Young mountainbikers’ collective off to Europe
A team dedicated to helping young athletes compete internationally has headed overseas.
The Kiwi MTB Collective is a cross-country mountainbike (MTB XC) group of 13 people aged between 16 and 23.
Sponsored by Talley’s Group, the collective was started by Riwaka-based team manager Scott Woods and existed to help young athletes progress to an international stage.
This week, Woods will accompany 10 riders to Europe for six months to compete in events such as the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) world series, which Woods called the ‘‘Formula One’’ of mountainbiking.
‘‘They’ll be going to events in a range of countries. Each race will have 100 to 140 riders, the best in the world,’’ he said.
Members of ‘‘Team Talley’s’’ included Woods’ son, Ethan Woods, who was the South Island under-17 mountainbike XC race national champion last year.
Woods said the driving force behind starting a cycling collective was that his son didn’t want to spend five months alone with his father while travelling for the UCI world cup and other international competitions.
‘‘Five months is a long time for a 16-year-old to be with his dad.’’
Woods is a mountainbiker with 35 years’ experience. The idea came to him to involve other riders to form a UCI-registered collective for young riders wanting to race internationally.
Via Facebook, Woods sent a message inquiring if anybody would be interested in forming a collective. He got a huge response, he said, with a large number of people applying. Only 13 spots could be filled.
For many athletes wanting to go overseas and compete during the pandemic, the hardest part was logistics, Woods said.
During the next six months, Woods would take care of the dayto-day issues, handling transportation, cooking, and accommodation while the athletes trained and competed. ‘‘I’m a little bit worried about the cooking.’’
This would be the first year the team had travelled away. Covid-19 had caused ‘‘constant changes’’, with the vehicle transport suddenly being cancelled because Peugeot no longer makes the van they had booked.
‘‘Of course, it’s not just people we’re transporting – bikes take massive space.’’
Talley’s sponsorship would cover accommodation, transport, and race fees, leaving riders to fundraise for airfares and insurance and supply their own bikes.
Many of the younger athletes would do distance learning while overseas, and others had put jobs and study on hold to participate. ‘‘It’s a big undertaking by them.’’