Welcome to another week everyone and I hope the excitement of the UCI World Cup in Cambridge over the weekend kept you all abuzz – it was truly an awesome and action-packed event.
Well done to our Southland representatives who performed in stellar style during the three-day event. Eddie Dawkins, Natasha Hansen, Kirstie James, Nick Kergozou, Tom Sexton, Emma Cumming, Brad Knipe and Corbin Strong – we’re all super proud of your achievements and some truly stunning results – you should all be super proud. View the full results if you missed them
Now Emma, Brad and Corbin are off to the World Cup in Hong Kong next week – give it everything team and reach for the stars!
Not to be outdone, it was a smaller, more intimate affair than usual but we still kicked off 2019 in style over the weekend with our annual ILT New Year Track Carnival. There was some fantastic racing across all the fields, some great new race formats in the programme and it was particularly exciting to see the close battles among all the grades, particularly the junior ranks, with a number of young riders competing in their very first event! – Thank you so much to all our willing helpers who ensured things ran smoothly and to everyone who took part, including those who travelled down for the event. It was a blast so check out the full results here It was also great to have so many chill with a sausage in front of the World Cup live action on the big screen – good times!
Track Sessions
Open Under 15 Squad will take a break for two weeks and restart on Monday 4 February, 4-6pm.
Our junior racing and development Squad, Rockets, on Tuesdays is under way again for the year 4-5pm Tuesdays.
Sprint Squad, Mondays and Wednesdays 7-9pm is under way again this week.
Under 19 Squad is under way again tonight 6-7pm with fast speed work and motor-paced sessions in lead up to Track Nationals.
Endurance Squad is also back in action from tonight 7-9pm – so head on down and keep those wheels spinning.
Track Nationals
Last reminder for any new representative riders that you need to order your red team shirt – either a polo (with collar), t-shirt and/or singlet. Email back with your size request please and I’ll get the order in.
Junior Division Meeting
This will be held in Legends Lounge 3 (on the Stadium side) next Monday 28th January at 6.15pm. All welcome.
2019 Licensing – URGENT
This is now a requirement for racing on either the road or the track for 2019. Go online here and renew your licence or create a first-time licence if you are new to racing. If you get stuck just give me a yodel and I can help you out.
Don’t forget Cycling Southland offers a Family Membership package and the third member – or more – gets a free Southland membership (I have to process these for you as the Cycling New Zealand licensing portal cannot process this.
Road Racing
Zookeepers Wednesday Worlds will make a welcome return tomorrow night – register 6pm at the Tisbury Hall for 6.30pm. Entry is $10, or just $5 if you are licenced.
This Saturday sees the restart of club racing with Makarewa-Lochiel Loop Mass Start race with sign in at 1pm at the old Makarewa Works for a 1.30pm race start. Check out the new race programme and note there have been a couple of tweaks since it was first issued. These were updated only yesterday. A reminder to wear your race number, ensure you are licenced and bring your entry fee. If a race is cancelled it will be sent out by Text Alert and Facebook.
Teamer versus Event Registrations
There is some confusion around the Teamer race invitation system and event registration for the likes of the New Year Crit. Teamer is the system used for weekly road racing invites to gather rider numbers planning on attending each week and the viability of holding a race.
Event registration for an annual major event like the Ascot Criteriums is done online via our Active Network system – the links for all these events are found on our home page or under the events section https://www.cyclingsouth.org.nz/pages/events/ and are always mailed out in these weekly newsletters leading up to the events. The reason for the different system is because Teamer does not catch all the necessary rider details we require for these bigger events.
Sorry for the confusion but remember Teamer is for club road racing invites only.
Under the Track
Only members getting and putting their bikes in track storage should be entering the lock up. There is security monitoring around this. Do not touch, tamper with or remove anyone else’s bikes, parts or equipment – or that of Cycling Southland – and kids who are not cyclists are to stay out – it is not a playground. Can all members bringing their bikes in and out of the lock up please SHUT THE ENTRY DOOR behind you.
Interested in Hosting Touring Cyclists
Warm Showers is an organisation that pairs touring cyclists with people willing to host them for free - then the hosts can stay with other cyclists when they cycle tour.
The scheme means those involved meet people from all over the world with interesting travels - but the demand is quite high when there are only 1-2 hosts active in Invercargill. If you are interested in being a part of this visit their website https://www.warmshowers.org/
A Final Farewell from Mark
Thanks!
As I ride off into the sunset, I just wanted to say a big thanks to all those who I’ve dealt with over the past three and a a-bit years. I came into the role not knowing too much about cycling but aware there were plenty of passionate people who would help me in my role. I like to think I’ve left the organisation in a stronger position than I found it, but that’s not just thanks to me. There are many of you who have willingly given your time to help improve things and for that I thank you.
I won’t be able to acknowledge every single person who has played a part, but I want to say a special thanks to Bruce, Melissa and Danielle for their support in the office. Too often I hear criticism that “the office does nothing” – I can assure you that’s not the case at all and they all work tirelessly, without an agenda, often at the weekend, to enable your sport to take place.
I’ve enjoyed working with all your executive members, who again have the best interest of the sport and the organisation at heart and do a lot behind the scenes. I’ve loved working with the coaches and the riders, and all the volunteers who help make our awesome organisation continue to be the envy of not only the cycling world in NZ, but also of other sports in Southland.
I do want to single out two people who do a ton of work and have really helped – Reece McDonald and Sid Cumming. I want to publicly thank them for all their support – both do so much behind the scenes that isn’t always seen. Thanks guys.
I learnt early that not everyone can be happy with all of the decisions made all of the time, but I’ve tried hard to be fair and reasonable and implement or change things for the better of cycling in Southland. . We’ve seen great improvement in rider numbers – particularly in juniors – on both road and track, our financials are being managed in a more stable way, we have led the way in H&S policies in the sporting sector, and we continue to produce great people and fast riders so there are many positives.
So thank you for welcoming me in to your sport. I can’t wait to see what cycling holds, especially for our young riders – watch that Jack McLeod, he’s super-fast! – and I encourage you to get in behind your organisation and the new GM Nic, to support the growth of cycling in Southland.
Cheers!
Mark
So have a fantastic week everyone and we all look forward to catching you up again for 2019 – if we haven’t already done so.