Corporate Pursuit Another Huge Success

Nearly 200 Southlanders took on the ILT Velodrome last Sunday in Cycling Southland’s 2011 Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit and lived to tell the tale. Again, it proved to be one of the most-enjoyable events on the jam-packed Cycling Southland calendar. It really is one big party on wheels.

As with any Cycling Southland event, there is a long list of thank yous to hand out. There are two main reasons why this event is the runaway success. One is Sier Vermunt. The other is Julian Ineson. These two do an incredible job and I struggle to recognize their incredible contribution with words on a page. Their passion and organization is the primary reason the event has grown to what it is today. I cannot thank them enough. We are incredibly fortunate to also have a sponsor who literally gets its hands dirty with the event. To Brendon, Nicki and the Harrex Group team go our thanks for all that they contribute.

Already plans are underway for 2012. We asked the teams and riders for feedback on the event. The response has been immediate and overwhelming. 100% of respondents to our feedback survey have rated the event 4 or 5 out of 5 in terms of overall experience, (a 4.67 out of 5 average). 100% have said they want to be a part of it again next year and an incredible 95% are keen to continue riding on the track and road. It’s an incredible endorsement.

Next year represents a massive opportunity for Cycling Southland and the region with our hosting of the 2012 UCI World Junior Track Championships at the ILT Velodrome in August. This year’s Corporate Pursuit intake has found out first hand just how addictive the sport is and it proves once again what an outstanding community facility the ILT Velodrome is. We’re going to make sure as many Southlanders get in here to start the cycling addiction between now and next August.

It’s become my signature saying since coming in to the role at Cycling Southland but it’s never been more true … we are just getting started! It’s incredibly exciting.

Cycling Southland coaches Matt Archibald and Dale Tye have launched follow-up coaching programmes for the entrants and a revised weekly track schedule will commence this month to handle the increased in-take of new riders at both junior and adult levels.

When you combine the incredible feedback from the Corporate Pursuit with the massive increase in numbers we are seeing at beginner level into Matt and Dale’s junior Wheelers track programmes, we are pretty happy that the craze is taking hold.

We are about to launch a new marketing campaign entitled “Come Along for the Ride” so you can expect to hear plenty more about how easy we are going to make it to get started and hooked on the sport on the road and on the ILT Velodrome. Cycling Southland is gearing up for some ride over the next few months.

Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Execuitve

AGM Provides Excuse to Reflect

Cycling Southland held its Annual General Meeting this week. It provided a rare opportunity to pause and reflect on the last 15 months’ work. Each and every week I am continually blown away by the support this organization receives from such a passionate group of people and each week I am captivated by the opportunity which exists for the sport and for Cycling Southland. For the purposes of an annual report we calculate the number of volunteer hours which go into the sport – we just stopped counting when the number got above 50,000. The past year has been a transitional one with my arrival and the on-going implementation of this new structure. To trade our way to a small cash operating surplus was satisfying in a year of such great change and it points to the great things we have ahead of us.

The sheer volume of work delivered by this organization is staggering. In the last 15 month period we have hosted New Zealand’s premier elite and junior road tours, two National Track Championships, three track carnivals, an incredible corporate event and a full programme of junior and senior road and track racing. And it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Over the next 13 months we will host National, Oceania and World Track Championships along with the Yunca and PowerNet Tours as well as assisting the Wakatipu Club with the Oceania Road Championships in March. I can’t think of another club, anywhere in the world, that would have all of that on its plate. Can you?

Significant progress has been made at a development level which is something I’m most proud of. We now have a Learn to Ride fundamentals programme which has been successfully piloted in seven Southland schools with outstanding results. We have cycling accredited with NZQA for NCEA performance standards and we have increased the number the children entering our Wheelers introductory programmes four-fold. The exciting part is that we are just getting started.

The AGM also saw the end of Steve Canny’s seven and a half year stint as President. His contribution cannot be over-stated. It was Steve’s voice on my answer-phone a couple of Christmas Eves ago which changed my life and got me into this game. I have had the treat of working alongside him closely over the last few weeks as we presented to the Ministry of Economic Development in Wellington and worked with SPARC on our hosting of the 2012 Junior Worlds. Watching him at work is a sight to behold and I have now seen first-hand the skills he and his mates employed to get the ILT Velodrome built. I’ll be making sure his many skills are not lost to our organization. I am also absolutely delighted Tony Ineson will fill the shoes of another legend, Sonny Broad, as our new Patron. But ultimately it is the Cycling Southland member, to whom I offer most thanks. 

And together we’ve all got some ride ahead of us.

