broke the qualification mark in the 500m Time Trial at Nationals and her rapid progression makes her a key part of the women’s sprint programme. Then there’s Jeremy Presbury, another who forced his way into the squad on the back of form at the Nationals. He has literally exploded into national consideration over the last six months and we know there is plenty more where that came from.

The following day, Eddie Dawkins, Natasha Hansen and Matt Archibald were named to ride at the World Elite Championships in Melbourne next week.

By his own admission Eddie hasn’t been at his best over the last year. We can confirm, right on cue, the big fella is back! Natasha Hansen’s rapid progression has been well documented and she again lowered her PB over 200 metres in Perth on Saturday night, proving she is timing her preparation to perfection. If there is a more dedicated man than Matt Archibald, I’m yet to meet him. He has earned a World Champs spot with pure hard work, focus and determination.

I get a funny feeling we may have a few more proud weeks before this year is done.

Time for a moment's reflection

The curtain fell on the 2011-12 domestic track cycling season last weekend at the conclusion of the Age Group Track Championships and it also marked the end of a frenetic period for Cycling Southland.

It has been non-stop since October with seemingly one national or international event after another. From a hugely successful Yunca Junior Tour, through a heart-stopping PowerNet Tour of Southland, record-setting times at the WHK Oceania Track Champs, our full week of racing in the ILT New Year Cycling Series and then the recent Elite and Age Group Track Nationals, it has been one heck of a ride.

At the end of it we have a pile of events which have been a great watch and have produced world-class performances from New Zealand’s increasing number of elite and junior road and track cyclists.

But due to the year-round nature of our sport, there is little time to draw breath and the few short paragraphs above are about all the reflection we have time for. The attention now switches to the road where yet another two major events are looming quickly on the horizon.

This week, our friends at the Wakatipu-Central Otago Cycling club host the Oceania Road Championships. After casting a quick eye across the entry list, I can confidently say this is going to be another fantastic event. The Australians are arriving in big numbers and the start lists boasts an Elite World Track Champion, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and multiple Junior World champions.

Racing starts on Friday with Time Trials for all age categories. Then on Saturday the Under-19 and Elite Women road race titles will be decided while the Under-19, Under-23 and Elite Men medals are handed out on Sunday. The course is based from the Distinction Hotel at Nugget Point and will be run over a circuit just a tick over 25 kilometres. With the ups and downs of Littles Road, long straights through Speargrass Flat, the nasty McIntyre’s Hill and the sweeping bends of Malaghans Road to finish, it is the definition of a championship course.

Then, hard on its heels, the 2012 version of the Vital Signs Tour de Lakes will be held across Central Otago over Easter Weekend. Thanks to the tireless work of Allan Dunn and his able lieutenants this event is always a highlight and it provides our “weekend warriors” with an opportunity to ride a multi-stage, three-day race. Team Dunny is the epitome of Cycling Southland’s fortune of having passionate volunteers who continue to contribute a phenomenal amount to the organisation and its riders.

There’s also the small matter of continuing preparations for the UCI Juniors Track World Championships in August and Invercargill’s hosting of BikeNZ for a pre-World Championship camp which will largely decide who gets to book a plane trip to London in July.

So you can see why we can only allow ourselves a brief look back at the last five or six months, because there’s a lot more where that came from!

How to summarise the Age Group Champs?

Tom Sexton & Grant Toomey

I really struggled to know how to approach this week’s column.

Should I focus on another brilliant team performance by the Cycling Southland squad at the 2012 Age Group Track Nationals? Perhaps I could try and crank up a bit of inter-sport debate on whether Southland’s track cycling domination has ever been replicated by another Southland sports team? I’ve been there and done that over the last two years though.

Maybe I could write about the five successive Points Shield victories and compare that to other great eras in Southland sport?

Perhaps I could single out some of the individual stars - Erin Criglington, Jacqui Dearlove and Bruce Jones’ record breaking deeds or the return or Michael Culling after a good chunk of the last year away from the sport?

I could look at the Under 19s and how Tom Beadle, Liam Aitcheson, Sophie Williamson, Kate Dunlevey and others advanced their chances of gaining Junior Worlds selection. I could easily wax lyrical on the work of their team mates including Tom Vessey, Josh Haggerty, Jenn Muhl and Georgia Timpany in assisting their medal-winning causes.

I could easily discuss the incredible and humbling input we receive from our officials and volunteers. We raced for more than 25 hours over 4 days and our army of volunteers helped deliver the smoothest event you could ever hope to host, all without asking for a thing in return.

I could consider going in to sales mode (wouldn’t be the first time in this column) to drum up ticket sales for Junior Worlds – event passes are on sale now, by the way – comparing the drama we watched unfold over this week to what we can expect from internationals in August.

I was tempted to discuss the incredible talent coming through the ranks and how promising that is for the future. But instead I’m going to let you in on one small story which I think encapsulates all that was great about the week.

Tom Sexton rode his Under 15 Points race heat really well. He got stuck in early and got enough points to look as though he would comfortably qualify. Then he was brought down in a crash eight laps from the finish.

Racing rules allow for a rider to re-enter the race after an incident like this but they have to do so before the last five laps of a race. Sexton, bounced up, ignored the pain and rode the last five laps on basically one leg, after one racing shoe broke and wouldn’t clip back in. He avoided getting lapped by the field (which would have seen him lose his points) and duly made the final.

It epitomized the courage and determination which were hallmarks of the Southland effort. You can’t coach that but Southland’s riders have it and it’s a major reason the squad made it five in a row this week. To every one of our Elite and Age Group squad members go my thanks and congratulations. You performed magnificently and should be very proud. We are.