Business at speed - Corporate Pursuit returns

Southland District Council on track

In today's business world, companies have to be quick to react, flexible and have the ability to act decisively and with speed. Now, I'm not talking about how they operate 9 to 5! I'm referring to the 2012 version of Cycling Southland's Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit.

This year another capacity field of 34 six-person teams will line up over two race days next month to find the south’s best cycling corporate.

There is a great mix of experience and first-timers in the field from every sector imaginable with teams from H&J Smith, Whyte’s Gravel Supplies, Southland Times, McIntyre Dick and Partners, PowerNet, Preston Russell Law, WHK, ASA Stonewood Homes, Southland District Council, Harcourts, Environment Southland, NZ Police, Invercargill Licensing Trust, AWS Legal, BNZ, Ricoh, BMAC Sheetmetal, The Radio Network, Westpac, Southroads, HW Richardson Group, Opus International Consultants, EIS Group, Finance Now, Amalgamated Builders, Fulton Hogan Southland, Fonterra, Calder Stewart Roofing, YMCA, Waihopai Health Sevices, SBS Bank, St Thomas Aquinas School and of course our magnificent sponsor Harrex Group. Try picking a winner from that lot!

So, how does it work? Each team has been training hard refining their combinations over the last month with our personal team coaches at the Stadium Southland Velodrome. The first challenge is the Grading Time Trial on Sunday 8 July when each team will take on the clock in a one-off four-lap ride. This ranks the team in order from first to thirty-fourth for the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit Finals one week later on Sunday 15 July.

On finals day the field is split in to two divisions and it turns in to an elimination format. Teams ride two at a time with the winner of each four-lapper progressing through the rounds and the losers dropping in to our plate competitions. Ultimately, two teams are left to battle for the big divisional prizes.

Last year the NZ Police got the “business” done taking out Division One over Calder Stewart Roofing, while former champion YMCA defeated Fonterra to take home the Division Two trophy.

Both race days are two of the most colourful in the Velodrome all year. The teams come decked out in customised racing tops and supporters and work-mates do the same, filling the stand with banners, costumes and plenty of noise. It is always great to see how much faster the teams all ride on the competition days, firing themselves up with the support from the bleachers being a major factor.

It's great fun and it is expertly organized by Julian Ineson and Sier Vermunt who again have plans for next month well in hand. Thanks again for all your work guys.

Before I go, congratulations go to Cycling Southland's Erin Criglington who last week was awarded a Services Award at the National Bike Road and Track Volunteer Awards. It’s always great to see someone like Erin who gives so much on and off the bike as a rider, official, volunteer, coach and mentor get a little something back in return.

Sports awards showcase top talent

Junior Sports Person Steph McKenzie 

On Friday night I was lucky enough to host the ILT Southland Sports Awards. It's the second year I've had the privilege to be officially involved with a night that recognizes the outstanding performances by Southland's premier sporting talent.

One of the best initiatives added over recent years has been to collate a list of each sport’s best performance of the year and showcase them all on the Awards Programme and Menu for each guest to study throughout the night.

Too often, many of these performances get lost in the hustle and bustle, in some cases they unfortunately don’t see the light of day or, if they do, are all too quickly forgotten as “yesterday’s news.”

They say success breeds success, which of course is true. But success can also produce complacency, a malaise even – we end up taking it for granted. The ILT Southland Sports Awards puts as many of those stories as possible front and centre again and unashamedly celebrates them for what they are – pure unadulterated success.

The awards period covers 1 April to 31 March each year and the wonderful thing is that the performances we’ve seen already since next year’s awards period opened does point to another difficult judging year in 2013.

So with that in mind and being the helpful type, here are a few early pointers for next year’s judging panel from your mates at Cycling Southland;

In April Eddie Dawkins became the first New Zealander ever to break the 10 second barrier over 200 metres and was part of the Men’s Team Sprint trio which won this country’s first ever world championship sprint medal. And, just so you know, Tom Scully became the first New Zealander to podium in one of the most prestigious Under-23 races in the world, the famous Paris-Roubaix cycling classic last month.

Remember we are only two months in to the new “awards year” and with a strong Southland contingent lining up at the Junior Worlds in Invercargill and the Olympics and Paralympics in London we’ll reserve a few extra places to join Eddie and Tom as next year’s nominees. Nothing like getting in early eh!

Next cab off the rank for us is the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit with 34 teams from southern businesses starting their rigourous training campaigns leading in to next month’s track event. Look out for some of the fun and hilarity of this outstanding event to feature in this column over coming weeks.

To finish today, here’s a final reminder that our fundraising auction for our local Junior Worlds riders closes at lunchtime today. The signed cycling tops by our Olympic, Paralympic and Junior Worlds riders are up for grabs until 1pm today. Just search for cyclingsouth on TradeMe or visit cyclingsouth.org.nz.

For the memorabilia collector or southern business this would look great on your wall and will no doubt go up in value after the events the signatories are riding in August and again after next year’s Sports Awards. Isn’t that right judges?

Digging deep for Junior Worlds reps

Our Junior Worlds reps on-stage at Thursday's send-off

On Thursday night Cycling Southland held a Send-off Function for our Olympic, Paralympic and Junior Worlds cyclists. From this week our crop of talented bike riders start the next phases of their respective campaigns with pre-competition training camps as they scatter around the globe.

Last week’s send-off featured three Olympic squad members in Eddie Dawkins, Natasha Hansen and Matt Archibald, three Paralympians in Phillipa Gray and tandem pilots Laura Thompson and Kylie Young and three Junior World track representatives in Kate Dunlevey, Tom Beadle and Jeremy Presbury. Take a moment and think about what an incredible achievement it is for a province like Southland to be contributing that many to the select bunch of athletes who will represent their country at the various pinnacles of the sport this year.

It shows the dedication from the athletes themselves, but speaks volumes to the support groups – coaches, community, funders and most especially, families – that each rider relies on heavily to make it and stay at the top.

Each of the riders has their own unique story to tell. Dawkins is a true Southland success story. Having been riding a bike competitively since the age of 12, he has done it the old fashioned way, through a lot of hard work, coming up through the grades and taking every opportunity to give back to the community which has watched him grow into an athlete of world standing before their very eyes. Hansen and Archibald have both relocated to Southland and have shown incredible commitment in holding down fulltime jobs whilst improving out of sight in short spaces of time. Most talk about 2016 in Rio as the long-term focus for all three, but I know all have their eyes firmly set on London in just a few short week’s time.

Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson have quickly formed a world class combination and along with Kylie Young, who will partner former World champion Jayne Parsons, all three are realistic Paralympic medal chances in the 3000m Pursuit. A Kiwi and Southland double is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Our three Junior Worlds reps will, over the next three months, become very familiar names. All three have followed different paths to get to this point in their young cycling careers but all now have the same goal – winning world championship medals in front of a home crowd in August.

It’s ironic, given the World Champs are to be staged in their home towns, that the Junior athletes and their families face some hefty travel bills to allow the riders to train in Australia, the United States or Europe over the next couple of months.

To this end we have a fundraising auction which is currently underway. We have three signed BikeNZ Cycling Tops signed by the riders mentioned above and all of the winning bids will go to the Junior Worlds families.

Simply visit cyclingsouth.org.nz for details or search for cyclingsouth on TradeMe and bid up. By August I’m sure they will be even better investments.