Corporate Pursuit Life-Changing Experience

Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit is to be held over the next two weekends with the Grading Time Trial on Sunday and the Finals Day on Sunday 31st July. Over 200 riders in 34 corporate teams will line up to take on the clock and the competition. Last year’s winning team was YMCA Education. They were anchored to their victory by Karl Watson who today tells us why competing in the event last year was truly life-changing.

I fell in love with track cycling after participating in the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit for the past two years and riding for the YMCA.

Initially, our team entered in the competition as something fun for our staff to do as we had heard how much fun other businesses had been having. Also, I thought the concept of going as fast as you can over a short distance on an oval track was really exciting.

As Invercargill is a relatively close-knit city I knew people from the other businesses which really brought out the competitive edge and a lot of friendly banter amongst the competitors.

As the weeks progressed, we all improved and we got faster and smoother and the times kept coming down. Then on the race day, it was amazing how the crowd and the excitement of the day took more seconds off our time.

The amazing thing about the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit is that it is not just a corporate event, as it is an event that brings what would normally only be experienced by our elite athletes to normal people, with potentially a far more raucous and involved crowd.

I have since ridden at the track nationals and a number of cycling carnivals, and I believe that the corporate pursuit provided a great platform for me to do well at these events. The experience of participating in the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit has been life changing for me. I have no doubt that if I had not taken part in the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit I would not have represented Southland at our national track champs.

Come see why there is such a buzz about the town and experience this unique opportunity on the 31st July from 9:30am.
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Our 34 teams line up on Sunday from 12.30pm at the ILT Velodrome. Each will ride solo against the clock to confirm seedings for the Corporate Pursuit finals which will be held one week later on Sunday 31st. It is not only a great event to compete in, the crowd has created an atmosphere all of its own with fancy dress costumes, banners and a heck of a lot of noise. Entry fee is only $2 for adults and children are free and we’ve got a heap of activity off the track planned, including the chance to win a Specialized Mountain Bike from Wensley’s Cycles. Good luck to each of our teams as they put the finishing touches on their build-ups. To find out more visit www.cyclingsouth.org.nz/corporatepursuit.

Corporate Pursuit Rookie Report

Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit is approaching fast. 2010 rookie Diane Lindsay offers a newcomer’s perspective on the event.

Well that time has come around again the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit, I undertook this daunting sport a year ago (one tick on my personal bucket list).

Our very first training session was very daunting and blooming scary as we thought about the height of the cycling track, but nothing prepared us for arriving at the ILT Velodrome and seeing the track. Oh it was so damned high. But wait, at the end of the session all of us were riding to the top of the track.

Off we went into our weekly routine of training sessions and our own personal training as well, (my legs have never looked so good). We learnt so much and really understood the word ‘pursuit’ - we really did get close to each others wheels and we looked great. That is what the coach wanted - nice and neat and he got it.

Time trial night came and as you would imagine our nerves were rather fraught, as we were all under the spot light with our co-workers and family members all present in support of us all. We had followed the instructions to the book, even eating the correct pasta!

We lined up and had our last minute advice from the coach, wow when we had finished we were all so elated, our family and co-workers were all so impressed, and so they should have been. What a great feeling – Friday night drinks comes second to that feel good feeling.

Then a week later came race day and what a festival - competitive atmosphere, and run so professionally with warm-up bikes, designated team areas and, if required, a physiotherapist.

Our team was first up and had a great race. I completed my second leg of the pursuit feeling very good with myself, went up high and promptly feel down from the top taking out another rider with me. After being picked up and looked after by officials and team members, off I went and introduced myself to the physio.

Our team had another race, which I did not race due to feeling quite sore in the shoulder. Having the opportunity to stand down and yell at the team from the side line made me very proud.

Our final race of the day, and what the hell, I had nothing to lose so I asked if I could ride again. That race we all flew and we did a new personal best time.

Coming to work the following day I asked a doctor’s opinion on my sore shoulder and the diagnosis? One broken shoulder. We do breed them tough down south. Go Waihopia Health Services!
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The Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit Grading Time Trial is on July 24th with the Finals on July 31st. Entry is only $2 for adults and children free. Get along to the ILT Velodrome to see business at speed.

Sports Funding - The Future

On Friday I was fortunate to act as MC for the ILT Southland Sports Awards,as we recognised the outstanding efforts of our sporting achievers.

When you bundle together the premier individual and team performances from throughout the year, it shows what this province of ours achieves year after year, often against better resourced and more highly fancied opponents.

We relived some of last year's most special moments, watching footage of Nathan Cohen powering home to win World Championship gold, Aaron Barclay holding the finishing tape aloft at the Youth Olympics, the Stags defending the Ranfurly Shield so proudly and born and bred southerners having Commonwealth medals draped around their necks.

