Huge achievement for cyclist
Local cyclist Madi HartleyBrown from Pahiatua competed at the Elite Men’s New Zealand Nationals on Sunday, January 6 and was one of only three U23 riders to finish.
There were around 80 riders in the peleton with only 25 managing to finish, which included Madi.
“That’s a pretty huge achievement,” said Kevin Laskey of Laskeys Cycles in Pahiatua.
“They did a big circuit, then eight times around a small circuit. When the leaders passed the next group, that group had to pull out. To not get lapped-out at his age is a very, very good result,” he said.
Laskey had coached HartleyBrown in the past but he has stepped up a grade. He has left school and is trying to go professional as a cyclist. He is under professional coach Steve Stanard who has a couple of World Tour cyclists to his credit.
Hartley-Brown holds a couple of national titles he won under the coaching of Laskey.
On January 5 at the nationals circuit at Napier Fergus Lloyd, a U17 rider from Palmerston North, rode the Tineli Grand Fondo. He has been coached by Laskey for nearly a year.
“He is making steady progress, improving at this stage, with goals being set this year — it will be his second year in U17,” he said.
Laskey gives mentoring and training advice to achieve consistency, balance, nutrition and support with some element of fun.
“Teenage boys don’t listen to their parents, so having someone like me guiding them as more of a friend is actually quite good for them. It’s quite beneficial long term, with someone completely different influencing their lives.
“I’ve been there and done it. I’m trying to help them learn quicker. We didn’t have cyclists in this area 20 years ago, so everything I did I had to work out for myself — food, nutrition. It took me seven years of racing hard to figure out how to be consistent — with my diet, training, lifestyle and weekends.
“When you wanted to be good at an event, you had to rule out all those inconsistencies in your life to know that you were going to perform on that weekend.”