Kerry Harford Race Report 6

Hi All

Free wifi at the velodrome so this is hot off the press. News is all bad. The TT was good, lowered my PB by a second and generally went well coming 13th which was the first half of the field. This was used as a good hitout for the pursuit this morning NZ time.
The pursuit wasn't very good, 5th the same as last year but the time was very slow 3.39, way below what I had been training at and way below my PB, and I am not sure quite why. Rode Ok but needed a calendar to time myself, lost two seconds on the last lap when I thought I was lifting the pace.
As a positive I will now be able to watch the soaps on TV tonight with all german dubbing.

Kerry

Saturday Race 30th October 2010

Race Circuit: Tuki Valley
Venue: Haumoana School
Registration: from 1pm (pay your $3 and be registered before your race start) Race start time: 2pm Race Starter: Gavin Bush and Don Kennedy Race Day Emergency Phone: 0274266895

Interested in Being a Race Starter?

One of things we all love about Ramblers is that we are able to race all year round… on almost EVERY Saturday we can join a club race.
This does mean that we need volunteers as race starters for every weekend.
Sometimes our hard working committee need a break.
If you are interested in being a race starter, please let us know. You will receive training and support and everyone in the club will be grateful to you.
Please email expressions of interest to info@ramblers.co.nz or talk to one of your committee.

B.R. Turfrey Plumbers Ltd Tour de Beautiful Central Hawkes Bay

It's that time of year again to take part in a beautiful and challenging fun ride catering for all abilities with different length courses through picturesque countryside in Central Hawkes Bay. Exciting spot prizes including the chance to win a new Ford Fiesta car. Entries will be excepted Saturday 4:00pm to 6:00pm and Sunday morning 7:30am to 8:30am at the CHB College Hall Svenson Rd.
Cut and paste this URL to enter online
http://www.coolrunning.co.nz/races/tourchb/

Thanks again to our Committee

Monthly meetings, organising and running races and events, policies review and development, the logo and uniform, race programmes, liaising with other clubs, rider development; our committee do a lot of behind-the-scenes work to ensure Ramblers success.
Thank you Gavin Bush (Chair), Don Kennedy, Mark Coombe (Treasurer), Tony Hartley, Ken MacKenzie, Dean Clifford, Roy van Panhuys, Rob Oliver and Hilary Green (Club Captain) for your ongoing and often unseen work to enable the club to be the success it is.

Message from Butch Allen

“I'm a Havelock North resident who has friends flying to NZ on the weekend of Dec 4-5 and are seeking to rent road bikes for a 100K scouting trip of the Ironman Taupo course. Obviously bike shops, don't rent road bikes but everyone recommended we contact Ramblers for suggestions. They are seeking two 58cm bikes and are very willing to rent, put down full value cash deposit, etc. but unfortunately cannot bring their own bikes for a myriad of reasons.”
If you are willing to help a couple of fellow bikers in need out, please contact Butch at butch@akcenter.org

Mountain Bike Workshops: 6-7 November

A reminder to those interested that there are still places available in workshops by Jacquie Phelan. All enquiries/applications/payments to attend these workshops can be posted to or dropped of to Vicki at BikeHB. Postal
Address: Bike HB, PO Box 7537, Taradale, Napier 4141 or in person to SportHB, Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale.

Upcoming events around the country

30th October: K2
20th November: Hamilton City Cycling Club Open and Fun Ride.
21st November: Hampton Downs Cycling Festival.
27th November: Round Taupo Challenge
23 January 2011: Bill Turfrey Plumbers Tour de Beautiful Central Hawkes Bay
13-19 February 2011: Lion Foundation Wellington to Auckland Cycle Challenge.
26-27 March 2011: The Ultimo Central Hawkes Bay 2 Day Junior Tour

Fraser Gough in Pure Black Racing U23 Squad

Pure Black Racing has announced squads ahead of Tour of Southland next week.
Read full article http://www.endurancesport.co.nz/story.cfm?id=59616

PureBlack Racing 2011 UCI US Continental Tour Squad
Glen Chadwick Captain
Michael Torckler
Daniel Barry
Michael Northey
Scott Lyttle
James Williamson
Roman Van Uden
Shem Rodger
Taylor Gunman
Mark Langlands
James McCoy

PureBlack Racing U23 and U19 Squad
Scott Creighton U23
Fraser Gough U23
James Oram U23
Dion Smith U23
Nick Sutton U23
Nick Hand U23
James Northey U19
Alex Ray U19

Offical Pure Black Racing Website (Click on splash page to enter) http://www.pureblackracing.com/

Kerry Race Report 4

Bit of racing going on here. The Final of the European stayers Championships was exciting to watch. The Swiss won but the papers claimed the Germans where paid to take a dive and the Swiss winner didn't like the crowds attitude, I was there and it all looked above board to me. Eight stayer motorbikes with riders roaring round Alkmaar track was an impressive site, the final was a one hour race at speeds of around 70kph, both stayer and riders looked pretty sore at the finish.

