by Vaughan Hunt | Jul 19, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
Heather and I are off to London soon ….(not to see the Queen but we will wave if we see her)….but to see our two Bike Manawatu representatives dishing it out to the rest of the world on the Olympic velodrome. How cool is that.
It was not that long ago that Simon and Jesse were going hard out on Johnston Park, on a windy Feilding Tuesday night, imaging themselves saluting the judge and the grandstand in some big race somewhere far flung across the world. Through an enormous amount of hard work, great coaching and the support of the cycling community, they are now living and experiencing that dream.
All the best for London guys…you absolutely deserve it.
Who would have thought that a simple summer track racing programme set up by Ian Gray over 10 years ago for the Feilding Cycling Club, after track racing had gone into recess, would result in our two Olympians challenging the best.
For cyclists who love the thrill of going as fast as they can over a relatively short distance, track cycling is the antidote. I know the speed and exhilaration felt by Simon when he was 14 years old after just one session at Johnston Park had him hooked. And then there was the “ real” velodrome at Wanganui.
Simon and Jesse have set a few records on the Johnston Park track, most of which have since been broken. That tells me that we have more future Olympians on the way. The key is to keep these youngsters( and the not so young) in the sport and coming back for more.
The 2012/2013 summer programme will commence sometime around Labour Weekend. A meeting will soon be called to organise this year’s programme. We need your help so that our track cycling programme is set in place and we get to see more Bike Manawatu track cyclists going for it in the near future on the world stage.
Bon voyage
Paul van Velthooven
by Vaughan Hunt | Jul 5, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
How satisfying it must be for all those involved in the Bike Manawatu Schools Cycling to get the stellar results across all grades last weekend in Cambridge at the North island Secondary Schools Cycling Championships.
Congratulations to the riders, their parents and supporters, the teaching staff, coaches and the organisers of schools riding in this region.
The names of all our successful riders are too many to mention for fear of leaving out one of our young stars. But what is most encouraging was the names of “ new stars” appearing on the winner’s rostrum and the fact that so many of our riders filled the top places in what were very big fields, in excess of 80 riders in most cases.
The Under 15 boys were exceptional. I have to mention this grade. The results of this race were staggering and beyond belief for the PNBHS team.
And for PNBHS to win the trophy for overall school by such a commanding margin…….daylight was second……or was that Mr O’Connor’s new school from Auckland ?
The National Schools Championships are to be held here in Levin and Feilding in the third term. Our schools are really looking strong for a swag of national titles and placings. Keep up the good work.
It just goes to show, how a balanced well thought out structure that provides good hard competitive racing for all ages and abilities over a dedicated season, can yield the rewards.
The challenge for Bike Manawatu is now to have a clear pathway for these young riders and to retain them in the sport and the senior riding ranks when they reach adulthood. Clearly competitive cycling , and success at regional and national level is an important aspect of a successful club. We need to emulate the results being achieved at junior level at the senior level, by also having a structure and programme that encourages and attracts riders to race competitively.
The Board has a vision and ideas around how this might be achieved.
The future is looking bright.
Paul van Velthooven
Chairman
by Paul van Velthooven | Jun 21, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
Well done Matt van Wagtendonk on your award from the BikeNZ BRT Award ceremony in Christchurch last weekend. Matt has received the Volunteer Long Service Award for his services to the promotion and growth of cycling in our region over a number of years.
Matt and his family arrived here around 2004 from memory and immediately he got himself involved with cycling helping out at club level racing both Saturday road and Feilding track. His sons Sjord and Luuk were very keen, able young riders and have also contributed in many ways over the years both on and off the bike. Janneke was a long time committee member of Feilding Club and an original Board member of the present club.Young Mees also tried cycling but he wisely preferred golf.
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by Paul van Velthooven | May 25, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
What a great day for Bike Manawatu last Sunday at the Laskey’s 6 Hour Relay. By all accounts over 400 cyclists took part.Well done to those who thought up the idea, planned it ,organised it and ran a wonderful day for cyclists of all ages and abilities.I understand that it was a plan hatched by the former Masters Club with Mike Keenan instrumental in that, the challenge to organise and plan for this years event fell largely onto Mike Christie and he had the support and back up of Mike McRedmond .Dave Douglas , Glenys and others were also very much involved. Give yourself a big pat on the back because this event really ticked all the boxes.
Thank you on behalf of the club. Thanks also to all the sponsors and in particular Kevin Laskey who supported this event from the outset.
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by Vaughan Hunt | Apr 27, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
‘The heart of NZ cycling’
As Chairman of Bike Manawatu I can scarcely believe that this is only the second report presented to our Club AGM. So much has happened in our brief history and so much has been achieved.
Last year, soon after the AGM, the new Board met at a special strategy meeting where we agreed and moved that the new vision for the Club is “to be the heart of cycling in New Zealand”. You may or may not have noticed that since then both Destination Manawatu and Vision Manawatu, along with the City Council and Manawatu District, have adopted a regional strategy which states their vision as being “to be the best place in New Zealand to ride a bike”.
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by Paul van Velthooven | Mar 8, 2012 | Board Chair's Blog
What a fantastic week that was for our young Bike Manawatu cyclists in Invercargill at the age group nationals representing West Coast North Island. By all accounts, the whole team performed remarkably on and off the track and came home with a host of medals. The WCNI team ended up 4th on the ladder behind the big centres of Southland , Auckland and Canterbury. Those Centres were heavily represented in the Masters categories….WCNI had only one rider in that group!!!!
Special mention should be made of Michaela Drummond with 4 gold medals in the U15 Girls. They could not touch Michaela for speed. We see evidence of her speed at Johnston park every Tuesday night over summer. Campbell Stewart won 3 gold medals and one silver…the Southland boys tried everything to block Campbell but he has too much racing nous and of course he has the gas. And of course big sister Kate ….despite a huge workload where she entered virtually every available U17 girls event from sprint to points to scratch plus teams events , Kate came home with 2 gold medals, 2 silver and a bronze.Incredible…she will be sleeping well this week!
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