This week’s Cycling Southland annual general meeting presents a formal opportunity to look back at the last 12 months and look forward to the club’s next exciting chapter.
There’s little debate the past year has been the biggest in our club’s history, headlined by hosting the 2012 UCI Juniors Track World Championships. It took a massive investment from both our volunteer base and from our financial reserves but like any good investment, it will pay dividends for years to come.
The best part about last year’s success is that it is shared by all those who have contributed over Cycling Southland’s rich history to put a little cycling club in the position to contribute as the single largest funder to the event. The countless and tireless years of service from names like Ineson, Sycamore, Tall, Ross, Broad, Canny and co, laid the foundation for the current crop (which includes all of the afore-mentioned names) to put Cycling Southland, the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome and Invercargill on the world track cycling map.
Preparations are being finalised for an elite track cycling event in November to be staged in the city to continue to build on this hard-earned reputation. So, don’t for a minute think we are suffering a Junior Worlds hangover and slowing down any!
Whilst we are on the topic of future events, entries opened for both our junior and senior Tours of Southland over the last fortnight. The 30th Yunca Junior Tour is first up from October 4 to 6, with the senior edition to be held November 3 to 9.
But before we hit the highways on our road tours later in the year, we have the WHK Corporate Pursuit over the next two weekends. Last week’s finals of the Lone Star Speights Corporate Roller Racing provided a sneak preview on who will start as the bookies favourite.
Seven teams were back to take on the team effort after qualifying over the past four weeks. The finals saw four teams move through to the finale’s ride-off, after setting times up to ten seconds quicker than they had achieved in the previous weeks’ heats.
In the end, the inaugural champion was Fonterra, taking the title by a slim 0.504 seconds from AWS Legal with NZ Fire Service a close third. All three teams recorded record-breaking individual efforts with times in the 22 second range over the 500 metre distance.
Our 30 corporate teams now shift their focus to the WHK Time Trial on Sunday (4th August) before the knock out finals competition is held on Sunday 11th.
The first team to measure themselves against the clock this Sunday will be the Colac Bay Tavern at 12:25pm. Three hours later, we will know who will be contesting the division 1 and 2 honours on Finals day.
Based on what we’ve seen at the Lone Star on the rollers over the last month, it should be an outstanding contest. Entry is by gold coin with children free over both velodrome race days.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Luck has nothing to do with it
This week we were paid a visit by a couple of good blokes from up north somewhere who wanted to get a handle on how one of these velodrome things worked. They were looking at the feasibility of building a similar community facility for their home patch.
Our two visitors timing couldn't have been better as they watched a class from James Hargest being put through their paces in an NCEA-accredited track cycling course on the track, while another group bounced around in the courts in the middle of the track and both lounges upstairs hosted corporate meetings and workshops.
I used to think Invercargill was lucky to have a facility of this quality, but now I realise that luck has nothing to do with it. Those visionary sport and community leaders and funders didn't roll the dice and just hope for the best a decade ago. They did their homework, didn't cut corners and built a facility that delivers at all levels - from international high performers to local students trying track for the first time. It provided a great example to our northern visitors and it is again emphasised by some of the cycling activities over this past week.
Eddie Dawkins continued to dominate to sprinting world. After a string of solid performances in Europe he backed up from an arduous travel schedule to win both the keirin and sprint on consecutive nights at the International Track Series in Adelaide this week. If their medal-winning deeds at the last two world championships announced NZ's arrival as an international cycling sprint powerhouse, the effort this off-season, lead by Eddie (along with Cycling Southland's Matt Archibald) has put an exclamation point on it.
Earlier this week Jeremy Presbury and Josh Haggerty flew out to Europe where they will link with Alexandra's Liam Aitcheson and the rest of the nine-strong BikeNZ squad to complete preparations ahead on next month's UCI Junior World Track Championships in Glasgow. Jeremy will line up as the number one ranked junior keirin rider in the world - in case you glossed over that last sentence, go back and re-read it now! All three travel as realistic medal prospects and they've had the luxury of building up on a world class facility here in Invercargill.
Southlanders also performed with distinction at this weekend's South Island Secondary Schools Road Cycling Champs at Ruapuna. Hamish Keast took double gold in the U14 boys while Tom Sexton took out the U16 road race title in bitterly cold conditions yesterday, backing up from his individual bronze and team gold during Saturday's time trials. Sam Miller, Hamish Beadle, Brayden Stephens, Hayden and Corbin Strong, Nick Kergozou and Josh van den Arend also stepped on to the podium over the weekend.
It's another long list of outstanding results from a random week in the year and one way or another, they can be linked to the foresight of those a decade ago who decided Invercargill could build an indoor velodrome, when no-one else had. Good idea that!
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
Our two visitors timing couldn't have been better as they watched a class from James Hargest being put through their paces in an NCEA-accredited track cycling course on the track, while another group bounced around in the courts in the middle of the track and both lounges upstairs hosted corporate meetings and workshops.
I used to think Invercargill was lucky to have a facility of this quality, but now I realise that luck has nothing to do with it. Those visionary sport and community leaders and funders didn't roll the dice and just hope for the best a decade ago. They did their homework, didn't cut corners and built a facility that delivers at all levels - from international high performers to local students trying track for the first time. It provided a great example to our northern visitors and it is again emphasised by some of the cycling activities over this past week.
Eddie Dawkins continued to dominate to sprinting world. After a string of solid performances in Europe he backed up from an arduous travel schedule to win both the keirin and sprint on consecutive nights at the International Track Series in Adelaide this week. If their medal-winning deeds at the last two world championships announced NZ's arrival as an international cycling sprint powerhouse, the effort this off-season, lead by Eddie (along with Cycling Southland's Matt Archibald) has put an exclamation point on it.
Earlier this week Jeremy Presbury and Josh Haggerty flew out to Europe where they will link with Alexandra's Liam Aitcheson and the rest of the nine-strong BikeNZ squad to complete preparations ahead on next month's UCI Junior World Track Championships in Glasgow. Jeremy will line up as the number one ranked junior keirin rider in the world - in case you glossed over that last sentence, go back and re-read it now! All three travel as realistic medal prospects and they've had the luxury of building up on a world class facility here in Invercargill.
Southlanders also performed with distinction at this weekend's South Island Secondary Schools Road Cycling Champs at Ruapuna. Hamish Keast took double gold in the U14 boys while Tom Sexton took out the U16 road race title in bitterly cold conditions yesterday, backing up from his individual bronze and team gold during Saturday's time trials. Sam Miller, Hamish Beadle, Brayden Stephens, Hayden and Corbin Strong, Nick Kergozou and Josh van den Arend also stepped on to the podium over the weekend.
It's another long list of outstanding results from a random week in the year and one way or another, they can be linked to the foresight of those a decade ago who decided Invercargill could build an indoor velodrome, when no-one else had. Good idea that!
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
Monday, July 8, 2013
End of the off-season
The handful of weeks that can loosely be described as the off-season at Cycling Southland are over with the restart of our weekend club road racing series on Saturday.
Not that it's been a restful time for the club. Plans are in place for the 2013 WHK Corporate Pursuit with our 29 teams circling the velodrome as they learn the ropes and refine their combinations ahead of next month's race days. Final details are being confirmed for Cycling Southland's hosting of two international track cycling events in November (watch this space) and there's the small matter of continuing preparations for our junior and senior cycling tours of Southland.
The Junior Tour will be held from October 4 to 6 and will again be headlined by one of Southland's longest running sponsorships by Yunca Heating. The Yunca Tour has become a rite of passage for New Zealand's best road talent locally and nationally for the best part of 30 years. Even in the short three-year history I've seen first-hand, it is obvious the role this event and Yunca's outstanding on-going support plays in developing the country's most promising riders into talents who have the opportunity to take those skills on a world stage.
