The country’s top junior track cyclists will descend on Invercargill this week for the first round of the National Track Series. The event will be hosted by Cycling Southland, with racing taking place over three days from Friday at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome at ILT Stadium Southland.
As the first major track event since the track national championships in March this year, riders will be looking forward to renewing friendships and rivalries when they take to the track. However, unlike the National Championships, the NTS series is focussed on the development of riders, rather than the outcome of races.
Race Manager Glen Thomson is thrilled that Invercargill will be hosting the opening round of the event again, as it is a key series for New Zealand’s junior track cyclists.
“It is the breeding ground for our future champions, preparing our young riders for international competition, but doing so in a fun racing environment where the focus is on learning, rather than winning,” he said.
In addition to the racing, the series includes workshops on skills and tactics, presented by national and local coaches.
“It’s all about development, tactical and technical, and is probably the most successful initiative that Cycling New Zealand has implemented in the last couple of years,” said Thomson.
The event will also serve as the culmination of a training camp for the New Zealand Junior World Championships team, with the team spending the week leading up to the event training at the velodrome.
Elyse Fraser of Canterbury is one of the coaches of the Junior World Championships team, and said that the coaches and riders are really looking forward to their training camp.
“It is always great to get the team together for a training camp, and especially when you can do it at an indoor velodrome. The Cycling Southland team have just been so helpful in pulling this together for us, and we are really looking forward to it,” she said.
The racing will kick off in earnest at 5:30pm on Friday, followed by two sessions of racing on Saturday, with the first session starting at 11am, and the evening session at 5pm. The final session will take place from 9am on Sunday.
This weekend’s event is the first in a series of three events, with the second and third rounds taking place at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome in Cambridge later in the year.