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- Written by Steve Stannard
It’s great to see that yet another Bike Manawatu rider has been named in a National team going to a World Championships. Emily Shearman will be accompanying seasoned internationals Campbell Stewart and Michaela Drummond to the World Junior Track Cycling Champs later this year. When about 20% of a World's team is from the one small club, then something good is happening there! Really, the genesis of our junior and senior successes in competition starts with the parents, and their encouragement and commitment in getting their kids onto bicycles. Often that is simply that the kids follow their parents lead and ride because their parents do or have. After that, it’s the activities of school-level cycling which give the kids their opportunities to compete and socialise with their peers. But it is then the responsibility of the club to nurture the young riders’ skills and provide the next level of competition so that they can complete their cycling “apprenticeship”. This really happens when the youngsters can race against older, more experienced riders, some of who (myself included) must seem ancient to the kids. At our track and road racing competitions, including the time trial series, we encourage participation from young and old and participation together. For me, a highlight of racing is seeing a bunch of riders of all ages battling it out, maybe helping one another stay away from a chasing group, or sprinting against each other at the line. So may this continue, but to do that, we need all ages to turn up to events. The oldies will often learn something too!
The next big event on the local calendar is the Manfeild 6 hr challenge in early May. If you haven’t organised a team and entered, do it soon. It’s a great event, lots of fun, and safe to boot. Best part about it is that you don’t have to ride for the whole 6 hours (unless of course you want to!).
National Club Road Championships are in a few weeks, and a good contingent of BM riders will be heading down to Central Otago for the racing. If you are going and would like to be the BM team manager, please give me a call. Let’s hope for lots of green jersey’s on the podium.
Daylight saving ends soon. Apart from the recognition that shorter days are coming, it means that you’ll need some good lights in the later afternoons and early evenings. I like to see riders with two rear back (red) lights, one on the bike and one on the person. Of course you need a decent light on the front of your bike to see where you’re going, but also to warn other road users you are coming. Better still if you have some reflective clothing on so that you can be seen by car headlights and streetlights. Really, there is no excuse for not being highly visible.
This will be my last Chairman’s Blog, as I will be stepping down from the Board at the AGM on the 5th. I will write a Chairman’s report looking back on the year, but also looking forward. I hope to see you all there at the AGM to support the running of the club and also to celebrate the track riders at their prize giving, which is on the same night at the Marist Clubrooms. Come along at 6:30 pm for a 7 pm start, and bring a plate of food to share.
Safe riding,
Steve.
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- Written by Steve Stannard
This is an exciting time of the year for cycling. As I write this our best U19 and Elite track riders are doing their thing up at Cambridge against the rest of the best in NZ. I wish I was there watching… Meanwhile the first Pro Tour race, the Tour Down Under has been run and won (not surprisingly by an Aussie), and after the cascade of Middle East and Southern Hemisphere Tours, the European Spring Classics get underway.
Meanwhile, back here in Palmerston North, as the track racing calendar enters the home straight, road racing starts to get underway again. We have already started the Wed Night TT series, and with the fantastic weather we’ve been having, times are fast. Robert Stannard notable broke the course record by a relatively large margin last week. Now, to get the record you’ll have to be able to ride the 12 km course faster than 14:51.
On the 27th of Feb we are starting a series of races which will have an attractive prize pool. More information to come, but they are now in the Calendar. However, we can only do these if there are people to help. So, only those people who assist during one of the races will be able to collect their prize money. More details on that to come, including what the prize money schedule will be. So, we are looking for people who will be willing to be the race organiser on the following dates:
Race Series #1 Kermesse 27 Feb
Race Series #2 2 up TT (handicapped) 5th March
Race Series #3 Graded Handicap RR, 12 March
Race Series #4 Handicap RR, 19 March
Race Series #5 Graded Road Race, 2 April
Please get in contact with Steve Stannard if you can help 021809597.
Once we have a race manager for each, we’ll be asking for around 3-5 others to help marshalling and entries etc. and you may get tapped on the shoulder.
Stay tuned.
Anyhow, while the weather is good, I’ll be on my bicycle as much as possible. Hope to see you out there on the road enjoying the Summer warmth as well!
Cheers, Steve.
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- Written by Steve Stannard
Spring has sprung! With daylight hours quickly increasing now and the ‘fun ride’ season coming up, it’s time to oil your chain and get some more miles in to improve your fitness. It might not be time though, to ditch the arm and leg warmers, nor the raincoat, as we can expect the nasty weather to drag on a bit longer that we’d like.
Many of our younger members are already fighting fit though, and are busily preparing for the NZ Secondary Schools Championships which are run on an annual basis in the Horowhenua and Manawatu. Held at the end of Sept (in the first weekend of the School holidays), this is one of the biggest annual events in the local sporting calendar, and indeed the biggest annual cycling event in NZ. There are also plenty of parents and older riders who will be involved in the organisation of the event; volunteers who without we would not be able to provide top notch home ground competition for our children.
