Well, talk about an action packed summer ahead! We are firing on all cylinders as we hook into the silly season of Cycling. This edition of Coaches Corner is packed with important information about plans for the next few weeks, so feast your eyes on all our activities!
Yunca Junior Tour of Southland
Tomorrow, of course, the Yunca Junior Tour of Southland begins. This year promises to be ferociously fought battle across all grades, with the maximum field numbers met well before the close of entries. We have 35 Southland riders taking part, as well as a large number of riders from Australia and the rest of the New Zealand.
Day 1 is based out at Teretonga staring at 11am with a prologue for each age category, followed by a Kermesse at 1.30pm. Kermesses’s are circuit races providing a great crowd spectacle – they are right at the heart of Belgium racing and it’s fantastic to see them starting to feature in the Kiwi racing calendar.
Saturday is based out at Te Tipua (near Mataura) for two tough road stages, the first starting at 8.55am and the afternoon stage starting at 1.10pm. Sunday starts with the Inner City Criterium on Tay Street at 8.30am, before the final stage out at Mabel Bush at 1pm.
The Yunca Tour is always an awesome spectacle and supremely organised by a dedicated crew of very clever Southland folk! Come out and support our Southland riders some-where along the Tour route!
BikeNZ Coaching Forum
Following the Yunca Tour, we have the BikeNZ Coaching Forum, which will be held on Monday 17th at 7pm in the Sarah Ulmer Lounge at the ILT Velodrome. We encourage anyone interested in or currently coaching to come along and learn about the exciting things in store over the next while in this area, and listen to the wise words of Guest Speaker Pat Barwick. The forum is free and you can register with Kyle Rika, BikeNZ Development Coordinator – at [email protected]
ILT Track Carnival
Following the Yunca Tour and the Coaching Forum, we then hook into some track racing! Tuesday 18th October sees the start of New Zealand Elite Omnium Championships – with the Flying Lap kicking off proceedings at 4.30pm. At 6pm the Trans-Tasman Carnival begins, with a jam packed programme for the Junior competitors, including some Trans-Tasman challenge races, interspersed with the Omnium Points Race and Elimination Races.
Wednesday 19th October is the final day of both the Omnium and the Trans-Tasman Track Carnival. The Omnium Individual Pursuit is the first event of the day, kicking off at 3.30pm. The Carnival programme beings at 6pm with a series of races for all grades, including the Trans-Tasman Keirin and Elimination, along with the Omnium Scratch Race and Time Trial.
Thursday 20th October is an Open Carnival for all Grades, starting at 6pm.
What an awesome three days of racing!!!
PowerNet Tour of Southland
The week after the Carnival we are heading out to a host of Southland Schools, along with members of the PowerNet team, to talk about all things cycling in light of the approaching PowerNetTour of Southland which starts on Sunday 30th October.
In terms of catering for the kids, the first day of the Tour will see a ‘Riding with the Stars’ event at Queens Park at 2.30pm, followed by Team Presentations and a Family Fun day before the Team Time Trial starts at 4.30pm. Exciting stuff! The week of the Tour, we will be heading out ahead of the riders building the excitement and gearing the kids up for their best cheering performances, handing out flags and drink bottles along the way.
Come along and cheer for our Southland riders in the Tour!
Learn to Bike
We are straight back into our Learn to Bike Programme in Southland Primary Schools following the school holidays, finishing up the final few weeks of the programme before our Final’s Day, where all the schools come together for a day of fun cycling activities!
Southland Track Champs
We can confirm that the Southland and South Island Track Champs will be run on December 9th (in the evening) and the weekend of the 10th and 11th. We will publish more information about this when it comes to hand.
Senior Road and Track Racing
We are happy to confirm that we have Senior Track Racing this Friday (the 14th October) from 8pm till 9.30pm. See you there!
There is no road race this Saturday due to the Yunca Tour, but the following weekend, which is Labour Weekend, is the Gore to Waikiwi Memorial Race. We are looking for helpers for this, so we’d love to hear from anyone who is available to lend a hand.
Junior Training Squads
We will be taking a break from the U13, U15 and U17 training squads after the Yunca Tour and Trans Tasman Carnival. This is a great time to re charge the batteries for a couple of weeks before we start getting geared up for the Southland Champs and then the National Track Championships. We will be getting back into the squads on the week after the Tour of Southland (7th of November). The times and make up of each squad will be changing in order to get riders of similar ability training together. So keep an eye out for info on squads and training in the weeks following the Yunca.
Oceania Riders
Expressions of interest have been sent out for the Oceania Championships in November. This event is for grades U19 and Elite, just to confuse things as well it is officially a 2012 event which means that you ride the grade that you would ride at Nationals next year. Once teams are announced specific Oceania sessions will run every Sunday at 5-8pm in November. So if you are keen put your name forward to Cycling Southland for the selectors to consider.
See you out there!
Dale & Matt