Quick Release v1.12
CHRISTMAS BREAK
The BikeNZ office in Wellington will be officially closed from 12pm, Wednesday 24th December 2003 until 9am, Monday 5th January 2004. For urgent matters, Geoff Campbell and Anna-Lisa Parsons (MTB) will still be available via e-mail.
Questions about the 2004 National MTB race season should be directed to Anna-Lisa on 021 758 747 or at anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
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## LATEST NEWS ##
100 YEARS YOUNG
Life Member of Cycling New Zealand Norm "Robbie" Robinson, will be celebrating his 100th birthday on the 31 December 2003. Norm is only one of the two surviving executive members of the then New Zealand Amateur Cycling Assn that was formed in 1933.
Congratulations to Norm for reaching this tremendous milestone.
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$1.2 MILLION TO SUPPORT NZ'S TOP COACHES
Sport and Recreation Minister Trevor Mallard said a record 86 Prime Minister's Coach Scholarships have been awarded to support high performance coaches next year.
Trevor Mallard said the Scholarships are a significant resource to ensure that professional development opportunities for coaches actually happen."This government is committed to nurturing sporting excellence in New Zealand and it's heartening to see coaches recognised for their hard work and vision for the future," Trevor Mallard said."Coaches play a critical, and too often criticised, role in the success of our athletes and sports teams. Investing in coaches is a smart way to enhance our top athletes of tomorrow."
The Prime Minister's High Performance Coach Scholarship programme, in its third year, helps New Zealand's high performance coaches gain the knowledge and experience needed to inspire our potential sporting stars of tomorrow.
Kerry Hill (Athletics), Terry Gyde (BikeNZ), Erik du Vander (Equestrian), Shane Scott (Men's Golf), Paul Derham (Hockey), Judith Hamilton (Rowing), Robbie Wyatt (Squash), Jenny Rose (Triathlon), and Shelley Duncan (Women's Golf) each receive scholarships of $50,000.
The government has committed $1.2million to the programme this year, with the remaining 77 scholarships worth up to $10,000 each.
BikeNZ would like to congratulate the winners of the Prime Minister's scholarship's including the following coaches; Terry Gyde, Tim Carswell, Graham Bunn, John Lee, William Rastrick.
CYCLE SMART @ MARLOW PARK
Donated by Fulton Hogan Dunedin and situated on Dunedin City Council land, this facility is proving to be very popular. The site is built to resemble a miniature roading system, complete with a roundabout, speed humps, miniature give-way and stop signs and a pedestrian crossing.
Opened at the start of National Kidsafe Week in October 2003, the site is now being used heavily every day, either by the general public, school groups or early childhood centres.
In a commendable show of community spirit, Fulton Hogan Dunedin chose to become the sponsor of this site. Working together with a team set up by the Dunedin City Council, including representatives from Sport Otago, Road Safe
Southern and the local Police, a design was created that aimed to provide many common elements found on our roads. By situating this area in a nice quiet spot, free from distractions, the hope of the team is that children will have the time and space to learn not only road safety but also how to ride a bike properly.
Although this site is generally for public use, the site can be booked for instruction sessions.
For more information please contact Jess Townshend on j.townshe@dcc.govt.nz
BIG NIGHT FOR YOUNG MOUNTAIN BIKER - 18 November 2003
By Scott Preston - Marlborough Express
There was not much downhill mountainbiker Justin Leov did not get yesterday.
He got the car sponsorship deal earlier in the day. He got the Marlborough Sportsperson of the Year trophy at last night's Marlborough
Express-Blenheim Round Table awards dinner at Anchor Stadium 2000, plus a return domestic airfare from Air New Zealand. He also got the girls - in the form of guest speakers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindells."Definitely sandwiched between the Evers-Swindells," he said when questioned which was better - winning the trophy or posing for photos with the world champion rowing twins?
"I got a few kisses," he said, plus a trophy. "I got everything."
