Taking time to reflect

Lindsay Jordan, Lyn Randall and Steve Canny at the AGM

I am sometimes prone to hyperbole. Being in a sporting organization that delivers a huge number of top class events and showcases some of the south’s finest athletes in every age group, you can excuse the odd moment of exaggeration.

Even for me, using the word celebration in the same sentence as Annual General Meeting is probably going a little too far, but Cycling Southland’s AGM on Thursday night did, to my way of thinking, represent a number of things our organisation can be very proud of.

It represented a lot of hard work. Too often we don’t take the time to reflect on a job well done. With increased profile and more riders than ever involved in our events and our club road and track racing and programmes, it’s been a satisfying twelve months. The launch of our Learn to Ride KiwiSport programme and the start of our Roller Racing Ride-offs in schools mean we are teaching students how to ride and how to have a blast doing it.

The AGM also represented the incredible levels of support we receive. To deliver increased activities, increased year-on-year revenues and deliver an operational surplus in the current sports funding environment is no mean feat. I wish that was the stuff that made newspaper headlines.

Thanks to the huge amount of work that has gone in to our organization over many years means that we are in the financial position to put up to $100,000 of our Club’s own funds in to the Junior World Track Cycling Champs next month. The first chunk of that was expensed in our 2011-12 financial accounts. I guess you can write two headlines to that story. One about a club that works hard and puts its own money where its mouth is, (along with the outstanding local and national funding support,) to bring a World Championship to Southland. Or you can write a headline about another loss for a sporting organization. No surprise to guess which one I would write.

But enough of the glass half empty stuff. All of those who have contributed to Cycling Southland over a great many years can share in the success story of this little club of ours when the world comes to ride in a little over three weeks. It is on the back of all of their hard work that a crazy idea four years ago to have a crack at hosting a World event has become reality.

And it is with this sentiment in mind where I touch on the best part of last week’s AGM; the awarding of a Life Membership to Lyn Randall. Lyn is a man who gave a tremendous amount to the sport on a local and national level and was instrumental in the changes which lead to Cycling Southland and BikeNZ in their current forms. He will be with us at Junior Worlds, celebrating the role he played in getting us there and I know, like mine, his glass will be half full.

Trifecta of cycling events

By the time you get to read this, the first leg of cycling’s trifecta of world events will have concluded. Bradley Wiggins (right) will have rolled up the Champs-Elysees, glass of champers in hand, surrounded by his Team Sky team mates, holding a finger in the air to signify his and Great Britain’s first Tour de France win.
There is a crazy short turn-around to the trifecta’s second leg – the London Olympics.
This Saturday night (NZ time) Greg Henderson, with 3000 kilometres under his belt from the last three weeks pushing pedals around the French country-side joins former PowerNet Tour of Southland runner up Jack Bayer to try and somehow disrupt Great Britain’s plans of leading Mark Cavendish to Men’s Road Race gold. Linda Villumsen will ride the Women’s road race the following day and she will provide our best chances of a medal on the road when she starts the Time Trial in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Be ready for more sleep deprivation cycling fans! The track cycling programme begins 3am next Friday morning (August 3rd) with Eddie Dawkins and his Team Sprint mates the first Kiwis to christen the Olympic Velodrome. Unfortunately, the time difference puts the vast majority of track finals between 4 and 5:30am, meaning the alarm is going to get a fair work-out over the six days of competition.
And then comes the final leg, our hosting of the 2012 UCI Juniors Track Cycling World Championships. We are at the business end of planning now with yesterday (Sunday) marking one month to the opening day of competition.
Team confirmations are coming thick and fast now with the entry process officially opening this week. The United States are the latest to confirm its squad and it will be one of the largest with 14 athletes selected over the weekend to wear the Stars and Stripes at Stadium Southland Velodrome.

Ticket sales have spiked over the last week as word gets out that only limited numbers remain. Only a handful of tickets to Sunday’s final session are left and all other sessions are north off 80% gone. We are delighted and humbled by your support and interest and we’ll make sure we put on a good show for you.
Corporate hosting options have now been launched as well and very soon they may be the only chance to get inside the velodrome to watch. Check out www.juniorworlds2012.com/tickets for all the info.
This week we start our Roller Racing series which will be staged at Southland secondary schools over coming weeks with the top students lining up for an Ultimate Ride-off between sessions at the Junior World Championships. We’ll also be at a number of ILT establishments and at our main sponsor SIT. Again all the info is online at the junior worlds website.
We’ve been lucky to organize a couple of handy curtain-raisers (Tour de France and the Olympics). Bring on the main event! To say it is an exciting time, just doesn’t do it justice.

