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Published on Friday, 08 June 2018 09:40

Written by Tim Lloyd

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With winter well and truly upon us, what better way to get the blood flowing than to get some racing in on a Sunday morning.

Bike Manawatu Schools Cycling runs racing events most Sundays during school terms and this year there’s been a positive response to the invitation for all BM members to race with the up and coming youth of our area.

The first Criterium for the year was held at Linton camp on Sunday 27^th May. The day started of damp but with no rain during the morning some great racing was seen by all in attendance..of which there was 79 riders and dozens of spectators.

Huge thanks must go to Linton Camp, the patient Golfers and the Café staff. It truly is a great venue and many parents enjoyed a coffee in the café while the races were passing metres away.

Madi Hartley-Brown took out the A grade 30 minute race from Thomas Stannard and Ethan Craine. The B grade 25 minute race saw a great mix of youth over experience with Senior (took a while to decide on that title) riders Lincoln Jones and Dean Wade pushing the predominately BHS field hard. There was no shortage of attacks of the front and in the end Ben Orr took it out from Ben Irvine and Ewan Cousins won the sprint over Lincoln Jones…bit soft Lincoln. Phil Devlin , Paul Cooper and other BM members were all in the mix during the race where tactics and endurance all played their part. The red faces at the end showed the level of competition, nothing else.

C grade race was the biggest field taken out by PNINS Josh Mulcahy with a great sprint to the line. Dima Luitenko was second with Bella Ives from PNGHS third. With 35 riders and a great mix of genders you never knew which way to look. 7 different schools represented and more BM seniors in the mix made a great spectacle. D grade was taken out by Harrison Craw with his brother Ta following closely, nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry. Tom McInnes chased them home in third in what was once again a large mix in size and speed and grace.

An awesome event and a venue that was are very lucky to have access to.

Last Sunday June 3^rd was the first ITT for the winter. Heading away from our normal Rongotea or Kairanga flat tracks this event started at Colyton Hall and was an Out and Back on the so called “road to nowhere”

You don’t get a lot tougher than this. 16 kms with hills, false flats and head wind on the way home.

88 riders took the start with once again a great mix of size and experience. The school riders were required to run restricted gearing (Roll out) that they use in competition.(see below)

PNBHS teacher and cycling coach Winston Briggs won the day with a 23.47 from Boys High Students Adam Martin  24.16 and Jack Pronk 24.42 and Jamie Dennis 25.04.

Nigel Doyle was the next best of the BM senior riders with a very respectable 9^th 26.10 with our very own BM board member blowing off the cobwebs with 16^th overall and 27.49.

Great to see Paul Cole, Bruce Powell, Megan Blatchford-Peck, Jessica Hamilton, Paul Cooper, Deb Cuff and other BM members taking on the challenge

For those who don’t know Juniors ( Under 16 )is restricted for Team Time trials to 6.61 and Senior (over 16) are 7.0 metres.

In road racing under 15 is 6.61, under 17 is 7.0 and under 19 is 7.93 metres… welcome to schools cycling!!!!

The reason these roll out exist is to encourage the youths to run and be able to race a high cadence, which in their growing years looks after their joints and muscles as well as fostering good technique…anyway enough of the detail but give it some thought when you see the results and speeds the youth ride at.

Next up is Akers Road , registration at Linton Country School, this Sunday..Check the facebook page for details. Four grades, flat track but that’s all we can guarantee……could be windy..bring it on.

Thanks all of our Traffic Management , timing, marshalls and other helpers. Thanks also to Austin Smith from Colyton School and Katy Marsh from Linton country school for having bathroom facilities available to us to use

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Published on Friday, 25 May 2018 11:49

Written by Tim Lloyd

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What a day….The week leading up to Sunday I lost count of the amount of times I checked the met service forecast. Got our ride in on Saturday morning before the heavens opened and had fingers crossed the weather improved for Sunday.

Running events from May to September is more luck than anything else to see if we get away with it weather wise. Cycling is a year round hobby and sport with Schools road cycling effectively run April through to September, so for us on the board that have kids competing at schools level we are used to packing the umbrella when we go racing. The 6 hour has always been in May and most people plan their calendar around it. We have run on Mothers day before but we now try and avoid it to give the Mums a sleep in at least.

Busy start to the day with Gavin from Trident timing here to set up first thing, registrations on the day which increased our numbers another 10%, and then just as we were about to start…it hosed down. Well it is a challenge after all… I commented about the great opportunities the 6 hour delivers in last weeks article and this year again saw another swing in variants. From the seasoned athletes to the absolute first timers, from school groups to retirees…this event caters for them all. Some of the kids were so small I was left gob-smacked with their resilience on the day. The team aspect had a new twist with the majority of the faster teams only having two riders. Some had it split 2 x 3 hour stints, Most did 2hours 2 hours, 1 and 1 to finish… so strategy as it always does played a huge part.

Lets talk numbers…6 hours, 3.03km track. 323 riders, 133 female, 190 Male.79 teams,42 of those teams from schools. 60 solo (51 male, 9 female) included in those were 2 E bikes which did the 90 minute challenge.

The winners were a Workplace team of two (D&A), David and Adam Martin from Bike Manawatu , who completed 82 laps in the allocated time, 248kms, average of 41 kph. To make that even more impressive is that David competed and won a Triathlon in the morning, changed kit and took over from Adam who had  done the first 3 hours. First solo Male was Madi Hartley-Brown, who held the lead overall for the first 2 hours or so,  only 1 lap behind. First Female solo was Libby Arbuckle just edging Emily Sherman. First in Armed Forces and service clubs was Trentham Alpha with our local BBC team bringing home the first mixed team.. Really competitive schools teams…Fair to say Palmerston North Boys High dominated but just as gratifying was Palmy Girls mixing the teams up with senior and junior riding together as a team building day . There was PNINS uniforms everywhere and a huge amount of parents from the school entering as teams as well. It appears I’m not the only one whose life has changed because my child decided to pick up cycling as a sport..So many winners on the day ..Full results listed below..

Bike Manawatu cannot thank our sponsors enough. We are truly grateful for all their support. Our Gold Sponsors of Ashhurst Engineering and Construction and also Bayleys Real Estate contribute to the running of all of our events. Manfeild specific sponsors for the weekend were Cash Converters,       Palmfeilds Mazda and Subaru, Hughes Joinery, The Tank Guy, Rosebowl Bakery, Bike Barn and Ebony Coffee. Special thanks to Melodys New World and Rosebowl bakery for the race pack refreshments..

We also acknowledge and thank the support of Manawatu District council and The Mainland Foundation in making this event possible.

This is the first time in many years that Mike and Christine Christie haven’t been the main organizers.  They left us with an impressive template to continue the event with and we cannot thank them enough for their service to Bike Manawatu. The new team learnt a lot, there is debrief document that has been filled out so we can continue to improve the event..2019 will be even bigger.

In the meantime the board are working with WCNI and other entities further afield to form a racing and events calendar for Bike Manawatu. In the next few months there will be selected Road races run by Bike Manawatu Schools Cycling that will be graded A-D and Bike Manawatu members will be invited to compete against our ever growing pool of talented juniors. It will impress you, inspire you , challenge you and you’ll love it…This starts this Sunday morning. Details below.

I asked David Martin to tell us about how the day was won and what Adam and himself are targeting this year.

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Published on Wednesday, 23 May 2018 13:14

Written by Vaughan Hunt

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Results Here