The other feature of the last week was the announcement of Cycling Southland's partnership with Road Safety Southland.
The Share the Road message has been a fixture in the Tour of Southland peloton over recent years but this year the message will not be confined to one team, but the entire event with Road Safety Southland becoming a major feature sponsor for this year’s Tour.
Road Safety Southland Road User Safety Advisor Jane Ballantyne, her off-sider Maureen Deuchrass, Sport Southland and our outstanding local Police Education Officers have done a great job delivering this vitally important message over recent years and together we're all committed to continuing to share the same road, same rules, same rights message as widely as possible.
A few words from Jane herself. “We’ve been delighted with the profile the team has provided us over the last few years, but this new partnership gives us the chance to re-energise the Share the Road message in New Zealand’s most recognised cycling event. With more bikes on the roads, this message becomes increasingly important and to do it with Cycling Southland through the Tour and through the year makes perfect sense.”
Our Tour of Southland partnership is only the first step in an on-going relationship with Road Safety Southland. Share the Road is a shared responsibility. Too often the debate becomes a cyclist verses motorist one or vice versa when cyclists, motorists and pedestrians all have a job to do to keep themselves and each other safe. This isn’t going to be told over a couple of weeks every November, it’s a year-round message and one we both plan to have front and centre throughout the entire year.
There's no better place to start than as we build-up and then deliver New Zealand's feature road cycling event.
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
Not that it's been a restful time for the club. Plans are in place for the 2013 WHK Corporate Pursuit with our 29 teams circling the velodrome as they learn the ropes and refine their combinations ahead of next month's race days. Final details are being confirmed for Cycling Southland's hosting of two international track cycling events in November (watch this space) and there's the small matter of continuing preparations for our junior and senior cycling tours of Southland.
The Junior Tour will be held from October 4 to 6 and will again be headlined by one of Southland's longest running sponsorships by Yunca Heating. The Yunca Tour has become a rite of passage for New Zealand's best road talent locally and nationally for the best part of 30 years. Even in the short three-year history I've seen first-hand, it is obvious the role this event and Yunca's outstanding on-going support plays in developing the country's most promising riders into talents who have the opportunity to take those skills on a world stage.
The other feature of the last week was the announcement of Cycling Southland's partnership with Road Safety Southland.
The Share the Road message has been a fixture in the Tour of Southland peloton over recent years but this year the message will not be confined to one team, but the entire event with Road Safety Southland becoming a major feature sponsor for this year’s Tour.
Road Safety Southland Road User Safety Advisor Jane Ballantyne, her off-sider Maureen Deuchrass, Sport Southland and our outstanding local Police Education Officers have done a great job delivering this vitally important message over recent years and together we're all committed to continuing to share the same road, same rules, same rights message as widely as possible.
A few words from Jane herself. “We’ve been delighted with the profile the team has provided us over the last few years, but this new partnership gives us the chance to re-energise the Share the Road message in New Zealand’s most recognised cycling event. With more bikes on the roads, this message becomes increasingly important and to do it with Cycling Southland through the Tour and through the year makes perfect sense.”
Our Tour of Southland partnership is only the first step in an on-going relationship with Road Safety Southland. Share the Road is a shared responsibility. Too often the debate becomes a cyclist verses motorist one or vice versa when cyclists, motorists and pedestrians all have a job to do to keep themselves and each other safe. This isn’t going to be told over a couple of weeks every November, it’s a year-round message and one we both plan to have front and centre throughout the entire year.
There's no better place to start than as we build-up and then deliver New Zealand's feature road cycling event.
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
Monday, July 1, 2013
Tour time leaves no time for sleep
With the 2013 Tour de France beginning in Corsica on Saturday night (NZ time), so too began a month of sleep deprivation for cycling fans.
The 100th Tour began in suitably dramatic fashion and fortunately the British and Irish Lions and Wallabies played ball with a horrendously stop-start rugby match on the other channel (at least for the first 70 minutes) which allowed for plenty of time watching the Tour peloton settle in for its 3,600 kilometre journey over the next three weeks.
I managed to get to about 1:30am before bed called and thanks to the marvels of modern technology (more commonly called MySky) I dragged myself up the hall, safe in the knowledge that a replay of the predicted opening stage sprint would be only a few button pushes away in the morning.
Anyone who organises events will tell you they lie awake at night, not worrying about the things they have planned for, it's those eventualities you can't plan for that keep you from sleep. Things like a team bus getting wedged under the finish line, for example.
So as the leaders descended on the final kilometres of stage one, organisers were deflating tyres on the Orica-GreenEdge team bus so it could back up and get out of the way before 198 bike riders came down the finish straight at 75 clicks.
Fortunately, disaster was avoided - well mostly. Nervousness in the peloton during the opening days of the Tour is an annual fixture and these jitters, combined with a decision to move the finish line back to the three kilometre mark to avoid the Aussie bus, which was then reversed when said bus was unwedged, combined to create the perfect recipe for incident. Sure enough, within the final kilometres, wheels touched and down came a large number of riders.
New Zealand's Greg Henderson and Jack Bauer negotiated the carnage, although Hendy, a key lead-out man for Lotto Belisol team mate Andre Greipel was not short of a word after the stage, telling ITV, "It was just ridiculous. We hear the finish line is at 3km so we just go, full. Then we hear at 3km that it's back at the original. We'd already used two men on the lead-out. It's not ideal."
That's the beautiful thing about the Tour. Just when you think you've seen it all over 100 years of racing, it reminds you that you can't miss a moment.
It also reminds us that our own iconic road race, the Tour of Southland will no doubt again provide drama and surprise. 120 of New Zealand's best bike riders over 900 kilometres never goes exactly to script and, just like the slightly more famous French version, it will throw up another week of spectacular action in November.
The first of our exciting announcements leading in to the 2013 Tour of Southland comes in these very pages later this week. That upcoming news and the start of le Tour over the weekend ratcheted up the excitement levels another notch.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
The 100th Tour began in suitably dramatic fashion and fortunately the British and Irish Lions and Wallabies played ball with a horrendously stop-start rugby match on the other channel (at least for the first 70 minutes) which allowed for plenty of time watching the Tour peloton settle in for its 3,600 kilometre journey over the next three weeks.
I managed to get to about 1:30am before bed called and thanks to the marvels of modern technology (more commonly called MySky) I dragged myself up the hall, safe in the knowledge that a replay of the predicted opening stage sprint would be only a few button pushes away in the morning.
Anyone who organises events will tell you they lie awake at night, not worrying about the things they have planned for, it's those eventualities you can't plan for that keep you from sleep. Things like a team bus getting wedged under the finish line, for example.
So as the leaders descended on the final kilometres of stage one, organisers were deflating tyres on the Orica-GreenEdge team bus so it could back up and get out of the way before 198 bike riders came down the finish straight at 75 clicks.
Fortunately, disaster was avoided - well mostly. Nervousness in the peloton during the opening days of the Tour is an annual fixture and these jitters, combined with a decision to move the finish line back to the three kilometre mark to avoid the Aussie bus, which was then reversed when said bus was unwedged, combined to create the perfect recipe for incident. Sure enough, within the final kilometres, wheels touched and down came a large number of riders.
New Zealand's Greg Henderson and Jack Bauer negotiated the carnage, although Hendy, a key lead-out man for Lotto Belisol team mate Andre Greipel was not short of a word after the stage, telling ITV, "It was just ridiculous. We hear the finish line is at 3km so we just go, full. Then we hear at 3km that it's back at the original. We'd already used two men on the lead-out. It's not ideal."
That's the beautiful thing about the Tour. Just when you think you've seen it all over 100 years of racing, it reminds you that you can't miss a moment.
