Busy start to 2013 beckons

There's little doubt that 2012 has been a massive year for Cycling Southland, headlined by our hosting of the UCI Juniors Track World Championships in August and by a large number of stand-out performances at national and international by the south's elite and junior riders.
 

Next week, in my final column for the year I will relive the craziness of the last twelve months, but today it is a quick look forward to what the New Year holds.

The first month of the year is chock full of championship racing the Elite Road and Track Championships scheduled. First up, the Elite Road Championships in Christchurch from January 11 to 13. Last year Cycling Southland's James Williamson and Nicky Samuels doubled-up for an unprecedented double in winning both elite men's and women's road racing titles, Southland's first national road title since 1968.

Closer to home, we hit the ground running with our annual ILT New Year Cycling Series. This begins on January 18 and 19 with the traditional New Year Track Carnival starting at 7pm both nights. This event is always a great way to get the year underway and with the Track Nationals to follow just over ten days later it is a crucial build-up event.

The Elite and Under 19 Track Nationals will be held from January 31 to February 3. In recent years, some members of the High Performance squad have had limited campaigns. No so in 2013. The national selectors have been very clear that performances at these nationals will dictate selections for the international campaigns for the remainder of the year. It is the key selection event and we'll get the benefit.

With a pared back international programme in 2013 as the first year in a new Olympic cycle, riders will have precious few competition opportunities to show why they should have a spot in the squad building to Rio in 2016. Next month's Track nationals and the Oceania Championships in Invercargill in November will benefit as the best in the business will have to fire to earn spots in the black skin suit throughout the year.

Last weekend's Southland Track Champs really fired us up for the upcoming championship season. To have over 120 riders racing at our local championships is easily a record and underlines the continued growth in the sport.

A number of new names have earned selection in the Nationals training squads directly on the back of their performances last weekend and the quality of riding, along with depth of talent which is developing across all our age groups from under-15 to Masters is heartening.

The World Championships are to be held in Minsk, Belarus in mid-February and then our Age Group athletes take centre stage from February 26 to March 2.

And just because we would hate for you to think we weren't busy enough, the Club Road nationals - the biggest national cycling championship in number-terms, is this year being held in Queenstown in April.

Better rest up over Christmas then!

Oceania champs kick-start track season

Pieter Bulling in action for New Zealand

The track cycling season begins in earnest this week with a record 17-strong Southland contingent lining up at the Oceania Track Cycling Championships in Adelaide starting Wednesday.

Ten riders will start in New Zealand’s Elite and Under-19 squads while a further seven will ride in Cycling Southland colours over the four day championships which alternate between Australia and Invercargill annually.

As usual, we have had a pretty good view of preparations, outside our office window on Stadium Southland Velodrome and with scaled-back international campaigns scheduled for New Zealand’s track programme this season, the Oceania championships represent one of a limited number of opportunities for riders to impress.

As discussed in this column last week, with a new Olympic cycle beginning post-London, much interest will focus on the next wave of talent stepping into the Elite ranks and at how some of the experienced campaigners will back-up after the Olympics. Southland has riders in both categories.

Eddie Dawkins has quickly become one of the most experienced members of the elite squad and I have little doubt that the big fella will relish any extra leadership responsibility. He’ll have his good mate Matt Archibald alongside him who has certainly found strong training form over the last couple of weeks and will be wanting to send a clear message to the selectors that he is worthy of a world championship ride in February. Natasha Hansen will be hoping she can replicate her form from twelve months ago when she claimed three Oceania titles and a silver from her four starts.

The endurance squad features Sequoia Cooper who will have renewed focus with the strong possibility the Women’s team pursuit will move from three to four riders in Rio in 2016 along with Cameron Karwowski and Pieter Bulling who have both come off impressive European summers and strong PowerNet Tour of Southlands.

The Under-19 New Zealand squad is an early indication of those in the running for trips to Glasgow next August for the 2013 World Juniors. Jeremy Presbury will likely be one of the first names written down after his to fourth placings this year in Invercargill. He will take on the Super-Drome in Adelaide along with Josh Haggerty and first year Under-19s Mike Culling and Laura Heywood.