Our turn to race on Tuesday night. I raced the open omnium consisting of points, scratch, miss and out, mystery distance and a race where only the first two across the line each lap get points. I seem to have made the mystery distance my specialist event, sadly it is not on the World champs program next week. I came third in the omnium, which is an overall for the five events. There was a couple of races on the program for stayers. I resisted the temptation to enter, anyway I didn't bring my stayer bike over to Europe.

Also spent a night at the Amsterdam six day event. Six days of track racing under disco lights and DJs stirring the crowd up. At half time we were even “entertained” by some short fat Dutchman who sang songs about Amsterdam and windmills. Anyway the riders played up to the crowd, in the sprint events the Dutch cleaned out the American team and lots of beer and frites were consumed.

You had to be impressed by the skill level displayed by the riders, the interesting thing was a few of the riders are the same ones I train with on Thursday nights group sessions, young kids get to train and interact with the stars of the sport which can only be inspiring to them. I have no idea how it is possible to to hear riders attacking or communicate between teams when Lady Ga Ga is doing her thing over the speaker system.

I have been listening to a lot of Irish Folk & Country music lately. Its not that I enjoy it or even can stomach it, its what Mrs Hopman puts on the stereo. I suspect that she does this to get me out of the house, and I have to admit that after half an hour of hearing about the green fields of Ireland I'm only too happy to head out into the wind, rain and cold weather and ride my bike for hours.

John Cleese once said of Palmerston North that he thoroughly recommended going there if you were contemplating suicide but lacked that final push to end it all. I now can offer a cheaper alternative than driving all that way through the Gorge, and all for the cost of a simple CD.

Of course I understand that some people do enjoy this type of music and I don't wish to offend anyone but there is a lucrative market out there that can be exploited and I have been thinking how to tap into this. The good news is that all these songs follow a rigid pattern with their lyrics, and it would appear that as long as you stick strictly to this pattern you can pretty much sit back and watch for the royalty checks to start appearing in your mail box. All songs sing of a poor orphaned blind Irish boy who gets deported on a convict ship to Australia, discovers when he gets there that the pub has no beer and then for no properly explained reason dies in prison. Its as simple as that.
So next time you feel a strange urge to marry your sister and move to Taranaki, write a country music song and make some money.

All Good here.

Kerry Harford Race Report 5

Kerry's Report 4 seems to be lost in transit, will track down and post asap -

Training all done. Now a case of getting down to Portugal for the track familiarisation and then the racing which begins Tuesday the 26th. The program for me is; Tuesday 750m time trial, Wednesday 3000m pursuit heats and final, Thursday 10km scratch heats and final, Friday and Saturday is the sprints and last day is the 20km Points race heats and final. There is also the team sprints held throughout the week as well.

I'm really only interested in the “endurance” events, the pursuit, scratch and points races, with the other two on the program to keep me out of the Pub.

At one stage we were considering driving down to Portugal through Europe but that has been canned and we are taking the two hour flight. The drive would have been impossible anyway as the Communist surrender monkeys who are sometimes known to themselves as the French, are all on strike and there is no petrol to be bought at the pumps, hence you can't drive through France.

The idle French workers are all upset because the government has pointed out that the country is going broke, because everyone is on strike and do stuff all anyway if they did decide to check out what their workplace looks like from the inside. Not taking this provocative insult lying down, the workers decided their best option was to go on strike. Even the idle French farmers are out, some refusing to jump in their flash new tractors and go down to the bank to cash their European subsidy cheques for not planting maize or not planting grain.

The nation as a whole can now turn their attention to far more pressing things like working out ways to disqualify any foreign cyclist who dares finish ahead of the first Frenchman at the Tour. By my count that will probably be most of them. The only positive thing I can say about the French is that they helped clear some much needed wharf space in the Auckland harbour basin circa 1985.

I have been outside riding on the roads in Holland and it is slightly un-nerving. For a start the motorist seem “extremely reluctant” to kill you. Coming from New Zealand, the law that cars give way to bikes crossing the road on bike paths is disconcerting, as is their courtesy and willingness to share the road. Not that you really need to ride on the roads as hot mix bike paths are everywhere and are far smoother to ride than anything in NZ. A quarter of the sixteen million Dutch claim to ride their bikes every day so I guess that's a lot of votes.

The law here is that if a car bowls a cyclist its the cars fault unless proven otherwise. You can't have it always though, if a cyclist bowls a pedestrian its the cyclist fault unless proven otherwise, this makes a lot of sense.
Anyway am looking forward to the warmer weather and the delights of the home of Port.

