Chairman’s Blog – The passing of the shortest day

Despite the current ‘cost of living challenges’ facing all community events, Bike Manawatu is 100% committed to ensuring the 51st year of the Novice Tour – once again provides a safe, fun, competitive cycle racing event.

We will adopt a high-quality assured approach in implementing the Local Roading Authority’s/Cycling New Zealand’s ‘Safe Traffic Management System’ (STMS) standards which ensure best practices and rider and spectator safety.

If the level of community funding secured is not sufficient to contract in external road management service providers with the ability to stop/go traffic, the Novice Tour will proceed on a ‘local club racing’ model, whereby our team of trained/experienced road marshals will, where necessary, pause racing in order to give way to traffic and ensure rider safety.

Although funding external road management services with the ability to stop/go traffic is ideal, if this is not feasible – we are confident that the event’s ‘Safe Traffic Management System’ (STMS) will provide a competitive, fair, enjoyable and importantly safe racing environment.

Irrespective of which model of traffic management/racing is finalised, as with all CNZ/Bike Manawatu events, normal road rules will apply and a full rider briefing confirming the event rules will be provided to all riders prior to the start of each race.

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.