by Glenys Taylor | Jan 7, 2012 | Archive(News)
The development of star track cyclist Jesse Sergent into a world class road rider was honoured at the BikeNZ Road and Track Cyclist of the Year Awards in Christchurch last night.
The 23 year old won the honour of Male Road Rider of the Year in a special function. He is one of six riders to receive awards. They included world championship medallist Linda Villumsen awarded female road rider of the year, world championship silver medallists Shane Archbold and Alison Shanks won the male and female track riders of the year, North Harbour’s James Oram is the best emerging talent while veteran Julian Dean was voted the People’s Choice Award.
Sergent, a silver medallist at the world track championships, enjoyed a remarkable maiden season for the high profile Radioshack team on road cycling’s Pro World Tour in 2011. While the team’s supremo Johan Bruyneel did not over-burden the Feilding rider in his first year, Sergent showed his potential with three prologue victories at the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, the Eneco Tour and Tour du Poitiou Charentes. He went on to claim the overall honours in the Belgium and French stage races.
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by Glenys Taylor | Jan 4, 2012 | Archive(News)
On 28th December 2011 the Stannard family set off on an epic three day cycling tour through the back roads of the Manawatu and Rangitikei. This is their story….
Stage 1 Palmerston North to Marton (75km)
Steve has instigated a form of handicapping revolving around the carrying of our gear. The stronger members of the family (Steve and Robert) carry most of the gear in two rear panniers each, Elizabeth gets a back pack full of the days food supplies and Thomas has a camel back and race wheels. Katherine has not only two rear panniers, but is riding her mountain bike – not because she is stronger than Steve and Robert, but because she is least likely of the other three to burst into tears if she is left behind on the hills!
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by Glenys Taylor | Dec 30, 2011 | Event Reports
Track racing up to Christmas has been a great success and here’s hoping for an even better half to the end of March 2012. Club Championships are to come and West Coast North Island Championships at Wanganui on 28th and 29th of January.
Highlights of the season so far:
· A record number of bikes hired out (37)
· A record number of 50 riders made it onto the track for a Club night in November.
· Four Club records broken and one established.
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by Glenys Taylor | Dec 28, 2011 | Track Results
The Tuesday night was called off due to rain and the weather forecast was promising the same for Thursday so the decision was made to race on the Sunday. The sky was overcast and a light but cool South Easterly wind made shorts and short sleeve shirts give way to jackets or goose bumps. The 1pm start time allowed for an extended programme which began with short points races followed by three up 500 metre scratch races, then 3 up 200 metre sprints to conclude in longer handicap races, all races raced in grades.
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by Glenys Taylor | Dec 23, 2011 | Event Reports
It is Sunday 18 December and a depleted field of 29 riders is setting off one at a time to tackle the formidable Waihi Midsummer Madness Time Trial. This is the toughest road time trial event in New Zealand. I make it 127km with about 1300 vertical metres of climbing. There is some great scenery…but I have to admit it is hard to fully appreciate that during the ride.
There were 47 names on the start sheet, but only 29 started. The sensible ones figured the riders would face not midsummer conditions, but something more akin to midwinter conditions and decided not to start. They were right. Last year the little black box on my handlebars recorded an average temperature of 26.8C. This year it was 9.5C.
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