The 19-year-old was the youngest athlete to win the Sportsperson of the Year award since cyclist Jason Allen in 2000 and created history as the first-ever mountainbiker to win the supreme award, following his Most Promising Under 21 athlete award win in 2002.
For the complete article, click the following link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/marlboroughexpress/0,2106,2730733a6008,00.html
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## GENERAL INFORMATION ##
NEWS FROM NZ MASTERS
Masters cycling is all about fun and enjoying the sport, though many of our members are very serious about their fun.
Two big events coming up in the new year are the South Pacific Masters Games at Hamilton in February and the Trans Tasman Masters Games to be held on Auckland's North Shore from 20th to 27th March.
The Trans Tasman Games have previously been held at Newcastle Australia but from now on will be held in alternate years on the North Shore, thanks to a lot of spade work by Bruce (Goldy) Goldsworthy.
For information on either event contact Alan Messenger alan.messenger@xtra.co.nz <mailto:alan.messenger@xtra.co.nz> or per phone 07 843 6912.
Other major Masters events coming up in the new year are the Hawkes Bay Masters tour and the National Masters Road Championships to be held at Te Awamutu at Easter.
SPARC REVITALISATION STRATEGY
BikeNZ has been classified by SPARC as a Revitalisation Sport. This means that SPARC has recognised the potential cycling possesses and are willing to assist BikeNZ with realising this potential through working to enable a step change in our performance. BikeNZ is presently negotiating with SPARC regarding how they as the national agency for sport and recreation can assist with ensuring we establish ourselves as a sustainable business that has real capacity to service the member organisations we now embrace
(Mountain Bike NZ, Cycling NZ, Cycling Advocates Network, BMXNZ, NZ Schools Cycling, and NZ Masters Cycling).
For further information email Rodger Thompson on rodger@bikenz.org.nz
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COMMERCIALISATION PLAN NEXT STEP
In the New Year, a priority project for BikeNZ will be the production of a Commercialisation Plan. BikeNZ recently launched a 4-year Strategic Plan through to 2008 that represents ambitious but realistic targets that all member organisations have inputted to. The next step is to identify revenue generation opportunities through our operations, be these internally (participation events, membership drives) or externally (sponsorship, strategic alliances with government agencies, charitable trust funding etc). The plan has been set in place, the infrastructure is now being built and the next step is to secure diverse and long-term revenue streams.
Challenging but exciting times ahead for BikeNZ considering the marketable and saleable products it now embraces.
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SPARC CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT
BikeNZ is presently working with SPARC to complete a Capability Assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to review all aspects of BikeNZ's operations and identify areas where SPARC can enable BikeNZ's development through providing tools and best practice information. "We're very positive about the support SPARC are providing", said BikeNZ chief executive Rodger Thompson. "Running through the Capability Assessment Tool has basically identified where our priorities sit in working to set ourselves up as a sustainable business. It has also been good in that SPARC are dead clear as to where BikeNZ is presently at with our development and what start up areas require priority support".
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ROTORUA CLUBS COMBINE
After a few years of division within the Rotorua cycling fraternity, common sense has prevailed with the formation of a new Club - Cycling Rotorua Inc.The new club has been formed from members of the Rotorua Cycling Club and Velo Sports. The interim secretary is Trevor Johns, whose details were previously listed as Velo Sports. We wish the new club well in their endeavours to grow the sport in Rotorua.
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SITE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SUPERVISORS
Organisers of cycle events will be familiar with the term STMS.Hats off to Trevor Johns of the newly formed Cycling Rotorua club, who organised a STMS course at no cost to the participants. Recently 11 members from the Waikato Centre plus one ring in from Wellington passed the course to become qualified as an STMS. With the charges some STMS people levy cycle clubs, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it makes economical sense for clubs to have members with STMS qualifications within their ranks.