It also reminds us that our own iconic road race, the Tour of Southland will no doubt again provide drama and surprise. 120 of New Zealand's best bike riders over 900 kilometres never goes exactly to script and, just like the slightly more famous French version, it will throw up another week of spectacular action in November.
The first of our exciting announcements leading in to the 2013 Tour of Southland comes in these very pages later this week. That upcoming news and the start of le Tour over the weekend ratcheted up the excitement levels another notch.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
Monday, June 24, 2013
Let's enjoy our back yard facilities
Of all the sporting victories recorded over the weekend, Saturday's announcement regarding the securing of naming rights for the rebuilt Stadium Southland and the Velodrome was a biggest win for the sporting sector.
It seems fitting to me that two organisations like the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Southern Institute of Technology that are inextricably linked with the development of Invercargill as a city over recent years are the two who have stepped up to ensure the Southland community will continue to enjoy world-class facilities at our collective back doors.
In classic fashion, we don't know what we've got until we lose it even though the Velodrome has provided a more than suitable temporary venue for the Steel and Sharks, evidenced by two sell-out crowds in three days this weekend.
Once the doors are opened and the thousands of weekly users are shuffling back through doors as they used to before that fateful September 2010 day, my hope is that we don't let ourselves forget how fortunate we are to work and play in a facility like Stadium Southland.
Nor should we forget the outstanding contributions from the many organisations who fronted up to make it happen. I have little doubt that the Southland sporting community would join me when, on behalf of Cycling Southland, I offer sincere thanks for yet another spectacularly generous investment in the fabric of Southland community.
+++++
Another week of outstanding results by Cycling Southland members scattered around the globe. Steph McKenzie continues to dominate the competition in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania winning the UCI Festival women's keirin to back up her Keirin Cup win the previous week. The keirin may not be her preferred discipline but Stephie is showing outstanding form and she has one more chance to rake in UCI points before returning to New Zealand to continue her build up to the Oceania Championships here in Invercargill in November.
Meanwhile the Men's sprinters are also turning heads across the Atlantic in Europe. The southern contingent of Eddie Dawkins, Matt Archibald and Tom Beadle are certainly making a mark with their off-season form. Dawkins recorded a blistering 9.9 second 200 metres on a concrete track in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday night before eventually finishing 6th in the Men's sprint with Archibald also performing with distinction, finishing 8th in the world class 53-man competition.
Out on the road, Tom Scully has had a memorable month with his latest victory coming in the London Nocturne criterium last week where he led home a high quality field to claim his second Tour Series victory in a matter of days.
+++++
The first official function in the 2013 WHK Corporate Pursuit was held this week with the Team Briefing night setting our 29 teams up for the build up to August's finals days. First blood (probably literally) goes to AWS Legal and Waihopai Health Services who won the honour to have a team member's legs waxed by Surrender Hair Design at the Grading Time Trial. Let the inter-team negotiations begin!
Nick Jeffrey is the Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
It seems fitting to me that two organisations like the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Southern Institute of Technology that are inextricably linked with the development of Invercargill as a city over recent years are the two who have stepped up to ensure the Southland community will continue to enjoy world-class facilities at our collective back doors.
In classic fashion, we don't know what we've got until we lose it even though the Velodrome has provided a more than suitable temporary venue for the Steel and Sharks, evidenced by two sell-out crowds in three days this weekend.
Once the doors are opened and the thousands of weekly users are shuffling back through doors as they used to before that fateful September 2010 day, my hope is that we don't let ourselves forget how fortunate we are to work and play in a facility like Stadium Southland.
Nor should we forget the outstanding contributions from the many organisations who fronted up to make it happen. I have little doubt that the Southland sporting community would join me when, on behalf of Cycling Southland, I offer sincere thanks for yet another spectacularly generous investment in the fabric of Southland community.
+++++
Another week of outstanding results by Cycling Southland members scattered around the globe. Steph McKenzie continues to dominate the competition in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania winning the UCI Festival women's keirin to back up her Keirin Cup win the previous week. The keirin may not be her preferred discipline but Stephie is showing outstanding form and she has one more chance to rake in UCI points before returning to New Zealand to continue her build up to the Oceania Championships here in Invercargill in November.
Meanwhile the Men's sprinters are also turning heads across the Atlantic in Europe. The southern contingent of Eddie Dawkins, Matt Archibald and Tom Beadle are certainly making a mark with their off-season form. Dawkins recorded a blistering 9.9 second 200 metres on a concrete track in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday night before eventually finishing 6th in the Men's sprint with Archibald also performing with distinction, finishing 8th in the world class 53-man competition.
Out on the road, Tom Scully has had a memorable month with his latest victory coming in the London Nocturne criterium last week where he led home a high quality field to claim his second Tour Series victory in a matter of days.
+++++
The first official function in the 2013 WHK Corporate Pursuit was held this week with the Team Briefing night setting our 29 teams up for the build up to August's finals days. First blood (probably literally) goes to AWS Legal and Waihopai Health Services who won the honour to have a team member's legs waxed by Surrender Hair Design at the Grading Time Trial. Let the inter-team negotiations begin!
Nick Jeffrey is the Chief Executive of Cycling Southland
Monday, June 17, 2013
So many moments to witness
One of the blessings of working at Cycling Southland over the last three years is the fact that I get to witness outstanding performances first hand across over the myriad of events we deliver in the deep south.
I watched world records fall at Junior World Track Champs on Stadium Southland Velodrome. I was there last Easter when Eddie Dawkins stood on a world championship podium in Melbourne and broke through the 10 second barrier in the Men's Sprint. I've seen Southlanders lift the coveted National Points Shield after four Track Cycling Nationals. I was on the finish line as Josh Haggerty, Matt Zenovich, Erin Criglington and Sophie Williamson won road race national titles this year and I was in the same spot over three outstanding Tour of Southland finishes, including watching a youthful PowerNet team featuring Southlanders Tom Scully and Cam Karwowski, expertly defend Josh Atkins' tour lead in 2011. See why I feel privileged?
There are, of course, literally dozens of other worthy performances I could add to this short-list but even given all that, I'm not stretching the truth at all when I say one of my favourite annual events is ready to roll - the WHK Corporate Pursuit.
No event captures all that Cycling Southland tries to be as an organisation like this one. It introduces more people to track cycling than any other during the year, passing on the cycling bug to a new intake every 12 months.
It provides a great social atmosphere, with plenty of inter-team banter throughout the six week build up and on race days and its success is built on our team of volunteer coaches and officials guiding our teams in to well-oiled pursuit combinations, exceeding their own expectations by going faster than they could have imagined. It should also be noted that it's a fairly decent talent identification programme with Cherie Champion (Southland District Council), Brett Roulston (Calder Stewart) and Brendon Akeroyd (Stonewood Homes) among others, all lining up at the Age Group Track Championships in March after starring in last year's pursuit.
This year, 29 teams will be put through their paces in early August along with our all new Corporate Roller Racing Challenge, where the teams will compete for great prizes each week during the competition build-up thanks to Lone Star and Speights and we're delighted to have great cycling supporters like H&J's Outdoor World on-board, along with our outstanding new event sponsor WHK.
Try picking a winner from this list; Amalgamated Builders, AWS Legal, BNZ, EIS Group, Environment Southland, Fonterra, Harrex Group, HW Richardson, IFS Growth Ltd, Invercargill Licensing Trust, McIntyre Dick & Partners, Mitre 10 Mega, NZ Fire Service (two teams), NZ Police, Opus International, PowerNet, Preston Russell Law, Ricoh, SBS Bank, Southern District Health Board, SouthPort, Speights Ale House, The Radio Network, Westpac, WHK, Waihopai Health Services, Whyte's Gravel Supplies and YMCA.