Meanwhile a further seven riders will wear the Southland skin-suit in Adelaide - Aimee Burns, Steph McKenzie, Bradley Tuhi, Matt Dodds, Karl Watson, first year under-19 Nick Kergozou and a returning Lee Evans who rode last year for Wellington where he is attending university. Of these, McKenzie looms as the strong contender for possible podium finish, showing some excellent training form over recent weeks.

The 2013 Oceania Track Championships in Adelaide begin Wednesday and conclude Saturday. On a local front the next key event is the Southland Track Championships to be held from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 December while the annual ILT New Year Track Carnival will be held on January 18th and 19th, leading in to the Elite and U19 National Championships starting January 31.

Big year leads to big plans

Hillside School learns to ride with Cycling Southland

With the end of the year quickly descending upon us, many organizations like Cycling Southland are in review/preview mode - reviewing the good, the bad and the ugly from the year that’s been and planning for 2013. Fortunately for cycling there has been plenty of good and, aside from some bloke Armstrong, not a lot of ugly.

Whilst the flag-ship events including our recent PowerNet Tour of Southland and the SIT-sponsored UCI Juniors Track World Championships are the big, shiny things most people remember, the work I am most proud of is at the club and entry levels of the sport.

To see the numbers coming through our beginner programmes on the track and road is really heartening. It is a real focus for us in the year ahead with an aim of continuing to make it easier for people to get on a bike with us and then to develop their skills to whatever level they desire.

The corner-stone of this is our soon-to-launch Pedaling Pathway. This is our new road rider education and development programme and for those new to the sport, (and those a little more experienced,) it will provide the skills and knowledge to achieve your cycling goals – whether that is to cycle around the block or to win a national title.

We are also aiming to significantly expand our hugely successful Learn to Ride programme in Southland primary schools. This is a wonderful partnership with Sport Southland and KiwiSport and our good mates at the Southland MTB and BMX clubs and it is at this level where our team is really making a difference.

Over the six weeks of the programme there are kids who have hardly been on a bike who are throwing away trainer wheels and have a new found confidence and a whole heap of fun along the way. We can’t wait to get to more primary schools next year.

Short story is there are some pretty exciting plans to capitalize on the high profile our sport has enjoyed over the past year, so be warned - you can expect to hear plenty more from us to join us for a ride.

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Whilst on the topic of things new, the latest UCI World Cup round in Glasgow this past weekend showed that the four-year changing of the guard which accompanies the Olympic Games cycle has already started.

The most notable examples were in New Zealand’s sole representative in Scotland, 17 year old Dylan Kennett, riding his way to fourth in the Men’s Individual Pursuit on Sunday and Great Britain’s Elinor Barker who, like Kennett, shone brightly at the Junior Worlds in Invercargill in August, partnering with World and Olympic champions Laura Trott and Dani King to win the Women’s Team Pursuit gold on Saturday.

We’ll get a first hand look at the new wave of talent at the Elite and Under-19 Track Nationals at Stadium Southland Velodrome from January 31st. That will be a fitting way to start another new year.

Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive.

Future looks bright after awards night

Junior Boys SportsPerson Josh Carpenter & Nathan Cohen

On Friday night I was fortunate to play host at the annual Southland Secondary School Sports Awards. Southland’s 15 secondary schools recognised their classes of 2012 across a large number of sportsperson, participation, contribution and volunteer categories.

I was struck by a couple of things during the evening. Firstly, the opportunities these youngsters have to participate and perform in a huge number of sports. That’s down to the brilliant work our schools, our sporting clubs and our regional sporting organizations provide for Southlanders.

So often we in sport get caught up in the minute details and day to day struggles of our lives in sport, without stepping back and, even briefly, recognizing the great work that goes on in our province every week of the year.

Friday night provided another example of the role the humble volunteer plays in this picture. There are thousands upon thousands of volunteers who give their time so selflessly – not for money, not for glory but because they are passionate about the kids, their school and their sport.

There is no better example than our just-completed PowerNet Tour of Southland or our recent hosting of the UCI Juniors Track World Championships. Around these two events alone, there were approximately 12,000 hours volunteered. Put it in dollar terms that is a volunteer staff input of close to $250,000 and that’s just during the events themselves, let along the countless hours spent in preparation for large-scale events like these.