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## RACE NEWS ##
NORTH ISLAND BMX CHAMPS
A great result from the Senior and Mighty 11 test teams. Well done to all the riders, the management and coaching personnel. The last time the senior side was successful was at Waitakere in 1998. The thrilling racing kept everybody well and truly entertained.
But the sport can not rest on its laurels. The Aussies sent their youngest ever senior side here, so I suspect our senior riders will be in for a much tougher time when they return to Tamworth next June.
Cambridge Club provided superb facilities for the weekend and the Volunteer officials from throughout the country did a great job in running a well-organised meeting. Thank you to everybody.
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# MAJOR EVENTS UPDATE #
SUBARU NATIONAL MTB SERIES - 2004
RELOCATION CONFIRMED
Due to the installation of a new express quad chairlift at the Cardrona Ski Resort, downhill rounds 4 and 5 have been relocated to Queenstown. Both events will still take place on the same dates, namely Wednesday 18th and Saturday 21st February.
Since the announcement of the new lift at Cardrona, Nigel Kerr, Cardrona's Marketing Manager, Sue Rose, Regional Event Organiser (REO) and local riding legend Tony Moore from Queenstown, have been flat out organising an alternative using the tracks local to the Wanaka / Queenstown area. They were aware that many people had already committed to travel and accommodation. As a result, an venue 1km from Queenstown has been secured. Further details will be sent to pre-entered riders in their race packs as a supplement to the content in the series handbooks.
"It is shorter notice than we would normally like to organise an event", said Tony Moore, "but we are confident that we can produce an exciting and enjoyable event. It will be short but technically interesting courses with several man made features incorporated into the natural terrain".
Cardrona will be reopen for mountain biking in 2005. Although many riders will be disappointed with the field closure this summer, the pay-back in 2005 will be a much faster ride to the top - faster in fact than most people can ride down the course.
For more information please contact: Anna-Lisa Parsons, 04 916 0061, 021 758 747,
anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
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BMX NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS FORMAT CHANGE
BMX NZ has been successful in securing a third UCI points round for New Zealand this season - out of the 10 available in the Oceania region.It will be run as part of the National Championships at Easter weekend.
This is great for the future of the sport as we start gearing up to Olympic qualification, but it will mean some changes to the format for the National Championships. This will only affect Junior and Elite 20 inch class riders.As a UCI designated competition the points round will have to use the UCI format of three qualifying motos and then the transfer system into deadman semis and finals.
How we work this into the traditional National Champs format has not been worked out yet! But it will happen.
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WORLD BMX CHAMPS 2004
Ian Mackie has accepted an appointment by the UCI as the Chief Commissaire for the World Championships in Holland in 2004. Congratulations Ian.
For those planning on going to Europe information is available on www.bmxworlds2004.com <http://www.bmxworlds2004.com/>
The track which is already in use for major meetings looks nice and technical, although the Pre-Worlds facility appears to be a bit "old school" with too many flat sections requiring too much peddling!
For those planning to go, you probably need to be in Europe a week before the Pre-Worlds to get over jet-lag, travel tiredness etc.
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# BikeNZ CONTACT INFORMATION #
BikeNZ Administrator Marilyn Northcotte office@bikenz.org.nz
MTB NZ Administrator Anna-Lisa Parsons anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
Sport Development Officer Geoff Campbell geoff@bikenz.org.nz
National Track Coach Kurt Innes kurtinnes@aol.com
Overseas Training Centre Coach Jacques Landry jlandrybikenz@aol.com
High Performance Director Warren Lister warren@bikenz.org.nz
Chief Executive Officer Rodger Thompson rodger@bikenz.org.nz
# SUBSCRIBE TO QUICK RELEASE #
If you wish to subscribe to the Quick Release mailing list, or change or
remove your details, please e-mail Anna-Lisa on manna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
# SPONSORS & MAJOR FUNDERS #
SPARC *** www.sparc.org.nz
NZ Academy of Sport *** www.nzas.org.nz
NZ Community Trust *** www.nzct.org.nz
