School cycling team enters road champs
Cycling renaissance at Horowhenua College
Levin is undergoing a cycling renaissance with athletes from Horowhenua College entering a major secondary schools event for the first time in a decade.
The renewed interest in the sport had been largely led by the enthusiastic young riders themselves, who train together as a team.
The rookie group had been training for more than a year now and are poised to enter their first major event, the Skoda North Island School Road Championships at Cambridge next week.
The team first came together to compete in a six-hour riding event in Feilding in May 2021, but since then had been starved of competition after a series of events they had trained towards were cancelled due to Covid19. They were chomping at the bit to pit themselves against the best riders from some of the biggest schools in the country.
They had also raised $9000 towards uniforms and clothing necessary for competition — skin suits and jackets — while also ordering hoddies listing sponsors’ names. Major sponsors were My Ride, Woodhaven Gardens and Waiopehu Lions.
Some riders had their own bikes,
while others were borrowed from Levin Cycling Club.
The team were coached by Levin Cycling Club’s club captain Richard Horn and Donna Elliott, with help from a large group of parents.
Horowhenua College was extremely fortunate to have former New Zealand Commonwealth Games cycling representative Stephanie McKenzie on the teaching staff too.
McKenzie was only too willing to help out and pass on any knowledge from her experiences as a professional
cyclist, and help with training programmes and indoor training at the school gymnasium.
The 29-year-old said the Cambridge
event would be a massive learning curve and the experience gained from competing at that level would be invaluable.
Horn said Levin was fortunate to have a training track with lights at its fingertips and it was good to see it being utilised for training a lot more.
He hoped more young cyclists would pick up the sport.
Levin had gone through golden eras of popularity in both road cycling and mountainbiking in the past, and for years hosted the annual Sir Bernard Ferguson secondary school event at Koputaroa.
The Horowhenua College team would contest the Team Time Trial and Road Race on July 9, and the Criterium event on July 10.
The Horowhenua College Cyling team is Peter Bartholomew, Hannah Alderton, Minnie Collins, Morgan Swartbooi, Ollie Kennett, Cole Campbell, Johno Clarke.