In many respects, it’s easier to recognize this contribution around events while the week-to-week contribution can sometimes tend to go unnoticed. However, it is literally the blood that pumps through Southland sport’s veins.

As the end of another year approaches, every sport – including Cycling Southland – owes another huge debt of gratitude to that passionate group of people that keep our organizations going through their unwavering passion and enthusiasm. It was wonderful to see a handful get worthy recognition on Friday night.

Reading out the lists of achievements on an international, national and regional level by those nominated for awards on Friday across a hugely diverse range of sports, proves again what a future Southland sport has.
Like many sports, cycling was well represented with Southland Boys High School’s Josh Carpenter continuing cycling’s fine tradition of a sixth-successive Junior Boys Sports-Person of the Year award. Kate Dunlevey, Jeremy Presbury, Michael Culling and Josh Haggerty were all nominated as senior finalists and they are showing no signs of slowing down.

Presbury, Culling and Haggerty will be joined by Laura Heywood in BikeNZ’s U19 squad for the Oceania Track Champs in Adelaide at the end of this month, while Eddie Dawkins, Matt Archibald, Pieter Bulling, Cam Karwowski, Natasha Hansen and Sequoia Cooper have all made the Elite squad.

Add Culling and Haggerty’s selections in the BikeNZ Road Development squad along with Central Otago’s Liam Aitcheson and Georgia Vessey and there is plenty to look forward to. If Friday night’s awards were a look into the sporting future, ours could not be more promising.

Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive.

Another tour, another long list of thanks

The tour heads to Crown Range. Photo by James Jubb

Cycling Southland’s 2012 PowerNet Tour of Southland is in the books and what a race.

By now you will have read of Mike Northey’s incredible come-from-behind victory over the final 30 kilometres of our seven day race. One of the real joys of working in the sporting sector is getting an up close look at incredible moments like this and being able to witness the drama, the elation and the bitter disappointment that played out between Winton and Invercargill on Saturday afternoon.

So often in road races, the result is more or less locked down and the final stage can be something of an anti-climatic doddle to the line. Not so on Saturday where riders told me afterwards the 79 kilometre final stage was the hardest they have ever ridden. The pace went on right from the start and to quote Jerry Stock, who provided commentary during Cue TV’s wonderful coverage of the event, riders were “kicking stones up struggle street” right from the get-go.

It was a dramatic end to another brilliant event and one which was another huge success. International cycling hasn’t has the best of months with the scars from the Lance Armstrong saga still very fresh. While that represents the worst of cycling, what we witnessed over the past week is the best. We are incredibly thankful for the spectacle we were treated to and the way in which the 2012 Tour field conducted itself on and off the bike.

Thanks goes out to our incredible volunteers, our 2012 media contingent and to our fantastic funders and sponsors who make it all possible. No list is complete without Bruce, Pam and the Ross family. Most won’t realize what an undertaking this event is and how consuming in time and energy it becomes. We owe you all another huge debt of gratitude.

2012 was also notable as PowerNet’s last as major sponsor of the event. Prospects for the future are positive and, as with any change, it provides opportunity, but our first job is to recognize PowerNet’s phenomenal contribution to this iconic Southland event.

I am not over-stating the case to say the event would not be where it is today without PowerNet. Their input has been so much more than a writing of a cheque. Their financial contribution has been significant, but the way in which their team, headed by the incredible Lyn Daly, has embraced the event and made it their own is where our real fortune has been.

The PowerNet name will forever be associated with the Tour of Southland and whatever the future holds for the event and wherever it takes us, it is on the back of their twelve years of outstanding support.

Now the focus returns to the track. Next up are the Oceania Track Championships in Adelaide later this month and, closer to home, the Southland Track Champs are in December, building up to the Track Nationals in late January.

Before then, hopefully, you will forgive us if we take a couple of days off.

Tour time - stories abound as usual

Stage 1 of the 2011 PowerNet Tour of Southland

This time next week we will be underway with the last major fixture on Cycling Southland’s 2012 calendar, the 2012 PowerNet Tour of Southland.

