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Quick Release v1.0
Welcome to the first edition of Quick Release.
This bi-monthly newsletter provides all members, partners and sponsors with
the most up to date news and information regarding BikeNZ operations.


## LATEST NEWS ##

ORGANISATIONAL MERGER & RESTRUCTURE CONTINUES
The BikeNZ Board are set to meet 2 December in Auckland to consider the
final actions required in merging and restructuring the management tiers of
the 6 national cycling organisations being embraced (Cycling NZ, MTBNZ,
BMXNZ, NZ Schools Cycling, NZ Masters Cycling and the Cycling Advocates
Network (CAN)). BikeNZ chief executive, Rodger Thompson, will outline a
business case that will detail final structural changes to be undertaken in
creating a 9-person professional staffing structure that is planned for
being fully operational by end February 2004. "The Board is well aware of
the importance of our first year of operations in developing a track record
of delivering", said Thompson, "BikeNZ's currently signing off year 1
agreements with our member organisations and we must deliver, end of
story".
For further information, contact Rodger Thompson on rodger@bikenz.org.nz
*****

NEW UCI CHAMPION
At the UCI World Masters Championships held in Austria, 27 - 31 August, 61
year old Aucklander, Tom Bricklebank won the 20 km Time Trial in the 60 -
65 age group. Tom won in a time of 26m14s, to win his category by 25
seconds. He has made a habit of beating riders, years his junior, for a
long time and his win was made more remarkable by the fact that he broke
his pelvis only four moths prior.
*****

ROTORUA HONOURS SPIRIT
The Rotorua Mountain Bike Club was the big winner at the recent Trustpower
"Spirit of Rotorua" Awards
The Awards recognise the contribution of the good work of a wide range of
volunteer organisations in the community. They cover five categories -
Heritage & Environment, Health & Well Being, Art & Culture, Sport &
Leisure, Education & Child or Youth Development.
The Club won the Sport and Leisure category and the overall Supreme Award.
"It was great to receive the category award," said Club Secretary, Graeme
Simpson. "But we were all pretty amazed to win overall, against some strong
competition. This is a fantastic reflection of all the hard work put in by
club members organising events and building and maintaining tracks and the
success of our riders in various events, both in New Zealand and overseas,
over the last year."
Rotorua Mayor, Grahame Hall, and Club President Garry Sullivan both paid
tribute to past president and chairperson of the Rotorua Organising
Committee for the 2006 World Championships, Dave Donaldson. "Dave's been
the driving force behind the Club since it started, as well as the
successful bid for the World Championships," said Gary, at the Awards
dinner on 20 November. "He couldn't be here, tonight, but we're dedicating
this award to him".
While the announcement that Rotorua would host the World Championships in
2006 fell outside this year's Awards period, there's no doubt that it has
created a lot of excitement right across the community. The Club will host
the 2004 Oceania Championships in January, the first step in the 2 and a
half year build up to the Worlds. The Trustpower Spirit Awards are run in
over 20 regions. In March 2004 representatives from all the regional
winners will gather in Marlborough for the announcement of the National
Community awards.
For more information please contact Anna-Lisa on anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
*****

## APPOINTMENTS ##

MORE CANADIANS JOIN THE BikeNZ PELOTON
Kurt Innes and Jacques Landry have been appointed as the National Track and
Overseas Training Centre coaches respectively. Both appointments have been
made on fixed-term contracts through to October 2004 and thus embracing and
focused upon, BikeNZ's 2004 Olympic Campaign. Innes comes to BikeNZ
following 9 years working as a full time cycling coach in Canada and will
now be based out of the Wanganui Cycling Velodrome at Cooks Gardens. BikeNZ
has been fortunate to secure the services of Innes as Head Track Coach as
he brings with him Track Cycling specific experience at World Class Level
since 1997, and prior to this was a member of Canada's National Track
Cycling Team. Landry will head up and manage BikeNZ's new Overseas Training
Centre that is currently being established in Limoux, in the south of
France. After a 13-year career as an international road cyclist, Landry was
employed since 1999 by the Canadian Cycling Association as the national
development coach and brings with him extensive experience in managing and
coaching European based training camp projects.
For further information contact BikeNZ High Performance Director, Warren
Lister on warren@bikenz.org.nz.
*****

## GENERAL INFORMATION ##

UCI RECOGNITION OF CNZ OFFICIALS
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has recognised the importance of
volunteers within our structure, by awarding Brian Kelly, from Tauranga and
Peter van der Loo, from Mosgiel, as "Volunteers of the Year". Brian was
awarded his certificate and UCI Jacket by CNZ President, Wayne Hudson at
the recent National Road Championships, and Peter was awarded his
certificate and UCI jacket at a recent Otago Track Meeting. Congratulations
to both of these well-deserved recipients.
*****

NZ TRACK PREPARATION
Following the appointment of Kurt Innes as National Track Coack, plans are
underway for the establishment of the Wanganui Track base, which will be
implemented from 5th January when Kurt returns to NZ. Major steps have
already been undertaken to network with athletes and coaches ensuring that
the most up to date information is circulated to these key people prior to
the formation of the 2004 National Track Team programme.
One of the first tasks for the programme will be to prepare the athletes
for the 2004 season, beginning with the Oceania Track Champs in Wangani, 20
- 23 February. The next phase will be to aim for a successful participation
during the Track World Cup season, which will consist of 4 rounds between
February and April. From there the focus will shift to the 2004 World Track
Champs, in Melbourne in May. This event also serves as the final
qualification for the Olympics in Athens.
For more information on the Track Team, contact Kurt Innes on
kurtinnes@aol.com
*****