Even if the winners aren't a sure bet, having a lot of fun sure is. So let's get into it!
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive at Cycling Southland
I watched world records fall at Junior World Track Champs on Stadium Southland Velodrome. I was there last Easter when Eddie Dawkins stood on a world championship podium in Melbourne and broke through the 10 second barrier in the Men's Sprint. I've seen Southlanders lift the coveted National Points Shield after four Track Cycling Nationals. I was on the finish line as Josh Haggerty, Matt Zenovich, Erin Criglington and Sophie Williamson won road race national titles this year and I was in the same spot over three outstanding Tour of Southland finishes, including watching a youthful PowerNet team featuring Southlanders Tom Scully and Cam Karwowski, expertly defend Josh Atkins' tour lead in 2011. See why I feel privileged?
There are, of course, literally dozens of other worthy performances I could add to this short-list but even given all that, I'm not stretching the truth at all when I say one of my favourite annual events is ready to roll - the WHK Corporate Pursuit.
No event captures all that Cycling Southland tries to be as an organisation like this one. It introduces more people to track cycling than any other during the year, passing on the cycling bug to a new intake every 12 months.
It provides a great social atmosphere, with plenty of inter-team banter throughout the six week build up and on race days and its success is built on our team of volunteer coaches and officials guiding our teams in to well-oiled pursuit combinations, exceeding their own expectations by going faster than they could have imagined. It should also be noted that it's a fairly decent talent identification programme with Cherie Champion (Southland District Council), Brett Roulston (Calder Stewart) and Brendon Akeroyd (Stonewood Homes) among others, all lining up at the Age Group Track Championships in March after starring in last year's pursuit.
This year, 29 teams will be put through their paces in early August along with our all new Corporate Roller Racing Challenge, where the teams will compete for great prizes each week during the competition build-up thanks to Lone Star and Speights and we're delighted to have great cycling supporters like H&J's Outdoor World on-board, along with our outstanding new event sponsor WHK.
Try picking a winner from this list; Amalgamated Builders, AWS Legal, BNZ, EIS Group, Environment Southland, Fonterra, Harrex Group, HW Richardson, IFS Growth Ltd, Invercargill Licensing Trust, McIntyre Dick & Partners, Mitre 10 Mega, NZ Fire Service (two teams), NZ Police, Opus International, PowerNet, Preston Russell Law, Ricoh, SBS Bank, Southern District Health Board, SouthPort, Speights Ale House, The Radio Network, Westpac, WHK, Waihopai Health Services, Whyte's Gravel Supplies and YMCA.
Even if the winners aren't a sure bet, having a lot of fun sure is. So let's get into it!
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive at Cycling Southland
Monday, June 10, 2013
Giving kudos where its due
Thanks to Queen's Birthday we missed last week. I know, that's the reason you've been feeling something was missing for the last seven days, right? So, somewhat belatedly, I want to reflect on the outstanding night that was the ILT Southland Sports Awards, ten days ago.
As New Zealanders, we do a fairly mediocre job of recognising our achievers and as Southlanders we are probably even closer to the conservative end of the scale. Nights like we enjoyed at the Ascot Park Hotel Friday week ago, are about as close as we get to publicly recognising outstanding accomplishment.
If you're anything like me, you start reading the morning paper from the back page, not the front - because that's likely to mean you start the day in a more positive fashion. And don't even think about watching the news at night with your eight and 10-year-olds because it is 90 percent mayhem, death and destruction - the only thing that changes each night is the order they come in!
Then along comes the ILT Southland Sports Awards and our faith in humanity can be restored (at least until we watch the news the next night). Every name that flashed up on the screen as finalists and plenty more that missed making the cut, in another hugely competitive year, deserve to be shouted from the rooftops. I'm lucky enough to work in the sporting sector so I see first-hand week after week what great things are achieved across the age groups locally, nationally and internationally.
As the host of the evening my job was to remain apolitical, although I did have to draw attention to cycling having the most nominations and the most number of winners on the night (in an apolitical way of course).
Erin Criglington's stellar year was rightfully recognised with the Radio Network Masters Achievement award. She is more-or-less unbeatable in her age group and every time she powers out of the starting gate for a time trial or individual pursuit, she lowers her own national record. It's just the fillet for Erin, with her next performance focus, a little competition called the World Masters Championships in Manchester in October.
Another with World Champs on his mind is the Ricoh Southland Coach of the Year Ross Machejefski. Rossco has built an outstanding record over the last two years at the Junior World Championships, including last year's 10 medal haul in Invercargill. Glasgow awaits in August for the 2013 edition and Southlanders Josh Haggerty, Jeremy Presbury and Alexandra's Liam Aitcheson will be with him, looking to turn the silver and bronze from the last two campaigns into gold.
The cycling haul was completed by triple Paralympic medalists Phillipa Gray and Laura Fairweather who took out the Southland Vehicle Sales Team of the Year after returning from London with a full set of medals.
They are just three great stories from a night that included dozens more. We just need to do a better job of telling them.
Nick Jeffrey is the Cycling Southland Chief Executive
As New Zealanders, we do a fairly mediocre job of recognising our achievers and as Southlanders we are probably even closer to the conservative end of the scale. Nights like we enjoyed at the Ascot Park Hotel Friday week ago, are about as close as we get to publicly recognising outstanding accomplishment.
If you're anything like me, you start reading the morning paper from the back page, not the front - because that's likely to mean you start the day in a more positive fashion. And don't even think about watching the news at night with your eight and 10-year-olds because it is 90 percent mayhem, death and destruction - the only thing that changes each night is the order they come in!
Then along comes the ILT Southland Sports Awards and our faith in humanity can be restored (at least until we watch the news the next night). Every name that flashed up on the screen as finalists and plenty more that missed making the cut, in another hugely competitive year, deserve to be shouted from the rooftops. I'm lucky enough to work in the sporting sector so I see first-hand week after week what great things are achieved across the age groups locally, nationally and internationally.
As the host of the evening my job was to remain apolitical, although I did have to draw attention to cycling having the most nominations and the most number of winners on the night (in an apolitical way of course).
Erin Criglington's stellar year was rightfully recognised with the Radio Network Masters Achievement award. She is more-or-less unbeatable in her age group and every time she powers out of the starting gate for a time trial or individual pursuit, she lowers her own national record. It's just the fillet for Erin, with her next performance focus, a little competition called the World Masters Championships in Manchester in October.
Another with World Champs on his mind is the Ricoh Southland Coach of the Year Ross Machejefski. Rossco has built an outstanding record over the last two years at the Junior World Championships, including last year's 10 medal haul in Invercargill. Glasgow awaits in August for the 2013 edition and Southlanders Josh Haggerty, Jeremy Presbury and Alexandra's Liam Aitcheson will be with him, looking to turn the silver and bronze from the last two campaigns into gold.
The cycling haul was completed by triple Paralympic medalists Phillipa Gray and Laura Fairweather who took out the Southland Vehicle Sales Team of the Year after returning from London with a full set of medals.
They are just three great stories from a night that included dozens more. We just need to do a better job of telling them.
Nick Jeffrey is the Cycling Southland Chief Executive
Friday, May 24, 2013
Stars saluted at awards evening
Right on the heels of a national award recognising the huge contribution made by Cycling Southland’s volunteers and officials, the local club tonight took the opportunity to salute its own team at the annual awards evening, held at Ascot Park Hotel.
With the addition of several new awards this year, the evening recognised the invaluable input from members of all ages and abilities, who help to keep the sport’s wheels turning year after year, which proved highly appropriate only days after Cycling Southland was named Club of the Year at the BikeNZ Road and Track Volunteer Awards in Auckland.
Cycling CEO Nick Jeffrey said, while no one did all the work for awards, it was always nice to see all hard work recognised.