And what a finale it promises to be.

No other event shines a spotlight on our region like the PowerNet Tour and, as usual, there are so many storylines.

Firstly, our wonderful tour sponsor PowerNet ends twelve incredible years of support as naming rights sponsor this year. Its name will forever be linked with the race and it gives the PowerNet sextet of riders a little extra motivation to send the company out on the highest note possible. The defending champion Josh Atkins may not be returning, but PowerNet has replaced the youngest ever Tour champion with a man who lifted the trophy just two years earlier. Heath Blackgrove is one of the sport’s nicest guys who has been quietly going about his work in the US and looms as one to watch when racing starts on Sunday.

Another man not lacking for motivation will be four-time winner Hayden Roulston. His early withdrawal due to injury last year will no doubt fuel his engine for another tilt at his “drive-for-five” this year.

Then there’s the return of the only man with more Southland wins than Roulston. At the grand age of 50 (note I didn’t say grand old age), eight-time champ Brian Fowler is back to take on the race he dominated in the late-80s and early 90s. Having not raced competitively for close to four years, no one is expecting number nine next week, but one wouldn’t be surprised if Chook shows up some of the peloton, who he will have more than three decades of experience on.

It is only fair to also look at the younger end of the age spectrum. Earlier this year we watched Dylan Kennett, Hayden McCormick, Tayla Harrison and Hamish Schreurs ride for New Zealand at the Junior World Track Championships. Now the foursome will line up to make their open racing debuts at the 2012 PowerNet Tour.

And just to emphasise the young talent coming through the ranks, no less than four riders from Cycling Southland’s recent Yunca Junior Tour, will back up to ride the senior equivalent with Kennett and Harrison being joined by U19 Men’s Yunca Tour champion Ayden Toovey and fellow Australian Jordan Payne.

Another of the younger brigade is last year’s runner-up Patrick Bevin who finished less than a minute down on Atkins in the overall classification last year. He returns as one of the favourites as part of the US-based Bissell Pro Cycling team who make a welcome return to this year’s race under the tutelage of another former Tour champion Glen Mitchell.

Then there’s the international flavor with teams from the US, Australia and UK all entered along with riders from Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden and Brazil and the local flavor with no less than 12 Southlanders lining up at the start line.

I reckon that’s enough to keep us busy for the week. 

Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive

The cure for Post Event Trauma Disorder

2011 Yunca Tour peloton

At Cycling Southland we’ve mastered the art of managing Post Event Trauma Disorder (PETD).

For the uninitiated, PETD is an affliction that manifests as a flat patch after a major event which has taken a huge amount of focus and preparation. Its most common symptom is people falling asleep at their desks. In our case, the cure after hosting the UCI Juniors Track World Championships four weeks ago was to get straight back to work on the next event on the calendar.

This weekend we host the annual Yunca Junior Tour of Southland. I’d love to tell you what number Yunca Tour it’s been, but our wonderful sponsor has been involved for so long, it’s pretty hard to keep up. NZ cycling legend Gordon McCauley recently remarked that when he was preparing training programmes for his younger charges which included the Yunca Tour, he realised it was sponsored by the same company when he rode it as a junior back in 1986. To quote our mate Gordy, “that’s pretty awesome sponsor longevity.”

The 2012 version kicks of on Friday at Teretonga Raceway with an Individual Time Trial followed by an afternoon kermese. Saturday’s two stages are raced at Te Tipua while Sunday morning features the tradition inner-city criterium, followed by the final stage around Mabel Bush and Springhills.

A record field of 187 will line up over eight different age categories with another strong contingent travelling from across the Tasman to compete. The event also doubles as the final round in the Junior National Points Series so some great racing in assured.

The event was originally developed to provide an opportunity for local juniors to ride in a multi-stage cycling race. Even though it has now grown in to an event of national and international standing, that original ethos still holds true, so look for a strong showing from the locals who will no doubt be looking to defend their home patch against the Australian and northern invasion.

There is also solid interest from a number of the junior programmes who attended Junior Worlds to return with road riders for the Yunca Tour, so the potential to grow the event further is exciting.