The burning question is can we keep that up?

Around the world right now, the on-going funding of sport is in the headlines. In the United States the NFL and NBA are in simultaneous player lock-outs as team owners and player representatives negotiate terms in an attempt to fix a flawed system.

The NBA has just completed one of its most successful seasons ever. Attendance numbers, television audiences, merchandise sales and general interest are all up, yet 22 of the 30 teams will lose money - a combined total of $300 million dollars. The good news is that's an improvement on the last two seasons' deficit.

Now like most things in the US, the scale of the issue is on another planet to ours, but the principle appears the same. Those sports are trying to sustain a broken model. That's hard enough in good times let alone in the challenging revenue environment we now operate in. The major difference is that in the US billionaire owners fund these deficits. In New Zealand the red ink falls to the sport and ultimately back to those who fund the sport - in most Southland cases, our community funders.

There are two issues. One is franchise sport, vital as our shop window to the sporting nation. The other is regional sport which, as Friday showed, also does an outstanding job of generating huge success. While they are two very different scenarios with two very different challenges, they are inextricably linked.

In round numbers $10 million dollars is invested in sport in Southland each year and the pot is getting no deeper. Yet for some reason sports' only strategy (and we're all guilty of this) is to go knocking on the same doors for more money. We have been incredibly fortunate to have funders who have in the past generally answered the call positively. But that simply can't continue.

Is sport using the current investment as efficiently as it can? If we started with a blank sheet would it look like how we operate today?

The sport sector must take ownership of this issue, otherwise, quite rightly, an end result will be imposed on us and we'll be told to make it work somehow. That will bring winners and losers and we will only have ourselves to blame.

Now is a time for real leadership, otherwise it's my belief the performances we celebrated on Friday night may become fewer and farther between. I think we all agree that would be a massive tragedy.

Miles Covered During Winter Break

As Cycling Southland sits in the middle of our Winter break between racing seasons it was good to deliver the Southland Secondary Schools Road Championships yesterday at Teretonga. After the record numbers which turned up at our Mountain-bike cousin’s Mid-Winter Enduro on Saturday, Sandy Point was the place to be this weekend.

Even though the weather gods weren’t kind it was good to see the best talent from Dunedin south on the bike and giving it heaps. There were a few tired legs backing up from Enduro, but after it all Southland Girls High School prized the Schools Trophy away from James Hargest College who have had a mortgage on it in recent years. It was a great team effort by Dave Beadle’s charges, especially given they can only enter half the races.

Even though the locals dominated, Otago’s Lachie McGregor and Dunstan’s Tom Vessey both starred and showed they will be strong contenders when the South Island championships are held at Ruapuna in a couple of weeks time.

It wasn’t only the bike riders who covered some miles this week. Cycling Southland President Steve Canny and I travelled to Wellington mid-week to visit the team from SPARC ahead of our hosting of the 2012 World Junior Track Cycling Championships. It brought home the magnitude of what hosting a World Championship means. It is an incredible opportunity for the sport, the ILT Velodrome and our region and we are committed to ensuring we make the most of this opportunity. Next month we will again be promoting Southland on the world stage at the 2011 Champs in Moscow, ensuring that the best in the world will descend on our fine province next year.

Track cycling is one of our highest profile Olympic medal chances next year. The ILT Velodrome will play a key part in New Zealand’s build-up with the Oceania and New Zealand Championships to be held in Invercargill over the next nine months. From there a full squad wearing the black skin-suit will battle for gold around London’s new £93M velodrome and then, just a few short weeks after what we hope will be a significant medal haul, little old Invercargill hosts the Junior Worlds. It makes our rare opportunity even more mouth-watering.

New Zealand is fast-becoming a world championship venue of note. Following this year’s Rugby World Cup, comes our Junior Worlds, the World Triathlon Champs later next year and the World BMX Championships indoors in Vector Arena in 2013. SPARC’s expertise in event planning combined with the experience Cycling Southland has built up over recent years in event delivery give us a huge amount of confidence that the 2012 Junior Worlds will be one of the best ever.

Our trip to Wellington also provided a great chance to do some unplanned inter-sport networking. After the ash-cloud turned our plane around to Christchurch, Steve and I shared a rental car home with Southland Cricket’s Kevin Cooper and his wife, proving every cloud has a silver lining - even ash clouds.

Lifetime of Service Recognised

This weekend saw a southern contingent attend the national BikeNZ Road and Track Annual General Meeting in Auckland.