“Locally, the UCI Juniors Track World Championships was the beacon of a massive year for Cycling in the south but, for me personally, the continued growth of the sport at grass-roots level was the most pleasing thing.
“Hosting an event the scale of Junior Worlds gets you the headlines and gets you the awards, but it’s the volunteers who turn up week after week to assist with club racing or coaching on the velodrome or stand on a wind-swept corner with high-vis vest and flag in hand who put us in the position to put our hands up with events like this.”
For its contribution awards, the Peter Grandiek Cup for contribution to masters cycling was presented to a tireless coach who is thought to breathe, eat and sleep cycling, Waine Harding, for his continued efforts in all areas of the club, including senior road racing, masters coaching and adult track session coaching.
Julian Ineson aptly took out the Tony Ineson Cup for contribution to senor cycling – named in his father’s honour – for his unwavering commitment to all things cycling, including event commentating, U19 coaching for track nationals and associated squads, as well as being the driving force behind the results, records and memorabilia displayed in the Velodrome and lounges.
The Laurie Tall Cup for contribution to junior Cycling was another strongly contested category with endless hours of weekly coaching, advice and assistance to juniors giving Dave Beadle the award. As part of the driving force behind this year’s hugely successful U17 squad, Beadle also volunteers hours of secondary school girls sessions each week – with the attendance numbers continuing to grow from strength to strength.
Special Contribution Awards were also presented to Marie Muhl (Masters Cycling), Robin Criglington (Senior Cycling) and Alan Strong (Junior Cycling) for their generous efforts.
Luke MacphersonThe Senior Newcomers Award went to a deserving Luke Macpherson whose recent conversion to cycling has taken huge leaps and bounds to become one of the strongest riders in A Grade on a local scene, while also making a mark nationally. Macpherson placed second in the Tour de Lakes, had a top five finish in the Elites at the Club Road Nationals and features regularly in the Benchmark Series.
The inaugural Junior Newcomers Award was presented to Samuel Miller who had an excellent start to the Track in his first Track Nationals before securing a stand-out fourth place at the Club Road Nationals and taking out the Junior B Grade in the SouthPort Criterium Series.
Two new Off the Bike Awards were awarded to junior Caleb Hope for always helping out at junior sessions and race nights, while the Peter Kissell Memorial senior trophy went to Mike Cooper for his massive behind the scenes effort with timing systems and other track-related equipment since the Track opened more than seven years ago.
Tom SextonWith a who’s who of top juniors and exemplary results to admire in the south, the Junior Rider of the Year went to Tom Sexton for an exceptional year on both the track and road, including an array of medals from the Track Nationals, bronze at the Club Road Nationals and first place in the SouthPort Crit Junior A Grade.
The Senior Rider of the Year title was shared between equally deserving master Erin Criglington, whose flurry of gold medals and national records on both track and road, and U19 Junior Worlds rider Jeremy Presbury, whose highlight was a private collection of golds at the Youth Olympics, meant it was impossible to separate the two.
The Elite Rider of the Year as another hugely contested title with Paralympian triple medallists, top road performers, Olympians and World Champs medallists all in the mix. But overall performances locally and at the recent World Champs meant a team sprint silver medal locked in the big man of the track Eddie Dawkins for the honour.
The final People's Choice Awards of the night were the "Muppet of the Year" awarded to U17 rider Matt Nunn for a wrong turn and miscommunication from a road marshall that saw him ride 150km to Gore instead of the Southland Road Champs circuit, while the Performance of the Year when to U19 high achiever Josh Haggerty.
The evening was topped off with guest speakers Academy Southland manager Jason McKenzie and cycling guru Steve Canny.
Jeffrey said with many more exciting international and national events pending on the calendar for both road and track events, including the WHK Corporate Pursuit in August, Yunca Junior Tour in October, a UCI Level 1 Festival of Speed, Oceania Track Championships and Tour of Southland in November and Southland Track Champs in December there were many more exciting achievements to be celebrated over the coming months. Once again it would be the flurry of willing volunteers and officials who would ensure these events ran smoothly so the riders could focus on their craft.
With the addition of several new awards this year, the evening recognised the invaluable input from members of all ages and abilities, who help to keep the sport’s wheels turning year after year, which proved highly appropriate only days after Cycling Southland was named Club of the Year at the BikeNZ Road and Track Volunteer Awards in Auckland.
Cycling CEO Nick Jeffrey said, while no one did all the work for awards, it was always nice to see all hard work recognised.
“Locally, the UCI Juniors Track World Championships was the beacon of a massive year for Cycling in the south but, for me personally, the continued growth of the sport at grass-roots level was the most pleasing thing.
“Hosting an event the scale of Junior Worlds gets you the headlines and gets you the awards, but it’s the volunteers who turn up week after week to assist with club racing or coaching on the velodrome or stand on a wind-swept corner with high-vis vest and flag in hand who put us in the position to put our hands up with events like this.”
For its contribution awards, the Peter Grandiek Cup for contribution to masters cycling was presented to a tireless coach who is thought to breathe, eat and sleep cycling, Waine Harding, for his continued efforts in all areas of the club, including senior road racing, masters coaching and adult track session coaching.
Julian Ineson aptly took out the Tony Ineson Cup for contribution to senor cycling – named in his father’s honour – for his unwavering commitment to all things cycling, including event commentating, U19 coaching for track nationals and associated squads, as well as being the driving force behind the results, records and memorabilia displayed in the Velodrome and lounges.
The Laurie Tall Cup for contribution to junior Cycling was another strongly contested category with endless hours of weekly coaching, advice and assistance to juniors giving Dave Beadle the award. As part of the driving force behind this year’s hugely successful U17 squad, Beadle also volunteers hours of secondary school girls sessions each week – with the attendance numbers continuing to grow from strength to strength.
Special Contribution Awards were also presented to Marie Muhl (Masters Cycling), Robin Criglington (Senior Cycling) and Alan Strong (Junior Cycling) for their generous efforts.
Luke MacphersonThe Senior Newcomers Award went to a deserving Luke Macpherson whose recent conversion to cycling has taken huge leaps and bounds to become one of the strongest riders in A Grade on a local scene, while also making a mark nationally. Macpherson placed second in the Tour de Lakes, had a top five finish in the Elites at the Club Road Nationals and features regularly in the Benchmark Series.
The inaugural Junior Newcomers Award was presented to Samuel Miller who had an excellent start to the Track in his first Track Nationals before securing a stand-out fourth place at the Club Road Nationals and taking out the Junior B Grade in the SouthPort Criterium Series.
Two new Off the Bike Awards were awarded to junior Caleb Hope for always helping out at junior sessions and race nights, while the Peter Kissell Memorial senior trophy went to Mike Cooper for his massive behind the scenes effort with timing systems and other track-related equipment since the Track opened more than seven years ago.
Tom SextonWith a who’s who of top juniors and exemplary results to admire in the south, the Junior Rider of the Year went to Tom Sexton for an exceptional year on both the track and road, including an array of medals from the Track Nationals, bronze at the Club Road Nationals and first place in the SouthPort Crit Junior A Grade.
The Senior Rider of the Year title was shared between equally deserving master Erin Criglington, whose flurry of gold medals and national records on both track and road, and U19 Junior Worlds rider Jeremy Presbury, whose highlight was a private collection of golds at the Youth Olympics, meant it was impossible to separate the two.
The Elite Rider of the Year as another hugely contested title with Paralympian triple medallists, top road performers, Olympians and World Champs medallists all in the mix. But overall performances locally and at the recent World Champs meant a team sprint silver medal locked in the big man of the track Eddie Dawkins for the honour.
