- Details
- Written by Glenys Taylor
The weather leading up to this organised Bike Manawatu ride from Mangaweka back along the Country Road through Rangiwahia to Kimbolton then back to Palmerston North had looked gloomy and dismal to say the least. But weather forecasters don’t seem to quite get it right for our neck of the woods. So the bus had been booked and everyone who had booked had been told to be at Memorial Park at 6.45am so bikes could be packed with the plan to leave Mangaweka around 8.30am.
A stop in Feilding to pick up the 2 local lasses saw their bikes put inside the bus. And off up through Halcombe to SH1. Just past Hunterville there were a few spits of rain on the windscreen but by the time the bus arrived in Mangaweka this had passed. The bus was quickly and efficiently off loaded of people and bikes. Mike Christie gave the bus people along with the other people that had decided to make their own way to Mangaweka a ride briefing and Ken Young who had driven the course the day before detailed a couple of areas to be careful of.
And they are off.
A steady pace was set and the Rangitikei River bridge was crossed without drama.
- Details
- Written by Glenys Taylor
After the storm that lashed the Manawatu region last night there were strong doubts that the weather was going to be kind enough to stage this years event. But with blue sky overhead and a brisk but debilitating wind riders gathered at the Cheltenham hotel.
It would be so nice for a handicap race to know who was going to turn up so that the grades and handicaps can be sorted before the event. If I had known that so many spectators were going to turn up that could have helped I could have brought my bike and ridden also. Next time I will be bold and just put my bike in.
The formulae for working out handicaps had been put to good use and the times worked out for this weeks race. A few small tweeks were given to the times to adjust for the size of the bunches.
And although no one really wants to be called E grade in reality that is what it has come down to as the A grade bunch was split in to 2 groups again this week.
- Details
- Written by Libby Arbuckle
On the 3rd of October 11 Bike Manawatu age grade members travelled to
Invercargill to compete in the 30th year of the YUNCA Junior 3 Day Tour.
The Yunca Tour is known as the most prestigious age grade tour in New Zealand with a large contingent of Australiaʼs top age grade riders making the trip over to compete.
Myself and Emily Shearman contested the Under 15 Girls grade, a small field of just 10 riders but made up of NZ and Australian National Champs. I (Libby) started with my favourite discipline, the Individual Time Trial and managed to finish 3rd after a poor start. Emily finished 5th. Emily then showed her fantastic sprint form to get 2nd to Australian sprint champ Jessie Saunders in the Kermese (points race).
After Day 1, Emily was 3rd in GC with me running 4th, only 1 second behind.
- Details
- Written by Simon van Velthooven
After racing in and out of Japan over the last 6 months I can sum it all up with one word- Spectacular!
For my final racing session I was assigned to Nagoya City Keirin in southern Japan along with my ‘teammates’ Scott Sunderland and Shane Perkins from Australia.
Nagoya is a special place, not only because it houses some of this planets greatest companies such as Panasonic, more importantly it has a very old and historic velodrome with extremely long straights and steep corners that encourages very exciting and dangerous racing. Since it was our last race, our governing body JKA decided to treat us with a 4-day meet. This means we are locked away for a minimum of 112 hours with absolutely no contact to the outside world. I can tell you now I must of brushed my teeth at least 5 times a day and had about 100 cups of green tea because there really is nothing else to do. The upside is we get to race 4 times and potentially ‘take home’ more cash in a brown paper bag at the end of it all.
- Details
- Written by Glenys Taylor
Just a reminder that the STEVENSON MINING SOURCE TO SEA is but a few weeks away now.
Manawatu members that enter fill in on the entry form that they are from Bike Manawatu we will get $ 5.00 back for club funds.
They’ll collate the amounts and send the cheques out after the event.