MAGS Cycling 2010 Report.
2010 was the second year of Road Cycling at MAGS and we were
fortunate to have a good number of riders involved from the
previous year and a number of new riders interested this
year.
Training commenced in early February with meetings down at
the New Lynn Velodrome on Sunday mornings. This is an ideal
venue for riders to safely improve riding skills and have a
bit of fun.
With the number of riders involved in 2010, we were able to
enter one senior boys' team and two junior teams in the
Auckland Secondary School Team Time Trial
held down
at the waterfront for early May to early September. This
event consists of seven races and team of riders, a minimum
of four for senior team and three for junior teams race from
Mechanics Bay to St Heliers and back.
During the race each rider in the team is expected to do
time at the front then drop back to the back working their
way up to the front of the team again as the rider at the
front tires and moves to the back.
This is a very popular event with at least 25 Auckland
Secondary Schools entering over 124 teams, many of them
having been involved in this event for many years and have a
large school and parent support structure.
At the end of the series the Senior Boys finished 18th out
of 29 teams, the Junior Boys A team finishing 21st out of 44
teams and the Junior B team finishing 38th out of 44 teams.
This was an improvement over the 2009 results and a great
achievement given it was only MAGS second year being involved
in this competition. It is difficult to single out any
specific riders but the following should get special mention:
Matt Russell
who was Captain of the Senior
Team and lead from the front and a great role model for all
MAGS Cycling team members.
Lauchie McNoe
who backed up Matt and during
one race crashed heavily yet still picked himself up and
finished the race with a very sore shoulder.
Matt Milner
who despite numerous other
school activities always turned up to ride for the Senior
team.
Sean Pearce
captained the Junior A team for
many of the races. He crashed in Race 6 breaking his collar
bone and tearing the ligaments in his shoulder but was back
four weeks later to support the team and finished Race 7 as
one of the three riders across the finish line.
Callum Elson
also captained the Junior A
team in some races and gave solid support to the team right
through the whole 7 race series.
Thomas Kerby
who was the best performing
?rookie' of 2010 and will be the driving force for the Junior
teams in 2011.
The other event MAGS Cycling was involved in was the
Auckland Secondary School Champs held in the Mt Wellington
area in September. This consisted of an Individual Time
Trial, a Hill Climb and a Criterion race.
MAGS acquitted themselves very well in both the Time Trial
and Hill Climb with the Criterion highlighting where we need
to show improvement in 2011!
No report of any school sport can be made without reference
to the support by both school management and parents.
Getting a new sport established requires considerable time,
commitment and hard work. Fortunately a number of parents
have done a brilliant job getting their sons and daughters
(and other peoples sons and daughters!) to morning training
sessions and race days. Helped get the bikes and riders ready
to race, cheered them on, manned the BBQ, and supported other
parents when things have gone wrong. A number of friendships
among cycling families have been created and this has made
the sport enjoyable. While we have lost some year 13 boys we
are confident existing riders will step up to fill the gaps
created and new riders will come along to grow Cycling at
MAGS.
Bring on 2011!
Tony Pearce
MAGS Cycling Parent Manager