All good here.

Ramblers Steal Open Womens Silver at National Team Time Trials

The newly formed team of Ashleigh Neave, Hannah Van Kampen, Hayley Davis and Megan Watson had a great race to take the Silver Medal in today's Nationals Team Time Trials in Hamilton.

With one senior and 3 junior riders and having had only one practice ride they managed an average speed of just under 40km/hr over the 40km course and finished 1:40 behind the winners Counties Manakau (Rachel Larner, Toni Bradshaw, Marion Webb and Mel Bourke).
Bronze medal winners Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Clubs Laura Gretton, Brittany Thompson, Courtney Grenfell and Maddie Brunton finished 2:50 further back.
The Mens Open was won by Counties Manakau (Nick Lovegrove, Karl Murray, Aaron Strong and Gordon McCauley)who covered the 40km course in 50:48.88.

Ex Rambler David Joyce showed that he is coming back to form with his Forestland Wheelers Tokoroa team finishing first in the Masters 2 event.
Click Here for Full Results from BikeNZ

SATURDAY RACE 23rd October 2010

Race Circuit: Clive Criterium
Venue: please note, this course has no venue so bring plenty of water, and please use public facilities in Clive Village
Registration: from 1pm (pay your $3 and be registered before your race start) Race briefing: on the line

Race start times:
G Grade: 1:15pm (15 minutes + 3 laps)
F Grade: 1:35pm (15 minutes + 3 laps)
E Grade: 1:55pm (20 minutes + 3 laps)
D Grade: 2:20pm (20 minutes + 3 laps)
C Grade: 2:45pm (20 minutes + 3 laps)
B Grade: 3:15pm (20 minutes + 3 laps)
A Grade: 3:45pm (20 minutes + 3 laps)


Race Starter: Ken Mackenzie
Race Day Emergency Phone: 0274266895

This race will be run as a true criterium. That is, first across the line wins.
There will be no sprint points.

TOUR OF THE BAY - HUGE THANKS TO OUR ORGANISERS, VOLUNTEERS & HELPERS

A lot of work goes into this event in the months preceding ‘the day’. Thanks to Vicki Butterworth of BikeHB and to Ramblers volunteer Ken MacKenzie who co-organised the event this year. Thanks to our committee, especially Gavin Bush for supporting them. Also particular thanks to all Ramblers members and families who assisted in the week before, or over the weekend.
With rider numbers equaling last year, you helped to make an enjoyable day for many people.

MEDIA RELEASE: TRACK CYCLING STARS TO SUPPORT UNISON VELODROME BID AT HAWKES BAY A&P SHOW ON FRIDAY

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Alison Shanks and Hawke’s Bay’s silver medal winning cyclist Westley Gough will be the stars of the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show on Friday. The two shining lights of New Zealand cycling will be showing their support for the Hawke’s Bay Unison Velodrome bid by riding stationery training bikes and signing autographs at the MORE FM site from noon.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Trust chair Lawrence Yule said it was extremely exciting to have the backing of Alison Shanks and Westley Gough, who had pledged their support for the Unison Velodrome bid before leaving for Delhi.
“We would encourage Hawke’s Bay people to come to the site to show their support for Alison and Westley and for the Velodrome bid.” Mr Yule said it would be the first opportunity for Hawke’s Bay fans to get a glimpse of the Commonwealth Games medals won by the two track cyclists.

Alison Shanks was the first athlete to win gold at the Games in Delhi, taking out the 3000m individual pursuit. Westley Gough won silver in the team pursuit.
While Westley was well known in the Bay, 27 year old Alison Shanks had also recently spent time here, spending a week training in Hawke’s Bay as part of her build up to overseas competition. Her partner and coach Craig Palmer is also originally from Hawke’s Bay. Mr Yule said the public campaign to show the decision makers that Hawke’s Bay is the most suitable place for the Velodrome will be revealed this Friday at the Show.

Mr Yule said Hawke’s Bay’s bid ticked all the boxes to be the home of a velodrome and “stands out” as the only suitable option and it was now important that the community showed its strong support. “Hawke’s Bay has the best climate, the best cycling terrain and cycling routes and two of the strongest cycling clubs in New Zealand. We now just need to show the Government that the people of Hawke’s Bay really want the Unison Velodrome,” he said.

Hawke’s Bay’s fundraising campaign is also ahead of the other regions’ bidding with over $4.5 million committed including $1m from Unison as naming rights sponsor. The Unison Velodrome is estimated to cost about $15m and will cater for riders from elite levels to recreational riders. It will be built to international specifications and the inner area will be used for netball, tennis and futsal. It is estimated that the Velodrome would generate $4.5 million in its first five years of operation.