The final People's Choice Awards of the night were the "Muppet of the Year" awarded to U17 rider Matt Nunn for a wrong turn and miscommunication from a road marshall that saw him ride 150km to Gore instead of the Southland Road Champs circuit, while the Performance of the Year when to U19 high achiever Josh Haggerty.
The evening was topped off with guest speakers Academy Southland manager Jason McKenzie and cycling guru Steve Canny.
Jeffrey said with many more exciting international and national events pending on the calendar for both road and track events, including the WHK Corporate Pursuit in August, Yunca Junior Tour in October, a UCI Level 1 Festival of Speed, Oceania Track Championships and Tour of Southland in November and Southland Track Champs in December there were many more exciting achievements to be celebrated over the coming months. Once again it would be the flurry of willing volunteers and officials who would ensure these events ran smoothly so the riders could focus on their craft.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Cycling Southland - Club of the Year
Cycling Southland was named Club of the Year at the
BikeNZ Road and Track Volunteer Awards in Auckland on Saturday night.
The awards have become part of the national annual
general meeting weekend over recent years and they recognize the huge
contribution made by volunteers and officials who keep the sport’s wheels
turning year after year.
No one does it for awards like these but, let’s be
honest, it’s always nice to see all the hard work recognized. A lot of time was
spent this weekend reflecting on the past 12 months. On a national basis that
was headlined by the London Olympics. Locally, the UCI Juniors Track World
Championships was the beacon of a massive year but for me, the continued growth
of the sport at grass-roots level was the most pleasing thing.
Hosting an event the scale of Junior Worlds gets you
the headlines and gets you the awards, but it’s the volunteers who turn up week
after week to assist with club racing or coaching on the velodrome or stand on a
wind-swept corner with high-vis vest and flag in hand who put us in the position
to put our hands up with events like this.
Then there are those who are also heavily involved on a
national basis helping to drive the sport forward in volunteer roles. Steve
Canny was reinstalled as the Vice President of Bike Road and Track – the Member
Organisation that oversees the sport for the eleven cycling centres throughout
the country.
Meanwhile, Graham Sycamore added another line to his
ridiculously long cycling CV as he was voted on to the BikeNZ board.
Our good mate Syccie wasn’t able to attend the weekend
due to a prior commitment – only the second AGM he has missed in the last 40,
(the other when he was in Los Angeles in 1984 for a small event called the
Olympics.) Shows you what happens when you miss one mate!
There are challenges ahead for sport at all levels, but
with people of this quality rolling their sleeves up nationally and locally to
assist the cause, the sport remains in good heart.
Nick Jeffrey is Chief Executive of Cycling
Southland
Monday, March 25, 2013
Tour de Lakes kicks off road season
This weekend emphasised we are in sporting silly season where winter and summer
codes cross-over.
The Highlanders kept their 100 percent record, the Steel did the same with their winless streak in Australia over the last five years and the Black Caps showed enough to keep us interested at Eden Park.
From a cycling point of view it means the focus moves from track racing on the Velodrome to out on the road. And it all starts this weekend with the annual Vital Signs Tour de Lakes around Central Otago.
For most, Easter weekend means an extended chance to recharge after a hectic start to the year. For our energetic Tour de Lakes manager Allan Dunn, it is the culmination of months of hard work.
If there's a man in our club with more energy and passion for the sport than Dunny, I'm yet to meet him. He grabbed this event and over recent years has taken it to a new level, solely on the back of his enthusiasm and commitment to the sport and the Easter tour.
This event is very much pitched at the weekend warrior. It's the chance for club riders to test themselves over four days of racing starting with Friday's Prologue time trial to Cromwell and six road stages around Queenstown, Five Rivers, Te Anau and Glenorchy, finishing on Easter Monday.
This year, the event has another element as a perfect lead-up race to the 2013 Club Road Nationals later next month.
Our colleagues at the Central Otago-Wakatipu Cycling Club hosts the largest road and track national championship from April 18 to 21 in Queenstown. With over two weeks to entries closing, numbers look strong with over 600 predicted to take part across 14 different age categories in male and female grades.
The racing will be held on the same course we hosted last year's successful Oceania Road Championships on. A 25 kilometre loop course from Speargrass Flat Road around Millbrook, down Malaghans Road to the Coronet Peak turn-off before climbing Littles Road will test the senior age brackets, while a smaller loop down Hunter Road will be utilised for the junior and older masters' categories.
It will be a tough test, but that's the way it should be when it comes to winning national titles. Southland is a dominant force on the track courtesy of having Stadium Southland Velodrome open all hours, throughout the year, but the performance on the road at national level has been less prevalent over recent years.
The hope is, that with the nationals so close (it's the first time they will be in the South Island since 2009), a large Southland contingent will be on show over the four days of racing.
It won't be the gold-rush we are accustomed to reporting on during Track Nationals, but it will be a key building block in a longer term plan over the next three years to put Southlanders on national road podiums. What better place to start than Queenstown.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
The Highlanders kept their 100 percent record, the Steel did the same with their winless streak in Australia over the last five years and the Black Caps showed enough to keep us interested at Eden Park.
From a cycling point of view it means the focus moves from track racing on the Velodrome to out on the road. And it all starts this weekend with the annual Vital Signs Tour de Lakes around Central Otago.
For most, Easter weekend means an extended chance to recharge after a hectic start to the year. For our energetic Tour de Lakes manager Allan Dunn, it is the culmination of months of hard work.
If there's a man in our club with more energy and passion for the sport than Dunny, I'm yet to meet him. He grabbed this event and over recent years has taken it to a new level, solely on the back of his enthusiasm and commitment to the sport and the Easter tour.
This event is very much pitched at the weekend warrior. It's the chance for club riders to test themselves over four days of racing starting with Friday's Prologue time trial to Cromwell and six road stages around Queenstown, Five Rivers, Te Anau and Glenorchy, finishing on Easter Monday.
This year, the event has another element as a perfect lead-up race to the 2013 Club Road Nationals later next month.
Our colleagues at the Central Otago-Wakatipu Cycling Club hosts the largest road and track national championship from April 18 to 21 in Queenstown. With over two weeks to entries closing, numbers look strong with over 600 predicted to take part across 14 different age categories in male and female grades.
The racing will be held on the same course we hosted last year's successful Oceania Road Championships on. A 25 kilometre loop course from Speargrass Flat Road around Millbrook, down Malaghans Road to the Coronet Peak turn-off before climbing Littles Road will test the senior age brackets, while a smaller loop down Hunter Road will be utilised for the junior and older masters' categories.
It will be a tough test, but that's the way it should be when it comes to winning national titles. Southland is a dominant force on the track courtesy of having Stadium Southland Velodrome open all hours, throughout the year, but the performance on the road at national level has been less prevalent over recent years.
The hope is, that with the nationals so close (it's the first time they will be in the South Island since 2009), a large Southland contingent will be on show over the four days of racing.
It won't be the gold-rush we are accustomed to reporting on during Track Nationals, but it will be a key building block in a longer term plan over the next three years to put Southlanders on national road podiums. What better place to start than Queenstown.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
Monday, March 18, 2013
The art of prepping for the future
The key to writing a good column is to make sure I capture you, the
reader’s, attention in the first paragraph. I’m taking my life in my hands by
this week focusing on the key task facing Cycling Southland over coming weeks –
strategic planning.
The mere mention of those two words tends to generate a glassy-eyed look and a quick change in conversation, yet they are the foundation that any sport, business or organisation is built on.
I’ve always thought of a strategic plan like a road map. If you gave me an address and asked me to get there without a map, I would probably eventually arrive – but without the direction a map (or strategic plan) provides, I would likely waste a lot of time, energy and money in getting there.