Although an AGM has many people running (or should I say biking) in the other direction, this weekend represented an opportunity to discuss the key issues facing the sport on a national and local level with representatives from BikeNZ and delegates from cycling centres around the country. As with all get-togethers of this nature, it also provided a forum to share ideas, explore solutions to challenges and continue friendships formed over many years or create new ones.

It also provides the chance to recognise the contribution made to the sport of cycling this year.

On Saturday night our own Graham Sycamore was bestowed the honour of winning the Malayan Cup for 2011. The man we all know as Syccie has contributed a life-time to the sport and Cycling Southland is delighted to see over 50 years of service recognised with the sport’s most prestigious award.

What made the night even more special was that Warwick Dalton was on-hand to make the presentation. Dalton, who often went head-to-head with Graham at Kew Bowl back in the 60s won the Malayan Cup along with his New Zealand team mates in 1957, ironically the very year Syccie took up bike riding.

Very few can tell a story as good as Dalton does and he still looks like he’d be able to handle himself in a sprint finish. He fondly recalled his most recent world championship victory, won in Sydney a few short years ago, which went to a judges’ decision following a protest by one of his beaten competitors. The Chief Judge promptly reported “there was nothing to see,” and Dalton duly won his Masters World title. The judge’s name? G Sycamore, New Zealand.

In true Syccie style the win left him speechless ... yes, of course I’m joking. Once the initial surprise at his name being read out had worn off, he recalled a few of the many highlights of a glittering career. And he was as humble as ever, paying special tribute to those who serve the sport throughout the country and singling out his wife Bernie who Graham confirmed does three-quarters of his work for him.

Every cycling club needs a Graham Sycamore. But only one has one. I’m very thankful it is us.

We also were delighted a host of other Cycling Southland members were recognised at the Volunteer Awards. Local legend Tony Ineson was a finalist in the Lifetime Official category (for ten or more years service) while our Senior Road Convenor Waine Harding featured in the list of finalists for the Newcomer category. The Faces of Cycling awards recognised those who are role models for the sport, both on the bike and as ambassadors. Sequoia Cooper, Gabby Vermunt and our Development Officer Matt Archibald were all nominated.

Nights like this provide another reminder of how fortunate Cycling Southland is to have people of this calibre in our organisation. I thank them all.

Kids These Days Don't Know How Lucky They Are

I thought it would at least another 15 years before I started to say things like, “I remember back when I was at school.”

My glorious days at Wendon Primary School in the 80s were filled with Bull-rush (I still have nightmares about trying to stop Sean Hurley in full flight), rugby (no rippa or touch – only full contact tackle), force-back and, in summer, tip-and-run cricket. To keep on-side with Stu Riordan, I should also point out it provided an excellent educational grounding as well.

Kids these days (another phrase I thought was a decade or two away) have so many options – sporting, culturally and academically. I’m not about to descend into a misty-eyed reminisce about how much better it was in the good ol’ days, tempting as that may be. Instead, I’ll focus on what Cycling Southland is doing to add to these options. We have been part of two initiatives which we’ve kicked off over the last couple of months which I’m really excited about.

The first is a “learn-to-bike” programme which is being delivered with assistance from our mates at Sport Southland via KiwiSport. Along with the Southland Mountain-bike and BMX clubs and Police, we are piloting an eight week programme across seven schools and the results and feedback has been outstanding. Children who have never pedalled a bike in their lives are riding unassisted within the very first session. The beaming faces are truly something very special. Our ultimate aim, once we successfully pilot the programme and tweak it as we go, is to see this rolled out across all of Southland. It’s a great first taste of our sport for local school children and just like swimming, running, jumping and throwing, it is a fundamental skill that we believe all Southland children should master. Plus we might uncover a few new Tom Scullys or Eddie Dawkins in the process.

Secondly, we have successfully added cycling to the NCEA curriculum. Every Year 12 Physical Education class is able to do a “performance” standard and earn credits towards NCEA Level Two. A performance standard is slightly different to other assessments in that students are graded against a national standard of excellence. With a world-class facility at our disposal, a standard based on times recorded at the last five National Age Group Track Championships has been developed, and now cycling is accredited with NZQA as a performance standard.

That means students can attend six weeks of coached sessions during school time at the ILT Velodrome, culminating in a trials day from which students can choose either sprint (500 metre time trials), Endurance (2km Pursuit) or, if they are really keen, both to test their skills, speed and fitness.

Already five schools are visiting us each week and we’d welcome more.

And finally, we start a new series of Ladies Nights for women beginner cyclists next week. We’re hosting three fun and information-filled sessions starting on June 12th. To find out more phone Cycling Southland or visit cyclingsouth.org.nz.

