Ella Hansen selected for national hub
North Canterbury BMX champ Ella Hansen has been named in Cycling New Zealand’s Schick Civil BMX National Performance Hub team, to be based in Cambridge.
It marks the fifth of seven planned Cycling Performance Hubs to form a network around the country to help sustain the future success of high performance cycling in New Zealand by increasing both the quality and quantity of young riders feeding into the elite tier of the sport.
It follows regional hubs in Waikato-Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Otago-Southland along with a national hub for Mountain Bike in Rotorua.
Former BMX international Matt Cameron is the head coach of the BMX National Performance Hub and will operate from Cycling New Zealand’s base in Cambridge.
Cameron, a former national champion, has a significant background in BMX international competition around the globe, representing New Zealand at UCI World Championships and World Cup Supercross.
‘‘It will be awesome to be able to work with young BMXers to develop future talent. Now this National Hub is up and running, we look forward to seeing if we can transition more riders able to foot it with the best in the world.’’
Cycling New Zealand’s Mountain Bike Performance Hub has made real advances in its first two years, with a Hub rider accounting for nearly a quarter of the ranking points that has seen New Zealand jump from 20th to sixth on the nation world rankings for cross-country last year.
‘‘It shows that the Hubs can make a difference and I would like to see the same effect from our BMX Hub riders in the future,’’ Cameron said.
Hansen, the only South Island rider to be selected, joins 14 other riders from across the North Island.
The BMX National Performance Hub has been realised with the support from Schick Civil Construction, who have a long history in supporting sporting endeavours in New Zealand.
Cycling New Zealand CEO Andrew Matheson said investing in development and performance pathways was a key to securing top talent and continuing to grow New Zealand’s performance outcomes on the world stage,
‘‘We believe these Performance Hubs will be the start of something big,’’ he said.