Cycling in Southland is at an interesting juncture. The sport continues to grow at a rapid rate at competitive and recreational levels. Each year we host local, national and international events and after the success of last year’s Junior World Track Championships, the public has a greater appetite for international competition. When you add in the development of a second velodrome in Cambridge in 2014 and what that will mean for Invercargill’s facility, this is the perfect time to create an exciting roadmap for the sport in the south.
It’s a really exciting process to go through. There are plenty questions. Finding answers is the fun bit. The question we get asked most often relates to the Cambridge velodrome. As a consequence, I’ve got pretty good at answering it.
We already have assurances from BikeNZ that events will continue to be hosted in Invercargill and that arrangement is to be formalized over coming months. It’s hard to give you an idea of just how much work is involved in hosting events like the recent Elite and Age Group Championships. Our staff of just five and our incredible volunteers (another 40 or so) collectively put in weeks of work to deliver nine long days of racing over the champs and that comes at a real cost. Two facilities sharing championship events will not only make that workload more sustainable, avoiding burn-out locally, but it will also allow Cycling Southland to concentrate on our bread-and-butter – putting more Southlanders on bikes.
Stadium Southland Velodrome is a community facility first and foremost. It will continue to host major events (the Oceania Championships and a new UCI Level 1 track event are both ear-marked for Invercargill later this year) and with the development of an integrated national calendar and the opening of a rebuilt Stadium Southland, we’ll get the best of both worlds – high profile marquee events with more time and space to continue to develop the sport at a grass-roots local level.
Opportunity abounds. Over these next few weeks, we’ll be refining our road-map so that we’ll be able to turn that opportunity in to more success. It should be a fun ride.
Nick Jeffrey is the Chief Executive of Cycling Southland.
The mere mention of those two words tends to generate a glassy-eyed look and a quick change in conversation, yet they are the foundation that any sport, business or organisation is built on.
I’ve always thought of a strategic plan like a road map. If you gave me an address and asked me to get there without a map, I would probably eventually arrive – but without the direction a map (or strategic plan) provides, I would likely waste a lot of time, energy and money in getting there.
Cycling in Southland is at an interesting juncture. The sport continues to grow at a rapid rate at competitive and recreational levels. Each year we host local, national and international events and after the success of last year’s Junior World Track Championships, the public has a greater appetite for international competition. When you add in the development of a second velodrome in Cambridge in 2014 and what that will mean for Invercargill’s facility, this is the perfect time to create an exciting roadmap for the sport in the south.
It’s a really exciting process to go through. There are plenty questions. Finding answers is the fun bit. The question we get asked most often relates to the Cambridge velodrome. As a consequence, I’ve got pretty good at answering it.
We already have assurances from BikeNZ that events will continue to be hosted in Invercargill and that arrangement is to be formalized over coming months. It’s hard to give you an idea of just how much work is involved in hosting events like the recent Elite and Age Group Championships. Our staff of just five and our incredible volunteers (another 40 or so) collectively put in weeks of work to deliver nine long days of racing over the champs and that comes at a real cost. Two facilities sharing championship events will not only make that workload more sustainable, avoiding burn-out locally, but it will also allow Cycling Southland to concentrate on our bread-and-butter – putting more Southlanders on bikes.
Stadium Southland Velodrome is a community facility first and foremost. It will continue to host major events (the Oceania Championships and a new UCI Level 1 track event are both ear-marked for Invercargill later this year) and with the development of an integrated national calendar and the opening of a rebuilt Stadium Southland, we’ll get the best of both worlds – high profile marquee events with more time and space to continue to develop the sport at a grass-roots local level.
Opportunity abounds. Over these next few weeks, we’ll be refining our road-map so that we’ll be able to turn that opportunity in to more success. It should be a fun ride.
Nick Jeffrey is the Chief Executive of Cycling Southland.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Season highlights on and off track
The curtain came down on the track cycling season on Saturday night as Cycling Southland's hosting of the 2013 Age Group Track Nationals proved another outstanding success.
At the end of five great days of competition there is plenty to reflect on. It may surprise that my favourite moment occurred away from the track. Believe it or not the thing I remember fondly is the Southland team photo shoot. Our Cycling Southland squad of 68 riders, spanning seven decades, standing together in team colours, along with our large support crew who put so much into another successful Southland campaign is a pretty impressive sight.
For the sixth successive year, the National Points Shield will spend the year at Stadium Southland Velodrome after Southland finished the two track championships with a 140 point tally, 40 clear of Auckland.
Of all the myriad of events we deliver throughout the course of the year, the age group champs are one of my favourites. It's the mix of riders that I enjoy seeing on display. You have the wily veterans in the masters, the boundless enthusiasm and "give-everything-a-go" attitude of the juniors and, in between, the under-17s who are now starting to select the type of races that suit their talents.
This year also included the addition of the under-19 and elite women's omniums and Laura Heywood's gold and Josh Haggerty's silver medal in the under-19 were brilliant performances.
Glasgow may be calling later in the year, for the Junior World Track Cycling Championships, with the pair's form over recent weeks pushing their cases for selection, and both are chances to join Liam Aitcheson and Jeremy Presbury in the squad.
Yet again, the brilliant efforts by Southland's masters men and women masters proved one of the key differences in the Points Shield battle and a number of this contingent have their eyes on Manchester for the World Masters Championships. Given that, Eddie Dawkins' brilliant silver medal winning ride at the World Championships and Dawkins and Matt Archibald's Mexico World Cup medals in January, 2013 is shaping as perhaps the most successful year yet in international competition.
Trying to pick out individual performances from an event like the age groups is fraught with danger.
There is no shortage of worthy results, the danger is in leaving out a notable effort. I think I am safe to mention a young fellow from Palmerston North, though. Campbell Stewart won all four under-15 gold medals at last year's championships and this year he added six golds and a silver medal.
Yes, you did read that right. He won the under-17 boys' sprint, individual pursuit, points race, scratch race, team pursuit and team sprint golds. Perhaps Waikato's Lewis Eccles should be named rider of the championship for being the only rider to beat Stewart into second place in the under- 17 boys' time trial.
A massive thanks to all those who helped last week. Now, let's go road racing.
Nick Jeffery is Cycling Southland's chief executive.
At the end of five great days of competition there is plenty to reflect on. It may surprise that my favourite moment occurred away from the track. Believe it or not the thing I remember fondly is the Southland team photo shoot. Our Cycling Southland squad of 68 riders, spanning seven decades, standing together in team colours, along with our large support crew who put so much into another successful Southland campaign is a pretty impressive sight.
For the sixth successive year, the National Points Shield will spend the year at Stadium Southland Velodrome after Southland finished the two track championships with a 140 point tally, 40 clear of Auckland.
Of all the myriad of events we deliver throughout the course of the year, the age group champs are one of my favourites. It's the mix of riders that I enjoy seeing on display. You have the wily veterans in the masters, the boundless enthusiasm and "give-everything-a-go" attitude of the juniors and, in between, the under-17s who are now starting to select the type of races that suit their talents.
This year also included the addition of the under-19 and elite women's omniums and Laura Heywood's gold and Josh Haggerty's silver medal in the under-19 were brilliant performances.
Glasgow may be calling later in the year, for the Junior World Track Cycling Championships, with the pair's form over recent weeks pushing their cases for selection, and both are chances to join Liam Aitcheson and Jeremy Presbury in the squad.
Yet again, the brilliant efforts by Southland's masters men and women masters proved one of the key differences in the Points Shield battle and a number of this contingent have their eyes on Manchester for the World Masters Championships. Given that, Eddie Dawkins' brilliant silver medal winning ride at the World Championships and Dawkins and Matt Archibald's Mexico World Cup medals in January, 2013 is shaping as perhaps the most successful year yet in international competition.
Trying to pick out individual performances from an event like the age groups is fraught with danger.