Keep an eye out for more news this week and live coverage during the weekend at www.cyclingsouth.org.nz/yuncatour.

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Another of the huge benefits from the recent Junior Worlds was the way our local schools embraced the event. Hundreds of Southland students got to strut their stuff in our Roller Racing Ride-Offs leading in to the event and yesterday at Stadium Southland Velodrome 17 teams from as far afield as Queenstown took part in the first ever Secondary School Team Sprint Competition.

Run in the same format as the highly successful Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit, yesterday provided the chance for a large number of Southland students to sample their first taste of track cycling. Full results will be published tomorrow, but there’s no doubt that there were some future stars in the making unearthed in what was another great event.

Nick Jeffrey is Cycling Southland's Chief Executive

Junior Worlds dream becomes reality

When the 2012 UCI Juniors Track World Championships were awarded to Invercargill, Cycling Southland had a dream of what we wanted to achieve from the event. That dream (and then some) turned into reality last month as the world came to ride.

154 of the best under-19 men and women track cyclists from 24 countries descended on Stadium Southland Velodrome and, together, they put on a spectacular show.

19 world titles and an unprecedented five world record rides over five incredible days of racing. With the London Olympics fresh in everyone’s minds, our aim was to bring a world-class event to the cycling and sporting public of New Zealand.

Now, some weeks since the event, it is hugely satisfying to reflect on an experience that showcased the sport, our region and our facility around the globe in delivering what UCI has informed us were the best Junior Worlds ever.

It started on the opening evening, where world records fell on four separate occasions and New Zealand fought hard but had to be content with three appearances on the second step of the podium.

That proved to be a theme for the Championships with Australia leaving Invercargill atop the medal table with nine rainbow jerseys and the New Zealanders matching their haul from a year ago in Moscow, taking home 10 medals, including seven silvers. The only thing missing from the champs was God Defend New Zealand, as that elusive world title remained out of the grasp of the class of 2012.

After a start like that, our only concern was how the rest of the championship would live up to that standard. We need not have worried. The rest of the competition was filled with incredible story lines.

Russia’s Daria Shmeleva completely dominated the women’s sprint event to sweep all four golds and add a second world record in the Women’s Time Trial. Write her name down for Rio. Australia’s Tayla Jennings is another who seems destined for great things. She swept the Women’s Omnium with six wins from six events for the second consecutive year, all after she had already claimed gold in the Team Pursuit and Points races.
Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria fell twice on the opening night of the Men’s Omnium but patched himself together to claim gold and set the standard for post-race celebrations, riding the length of the front straight on the back wheel of his road bike with his Colombian flag as a cape.

He also featured in one of the most poignant moments of the championships when Fernando and Hayden McCormick helped Dylan Kennett on to the podium after the New Zealander had bravely fought to a bronze medal after an early fall in the Madison.

But for our organisation, whilst the action on the track was world class, it was the atmosphere inside Stadium Southland Velodrome that really sent shivers down our spines. I have never heard noise like the roar they gave Kennett during his silver-medal ride in the Men’s Kilo and the crowd didn’t let up for five sell-out days.

Huge thanks goes to our army of volunteers, all 130 of you who gave up five days to help put New Zealand on the track cycling map. Thanks too to main sponsor SIT, funding partners Invercargill Licensing Trust, ILT Foundation, Invercargill City Council, Southland District Council, Community Trust of Southland, Venture Southland, NZ Major Events, Sport New Zealand and, of course, our partners at BikeNZ and UCI.

The only question now is what’s next?

Relive all the action at www.juniorworlds2012.com where you’ll find video highlights from every final.

Curtain-raiser preview to Worlds

Tom Beadle rides in the Junior Worlds Curtain Raiser

On Saturday night we were treated to a sneak preview of what to expect when the UCI Juniors World Track Championships start at Stadium Southland Velodrome in a little over a week.

The New Zealand and South Africa Worlds’ squads both fronted up to contest our Curtain-Raiser Race Night on Saturday and they duly put on a great show.
Hosting these world championships has been a four year process, dating back to the decision in 2008 to bid for hosting rights. To now be in the final straight is hugely exciting and Saturday’s event gave us all the chance to test drive our set-up and systems for the worlds as well as providing the opportunity for the New Zealanders to get some race simulation in to their build up.

