Champion coach joins Cycling NZ
Cycling New Zealand’s new sprint coach is former Olympic Games and world champion rider Rene Wolff.
The German, who won a gold medal in the team sprint at the 2004 Olympics, replaces Anthony Peden, who resigned following the Commonwealth Games amid allegations of bullying, drinking and an inappropriate relationship with an athlete.
Wolff has spent the past eight years working in the Netherlands’ sprint programme, where he mentored Olympic and world champions Teun Mulder, Elis
Ligtlee, Jeffrey Hoogland and
Matthijs
Buchli.
He coached for Thuringen in Germany from 2007 before becoming the Dutch national coach in 2010 and moved to the role as high performance manager for the Netherlands Olympic Committee last year.
‘‘Rene has a successful background in coaching at the highest level of the sport and a thorough understanding of all aspects of sprint coaching,’’ Cycling NZ high performance director Martin Barras said.
‘‘We received strong interest from around the globe for this role, which is understandable given the status of our men’s sprint programme in particular.’’
‘‘We are keen to see our leading riders progress and grow, and at the same time establish our development in sprint cycling, working with our performance hubs with our emerging talent and young coaches.
‘‘Rene’s success in the Netherlands, in particular, included a strong emphasis on team culture which he believes is a core component of any success.’’
Wolff’s first assignments will be next month’s World Cup competitions in France and Canada.