Pushing through the pain

Southland District Council in the Corporate Pursuit

As you read this poor excuse for a sports column, spare a thought for a number of cyclists who will be waking up feeling a little stiff and sore this morning.

I’m not talking about the Tour de France peloton which has left more skin then usual on French roads this week. I’m referring to our hardy bunch of corporate pursuiters who lined up in Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group-sponsored event yesterday.

As described previously, yesterday’s Grading Time Trial seeds the 34 teams in order across two divisions for this Sunday’s main event. You’ll find full results from yesterday elsewhere in this fine publication. Needless to say we should be in for some great racing and a lot of fun on Finals Day from 10am on Sunday.

*****

Away from the track, the second race in Cycling Southland’s Winter Racing Series was held on Saturday with the Donovan Points Race staged around a 10 kilometre circuit from Retreat Road on the outskirts of Invercargill.

A Grade proved clear-cut in the end as the master gave his pupils something of a lesson. Matt Randall made a successful return to the club racing scene claiming four sprint wins out of five for a final tally of 23 points to see off his protégés Matt Zenovich (14 points) and Brad Tuhi (11 points) for the win.

B Grade was shaping up for a gripping finish between Vaughan Edie and Dave Beadle before a last lap puncture forced Beadle’s withdrawal and Edie celebrated by winning the final sprint to claim an impressive victory on 18 points from Wayne Miller and Gabby Vermunt.

Wally Kopae showed his track legs in C Grade to kick for three sprint wins and two seconds for a final tally of 21 points, well clear of second-placed Garry Perkins with Neil Sutherland’s final sprint victory elevating him in to third spot.

*****

In closing, I have a few words regarding the Invercargill Licensing Trust and ILT Foundation. We would have an excuse to pen words of thanks most weeks of the year; such is the level of support we receive throughout the year, but there was something pretty special about what I witnessed this past week.

Not only have both organizations made sizable direct funding contributions to assist with the UCI Junior Track Worlds next month, but the ILT Foundation last week confirmed additional scholarships for a total of five local cyclists. Junior Worlds representatives Tom Beadle, Jeremy Presbury and Kate Dunlevey along with NZ Development road squad members Josh Haggerty and Michael Culling all received significant contributions.

Each one of these families went out of their way to pass on to me their sincere and humble gratitude for the Foundation’s level of support. It is only fair that I pass on their message in the most public fashion possible.

To the board and staff at both ILT and ILT Foundation goes a heart-felt thank you. I was lucky enough to hear these responses directly. Never doubt the difference that you are making.

Corporate rookies back for second helping

Last year a number of new businesses and individual lined up in Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit. Amongst the starters was first-time team St Thomas Aquinas School, including debutants Tabitha Brock and Summer Wilton.

Today, ahead of the first race day in the 2012 edition next weekend, our returning Corporate Pursuit rookies share their thoughts on their introduction to riding the velodrome.

The event appealed to us as it was something quite different and new to attempt. Demonstrating to our kids at school that taking on new challenges no matter how daunting was a key factor in being involved. Challenge was certainly the operative word as we discovered right from the outset of our first introduction to the boards of the velodrome. 

“Riding up against the wall of the track, I would close my eyes around some of the bend and just pedal hard hoping I would get around the 43 degrees upright” says Wilton. “Having to adjust to riding on a bike in which you are locked into and using muscles that don’t often get used was also a nerve wracking experience” adds team mate Tabitha Brock. Once we got over those fears the adrenaline rush kicked in and progress was made each week as we trained for the big day. 

Our first introduction to the crowds including some of our school families on time trial day was fantastic. “We felt like professionals” says Wilton. Our FIL school tops, the music, teams warming up around us all made for an atmosphere that was pumping. “Even at this point we felt a huge sense of achievement from where we had begun only five weeks earlier” says Brock. 

Come finals race day our trust in each other to ride within mere inches of the wheel and competitiveness to give each ride 100% had well and truly kicked in. The day was full of the adrenaline rocketing sky high mixed with a fair share of nerve-wracking experiences. “None more so than the opportunity to take on the women’s three lap track race. Wheels were touching, faces were changing all sorts of colours and the tension was high, and I loved every minute of it” says Wilton. 

“Those experiences, combined with the team racing element, is why we are back again this year. We learnt a lot about the sport, the ability to challenge ourselves all while having a heap of fun.”

The 34 strong field will line up in the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit Grading Time Trial on Sunday at the Stadium Southland Velodrome with the first team away at 12:30pm. Entry is by gold coin donation. The times recorded on Sunday will seed the teams for the Corporate Pursuit Finals on Sunday 15th.

While our Olympic and Junior Worlds riders will grab many of the headlines over the next few months, for Cycling Southland there is no better event to convert the likes of Tabitha and Summer to the wonderful sport of track cycling than the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit.