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
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