Even though this column hasn’t appeared online for a number of weeks you can rest assured that there has been plenty happening in Cycling Southland’s world since we last spoke.

Whilst this is a quiet time of year in terms of major events, it does present the opportunity to get prepared for what will be a hectic period to end the year.

On Friday we released the revamped route for the 2011 version of the PowerNet Tour of Southland. The feedback has been very positive with club members, supporters, teams and even our Pro-Tour riders immediately sending their support. Greg Henderson told his followers on Twitter that it is the fourth Grand Tour (together with France, Italy & Spain). There are changes to every stage including a Sunday start with the Teams Time Trial around Queens Park, the addition of an epic Te Anau to Crown Terrace stage and the return of the Individual Time Trial on the final morning in Winton.

This will add a new dimension to the race and to schedule it as the penultimate stage (a la Tour de France) means that the general classification may well be decided by “the race of truth” on Saturday November 5th. We also have a number of new plans around the PowerNet Tour including a Legends Dinner, Supporters Tours and the chance for the general public to ride. Another quality field is assured with BikeNZ confirming its Elite squad members will be lining up as a key part of their pre-World Champs/Olympics preparation.

But the PowerNet Tour is just one piece of the puzzle. Another capacity field is set to take its first steps on the ILT Velodrome this week in preparation for the Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit. This is truly one of our favourite events of the year, with the inter-team banter building right up to the July 31st finals day. We’ll be keeping you up to date with their progress heading towards race day.

October’s Yunca Junior Tour of Southland is again shaping up as the country’s biggest junior road tour. Another new route and large interest from across the Tasman means that our age-group limits may well be threatened this year.

Immediately following the Yunca, comes the ILT Junior Track Carnival (October 18-19) which this year also includes the National Elite Omnium Champs. All BikeNZ’s Elite and Development riders will join the best young talent in the country in the first event of the 2011-12 track season.

And then there is the small matter of the Oceania Track Championships in November. With Olympic qualification points up for grabs it is likely that close to full strength Australian and New Zealand squads will line up over what should be four spectacular days and nights of racing. In years gone by we have hosted riders who have gone on to be absolute superstars. Given its timing in the Olympic cycle, November’s Oceanias should be no different.

Check out www.cyclingsouth.org.nz for all the information.

See, told you we’ve been busy.

Corporates Getting Ready to Roll

Last year was filled with many highlights but one of the most memorable was a day in the middle of the year when the ILT Velodrome was packed to the rafters as 34 corporate teams and their respective armies of supporters turned on one of the biggest cycling parties this city has seen.

Cycling Southland’s Harrex Group-sponsored Corporate Pursuit opens its public entries this morning and we’ve got a hard act to follow.

Already the demand has been high – last year’s entrants have been busy putting together their squads in the hope of shaving a second or two of their personal bests – and a lengthy list of newbies who have registered their interest throughout the year will be doing the same from this morning. Now the net is being cast even wider with general entries opening today.

The concept is pretty straight-forward – all you need is a team of six from your business (there does have to be some connection, however tenuous between the team members.) You’ll be coached all the way by some of Cycling Southland’s finest, so no previous experience is necessary. In fact it’s the perfect way to be introduced to the world-class ILT Velodrome if you haven’t been out there and the chance to get a look at what all the fuss about cycling is about.

Is it competitive? For some, of course it is. But for most teams the real focus is having a crack and having a laugh at the same time and, as you could guess, it doesn’t take long for the inter-team banter to reach fever pitch. Plus, if you need to sell it to the boss, you can pitch it as one of those “team-building” exercises – one of the best going around actually.

We introduced over 200 riders to the sport last year. Many have continued in the sport – some going on to represent Southland at the recent Track Nationals. So, it doubles as a decent recruitment and talent identification programme for Cycling Southland.

We will again be building on the party atmosphere on the day. I’ve haven’t yet made it to Wellington for the Rugby Sevens but if you threw a roof on the Cake-Tin I reckon we wouldn’t have been a mile away from it last year. Team supporters really got into it, dressing up (and down), bringing banners and yelling themselves hoarse – and that was only the Waihopai Health Centre supporters! This year the recipe will be the same, just up a few notches.

We have pushed the event back slightly to accommodate netball and basketball commitments so this year’s Grading Time Trial is to be held on Sunday July 24th with the Corporate Pursuit finals a week later on Sunday the 31st.

For all of the event details and to enter visit www.cyclingsouth.org.nz/corporatepursuit or you can text the word bike to 244 (texts cost 20c). Entries close on May 13th so get online or if you have queries contact the Cycling Southland office on 2173215.