The success of our young cyclists over the last few years is testament to the work that the parents and volunteers put into the sport, particularly those involved in Manawatu Schools Cycling. We have regional, national, oceania, and world champions to show as a result! One area in which local cycling does not do so well however, is in retaining these youngsters as they transition from school to work or tertiary education. Indeed, Bike Manawatu has very very few senior/open riders, male or female and this is an issue we need to address if we are to be a strong cycling club. One way to address this is to ensure that we have enough racing opportunities for Senior riders. This means that we need to persist with organising club road racing events on a weekly basis for local riders, and provide other opportunities for the non-locals to visit and race.
In this context, I am to announce that Bike Manawatu is organising a new event on January the 17th which will attract elite riders from all over NZ and the oceania region. Called the ‘Gravel and Tar Classic’ it will have a prize pool of at least $15K, around half of which will be awarded to team-based results. The latter is to encourage the professional, semi-professional, and amateur teams which will be competing in the NZ Cycle Classic (now based in Masterton) to come to Palmerston North just prior. If you want to compete in this, you don’t have to be part of a team, but you can’t be involved in the team-based prizes if you’re not. You’ll need to be an U19, Open, or Masters rider to compete, and you’ll need a racing licence. We are toying with the idea of a cash prize or trophy for the fastest local rider and/or team. Stay tuned for more info.
At the same time, we don’t want to forget that the vast majority of BM riders are not racers, so we are also organising the ‘Gravel and Tar Gran Fondo’ at the same time. The course will involve riding on some gravel roads, but well within the capability of a normal road bike (and its rider), albeit with some good 25-28 mm tyres. We aim to have some very very good spot prizes (and more) for this fun event, so put the date in your diary and start practicing on a bit of gravel!
Lastly, it was saddening to hear of the recent passing of Averil Sheehan. Averil was a very friendly and active BM member who was always looking for another cycling challenge. She will be sorely missed in the Manawatu peloton.
Yours in cycling,
Steve Stannard.
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- Written by Steve Stannard
It’s great to see the participation we are currently experiencing on Sunday track afternoons and Wednesday Night road time trials. Track nights have a great organizing team led by Ian Gray and a group of willing volunteers, often parents of riders, for each occasion. The riders, of course, need to appreciate this volunteer support and make sure they regularly thank Ian and his team for their hard work.
Organising races on the road brings different challenges, because we need to deal with Manawatu wind, cars, road rules, and the odd dog or cow which get on the course. There is also little opportunity to watch the race unfold, and partly because of that, we don’t have a “captive” group of spectators from which we can request event helpers on the day. With Katherine’s organizational skills, and a bunch of helpful parents, the Wed road TTs are running smoothly and the results are being posted regularly to the webpage. Much to Katherine’s delight however, Tom Pirie has offered to take over the second TT series starting in January; her delight because taking the lead to organize a race series is a commitment and takes time. Therefore a big thanks must go to Tom for his willingness to shoulder this responsibility.
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- Written by Steve Stannard
The passing of the shorted day (longest night) is a yearly 'watershed' for me, as I know the dark parts of my rides will get shorter. The downside is that it stays cold here for another two months, although I can’t imagine it will get much colder than that last week or so. The recent rain and subsequent floods have stymied quite a bit of riding, in particular the Manawatu School Champs. These have been postponed until the 16th of August. Those of you competing or interested in helping/watching, stay tuned to Facebook (Manawatu Schools Cycling) for updates and details. Again much thanks goes to Mike Simpson and his team for putting this and other School events together on a regular basis.
One thing the Schools Cycling group have done well is their traffic management. Kudos goes to Mike Groube for his expertise and experience here. With the new Health and Safety legislation, councils are going to take a closer look at what we do, even if we are volunteers and it’s not our workplace. That means having appropriate traffic management in place for our events, which in turn means that more volunteers are needed to run successful and safe events.
Gabrielle and the others on the Events Group have put together a great road calendar for the rest of the year. We are going to need people to agree to help out for the above reasons. So, if myself, Gabrielle, or one of the Board members asks for help to run a race or stand on a corner, a positive response would be appreciated. We will be particularly asking that everyone who races helps out at least once.
Christine Christie has been working very hard on improving the value of Bike Manawatu membership. Stay tuned for some great initiatives and opportunities for our members. If you’re not currently a financial member, then you’ll be wanting to join!
Meanwhile, enjoy your riding, but make sure you can be seen, especially at night. Two rear and one good front light are a must and reflective patches are great additions. There’s no such thing as a cold ride, only cold clothing, so rug up and treat yourself with some good gloves and toe covers for comfort. A trick I use is to put a piece of plastic (from a good quality plastic shopping bag) down the front of my jersey over my thermal or second layer. It costs nothing and if I get too hot I can pull it out and put it in my back pocket.
Good riding.
Steve.