SPARC FOLLOW UP ON LIABILITY CONCERNS
On November 10th, Wayne Hudson attended a workshop at SPARC on behalf of
BikeNZ and Cycling New Zealand to discuss the issues facing event
organisers in light of Astrid Andersen's recent conviction. Others
attending the workshop included Arthur Klap, Robin Judkins and
representatives of Athletics New Zealand, Sport Northland, Motorsport New
Zealand and Surf Life-Saving.
The issues discussed included the extent of liability for negligence and
criminal nuisance, the need to comply with Transit NZ's code of practice
and Council by-laws when applying for road permits, the extent to which the
Health & Safety Act applies to amateur organisations and volunteers,
compliance with sports organisations' own rules and the types of insurance
cover available for event organisers.
After 3 or 4 hours of internal debate amongst the attendees representatives
of Transit NZ, Local Government NZ, ACC, OSH and the Police joined the
meeting to listen to and comment on the concerns that were raised. Their
attitude was generally positive and they appeared to have a genuine desire
to understand the difficulties faced by event organisers and to help them
overcome those difficulties.
Transit NZ in particular is drafting an amendment to its Code of Practice
to allow traffic management plans for sports and other events using public
roads. It is hoped that a draft of the proposed amendment will be made
available shortly for public comment.
A working paper is also expected to be released by SPARC soon. Following
the implementation of recommendations made in this paper it is hoped that
SPARC and other authorities will be in a position to help make the path
smoother for event organisers in obtaining consents to run events.
However, if one thing is clear, it is that sports organisations and
promoters will need to have their own codes of practice and standards and
require their member to comply with them, if they are to reduce the risk of
being sued or prosecuted for negligence, nuisance and breach of health and
safety regulations.

## RACE NEWS ##

OLYMPIC QUALIFICATIONS
With our recent National Road Championships and the Tour of Southland, NZ
has moved up to be ranked at 23rd in the world, our highest ranking ever.
Qualifications for Athens 2004 will be based on the country's ranking as at
30 April 2004. If NZ is ranked 16 - 25th we qualify for four starters in
the men's road race, 26 - 30th qualifies three riders and outside 30th, no
riders. For more information visit the International Cycling Union website
at www.uci.ch.

Men's Road Rankings as at 9 November 2003
  Points
Julian Dean 45 706
Scott Guyton 410 131
Jeremy Yates 703 57
Fraser MacMaster 754 49
Glen Mitchell 885 34
Heath Blackgrove 894 33
Gordon McCauley 973 27
Hayden Roulston 992 25

*****

BMX NZ RIDERS TRIUMPH
New Zealand BMX riders won all three international test series held at the
weekend as part of the North Island Championships at Cambridge, while
Australian Michael Robinson was the class act of the elite men's individual
racing. Robinson won the opening round of this season's Oceania region UCI
point's series on Saturday and then took out the men's superclass on
Sunday. The junior men's UCI points round was won by Marc Willers, who
along with 16 year old Joel Burke anchored the New Zealand senior team to
victory in the Trans Tasman test series against Australia.
Burke and Willers also finished third and fourth in the men's superclass.
The Kiwi men also won the tri-nations test series which included riders
from Canada as well as Australia.
And to cap off a fine weekend the New Zealand junior team beat the
Australian Mighty 11s with some well managed team tactics over their five
motos. For more information and full results please visit www.bmxnz.co.nz.


# MAJOR EVENTS UPDATE #

2004 NATIONAL MTB RACE SEASON
With summer on the way, mountain bikers all over NZ are gearing up for the
6 round Subaru National MTB Series and the 5 Championship races being held
all over the country from 3rd January - 28 March, 2004.
More information, including the event summary, entry forms and race results
are available from the Mountain Bike NZ website www.mtbnz.org.nz or by
contacting Anna-Lisa at the BikeNZ office (anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz).
*****

MASTERS EVENTS
NZ Masters Assn has recently allocated it's NZ Time Trial and Road
Championships to Te Awamutu and they will be run on the Saturday and Sunday
of Easter 2004. This will be the first time that the Association has run
it's two Premier events together, having previously allocated them
separately in the past. Hopefully the move will encourage more cyclists to
make a weekend of it.
*****

2006 WORLD MTB CHAMPS - UPDATE
"The response by Rotorua citizens, the MTB community, friends, and the
media has simply been overwhelming - literally. I apologise in advance that
it will take me time to reply to the many wonderful expressions of
congratulations and support, as I try to get on with the organisation. Now,
if only I can fit my head into my helmet I might go out for a ride!"
- Dave Donaldson.
After three years of bidding, Rotorua has finally been awarded the World
MTB Champs in 2006. Plans to submit another bid for the 2006 World Marathon
MTB Champs are already underway and if this is also successful, Rotorua
will be preparing for two of the biggest weeks in mountain biking history.
After the positive impression the NZ landscape and scenery has made on the
visiting UCI officials over the last 3 months and with Rotorua's long
standing reputation for running amazing events, there is a high chance the
bid will be successful.
For more information or to be added to the media list contact Anna-Lisa on
anna-lisa@bikenz.org.nz
*****

# 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 anna-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