I watched their morning training session which they treated as a mock qualifying session. The Men’s and Women’s Team Sprints and Team Pursuits both prepared as they would for next Wednesday’s opening session, before riding the Curtain-Raiser like a final.

The signs are very good. There are some tough selection decisions that will have to be made over the next few days and the competition but supportive environment that has been developed within the squad is a credit to the management team and gives the squad the best chance possible to recreate and exceed the success of last year’s record World Championship return.

Our velodrome is a truly spectacular facility, but to see it decked out, ready for the finishing touches this week for the world championships is something else again.

We could not be happier with the level of support we have received from all sections of the community. In typical Southland fashion our phone has been running hot with offers of assistance and enquiries from all sorts of organizations and individuals just keen to help and contribute in some way.
The enquiry we are receiving from international media is also hugely pleasing. Each year we like to think we profile Southland like no other event with the profile the PowerNet Tour of Southland receives. Next week the world will be watching, with an international broadcast package, designed to firmly put Invercargill and Southland in front of the cycling world.

So what happens this week? We’ll be in more Southland secondary schools all week long and at the Eastern Suburbs and Brewers Elbow bars on Wednesday and Thursday night respectively, with our Roller Racing. The bulk of the international team arrive this week, team trainings will be in full swing out of the track, final set-up of the velodrome will be completed, opening ceremonies and medal presentation rehearsals will be held and, with a bit of luck, we’ll move the last of our remaining tickets.

I suspect it will be both the longest and shortest week of our lives. But by this time this week, we will be ready to watch the world’s best juniors take to our velodrome. The pipe dream of four years ago is about to become reality.

Final countdown and Olympic distractions

South Africa arrive for Junior Worlds

16 sleeps until the start of the 2012 UCI Juniors Track World Championships.

Entry numbers continue to rise with some countries coming out of the woodwork late to line up at the start line in a little over a fortnight. Last count was north of 160 riders and 24 countries. The Netherlands, Japan and Mexico (who will field one of the largest squads with 15 riders) are the latest to confirm attendance over the past week.

The first of our squads arrived this past week with South Africa touching down for their four week long stay. They haven't wasted any time in getting down to business, spending quality time on the track and the road including mixing with the locals in our Saturday Club Road race at Mabel Bush on Saturday. They may not harbour hopes of world titles, but we'll be doing everything we can to make sure it is a trip none of them will forget anytime soon.

This week has also seen the continuation of our Secondary Schools’ Roller Racing. Central Southland College and Verdon College both showed impressive form this week and it was great to share the fun with our outstanding sponsor at SIT's Re-Orientation as well.

If the Olympics have inspired you and you are in Years 9 to 13, come along to the Velodrome at 4pm on Tuesday and have a crack for a chance to take part in our Ultimate Ride-Off on the final day of Junior Worlds. And for the slightly older wannabe, we start our Pub Challenges this week visiting the Eastern Suburbs Tavern on Wednesday and Big Willy's on Thursday. Our mates at the ILT have put up $500 in prizes for each night.

In between the inevitable last minute preparations, there has been this quite large sporting event going on in London in the background. Thankfully, sleep isn’t important because it’s been very hard to pull yourself away from the giggle box at some ungodly hour of the morning.

The last couple of nights have been particularly taxing, trying to balance the end of the rowing and swimming with the start of triathlon, track and field and, of course, the track cycling. It’s been a mixed bag for the Kiwis on the London Velodrome, headlined by the bronze medal for the Men’s Team Pursuit and the fifth place finish for Eddie Dawkins and the Men’s Team Sprint. Both Eddie and Natasha Hansen (who was back in business overnight in the Women’s Sprint) have looked right at home amongst the elite competition and that’s a great sign for the next Olympic cycle.

It’s hard not to watch in awe at what the Brits have achieved. After winning seven golds and eleven cycling medals at Beijing four years ago, they have the chance to medal in nine of the ten disciplines at home this year. But, I know of at least two Southlanders who will already be focusing on re-dressing that balance a little in Rio in four years time.