There is no shortage of worthy results, the danger is in leaving out a notable effort. I think I am safe to mention a young fellow from Palmerston North, though. Campbell Stewart won all four under-15 gold medals at last year's championships and this year he added six golds and a silver medal.
Yes, you did read that right. He won the under-17 boys' sprint, individual pursuit, points race, scratch race, team pursuit and team sprint golds. Perhaps Waikato's Lewis Eccles should be named rider of the championship for being the only rider to beat Stewart into second place in the under- 17 boys' time trial.
A massive thanks to all those who helped last week. Now, let's go road racing.
Nick Jeffery is Cycling Southland's chief executive.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Now it's about winning
 |
| Eddie, Ethan & Sam with World Champ silvers |
In past years, New Zealand's fledging team sprint
combination used to turn up to competitions to gain international experience.
Now they turn up to win.
Cycling Southland's Eddie Dawkins teamed with Auckland's
Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster on Friday to claim this country's best ever
result in the Men's Team Sprint at the UCI World track Cycling Championships in
Minsk, Belarus.
The trio missed the world title by a miniscule margin (0.049
seconds) to claim silver behind Germany.
12 months ago I watched these three men stand on the podium
in person in Melbourne when they won bronze at the 2012 World Championships. They
did get a little helping hand from two faster teams who were relegated for
various infringements, pushing the Kiwis into a ride for bronze, which they
were good enough to win.
This year, they needed no assistance from other teams. They
were just faster than them. After qualifying fastest they again lowered their
personal best sea-level time in the final ride on Friday, but were beaten on
the line by the fast-finishing Germans.
These boys finished fifth and sixth in 210 and 2011, prior
to their medal-winning deeds over the last two years. With three world
championships before the Rio Olympics and fellow Southlanders Matt Archibald
and Tom Beadle adding depth to the squad, the question may well be not if they
can win more medals, but how many and what colours will they be.
Yes, that brings expectation and its own pressure. But you
only have to bear expectation when you are world class. And these boys are. It
has been another hugely proud weekend, watching from afar.
______________________________
Early mornings watching internet video from Minsk will this
week become long and late nights at the 2013 Age Group Track Championships at
Stadium Southland Velodrome.
I wrote last week about the prospects for the five days of
competition which begin on Tuesday night from 6:30pm. These championships may
not have the big names of the Elites but, more often than not, they deliver
more spectacular racing than their championship counterpart.
Large, even fields in the Under 15 and Under 17 ranks augers
well for the sport's competitive future. The thing I love about the Age Groups
is that you are either watching the champions of tomorrow, or the champions of
yesterday. Juniors and Masters racing together is a great mix and with the
addition of the Elite and Under 19 omniums, we have riders from eight different
decades competing through to Saturday. Should be fun.
______________________________
I spent the weekend in central Otago for a mate's wedding
(congrats Justin & Nicky) and reaquainted myself with the course that will
host the Club Road Nationals in Queenstown in April. This is the biggest
national championship event with north of 800 competitors predicted and
Speargrass Flat/Malaghans Road will provide a stern test for all of them.
But first, we've got a little overtime to put in at the
Velodrome this week. Hope to see you there.
Nick jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
Monday, February 18, 2013
Giving thanks for those behind the scenes
 |
| Club racing at Waianiwa |
It was a great event, expertly organised, wonderfully supported by volunteers and entrants and the weather gods even played ball.
It also brought home to me the outstanding job local sporting clubs and organisations do in providing great local events. In a lot of cases we don't consider the huge amount of work put in to deliver what must rank as one of the highest number of events per capita in the country.
This weekend was a great example. While over 400 were taking on the ups and downs of the Moonshine Trail from Dolamore Park, our club road racers were battling strong head and cross winds and on Sunday the first in our SouthPort Criterium Series was raced around Bill Richardson Drive.
Then come the next few weeks. From next Tuesday, Stadium Southland Velodrome plays host to over 200 track cyclists with the annual Age Group Nationals over five days, the Gore to Waikiwi classic and South Island Teams' Time Trial will be held the following weekend and then a large Southland contingent will pursue more national titles at the Club Road Nationals in Queenstown in April. And that's just our sport!
The people who deliver events don't do it for thanks, they do it because they love their sport. But don't under-estimate the difference a quick word of appreciation at the end of the day provides. It's the least we can do to recognise the countless hours and unrivalled passion these people have for all our sports.
While I'm on the topic of the weekend, a deserving congratulations to Matt Zenovich, Neil Familton and Kirstie James for their wins in trying conditions at Waianiwa on Saturday. Zenovich backed up to complete a double in winning A Grade at the SouthPort Crit on Sunday, with series leader jerseys also going to Stu MacDonald (B Grade), Daryl Haggerty (C Grade) and Glen Ferguson (D Grade) along with juniors Tom Sexton, Corbin Strong and Madeleine Gough. A good weekend's work by you all.
Offshore, Eddie Dawkins has safely arrived in Belarus for the World track Cycling Championships which kick off late Wednesday night, New Zealand time. The Men's kilo time trial is on the opening evening of competition (Thursday morning) and although yet to be confirmed, it would surprise if he and Simon van Velthooven don't line up to fill New Zealand's two qualification spots. The Team Sprint then follows on Friday morning. Last year I was lucky enough to watch Eddie stand on a world championship podium in person in Melbourne. We would love nothing better than a repeat performance to cap what has been a stellar 12 months for the big guy. Rip 'em to shreds Ed!
Monday, February 11, 2013
National champs live up to hype
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| Steph McKenzie - Photo credit: Dianne Manson |
Great racing, great crowds and the great atmosphere which has become a hallmark of the velodrome over recent years, all added up to four great days of racing. Another seven national records fell by the wayside as New Zealand's elite track cyclists continue to raise the bar, year-by-year.
During my days in radio and in my brief sports administration career since, I have been lucky enough to attend plenty of spectacular sporting events but, all biases aside, what I saw last Saturday night will live in my memory for a long time.
Watching Simon van Velthooven, Eddie Dawkins, Matt Archibald and Sam Webster take the final bend four-wide at 70 kilometres an hour in the Men's Keirin was nothing short of breath-taking. There are plenty of folk who have seen a lot more bike racing than I who rated that final as one of the best they'd seen - a truly world class field, putting on a great show as they hunted down a national title and, perhaps just as importantly, bragging rights over their mates for 12 months.
Southlanders again performed with distinction but now know they have the tough task to retain the National Points Shield with Auckland holding a narrow lead on the Points Table after the first Championships. The shield is awarded at the conclusion of the Age Group Championships which start later this month and it will come down to our squad of junior and masters riders to determine whether the Shield stays in Invercargill for a sixth-successive year.
The good news for Southland is that we have seen the last of Aaron Gate and Simon van Velthooven these championships - their dominance last week a major factor in Auckland's five point lead.
Steph McKenzie continued her rapid recent development, earning her first elite national title in the women's sprint while Natasha Hansen finished strongly to claim a dominant keirin win and lowered both her national 200m record before smashing the Team Sprint mark with McKenzie. Matt Archibald also continued to stake a claim for consistent higher honours and was undoubtedly the unlucky party in the selection for the World Championships, missing out on joining mate Eddie Dawkins in the five-man squad by virtue of Aaron Gate's four gold medals which gave the selectors no option but to take him to ride the endurance events in Minsk.
One of the success of the championship was the inclusion of the Under 19 events alongside the Elite programme. Jeremy Presbury, Liam Aitcheson, Josh Haggerty and Laura Heywood are all good chances at gaining Junior Worlds' selection after the Age Group Champs.
The Age Groups feature, Under-15 and Under 17 grades as well as the Masters age categories and the Elite and Under-19 Omniums. It starts on the night of Tuesday 26 February and then features two sessions per day until Saturday 2 March. Should be a great climax to another huge track season.
Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive
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