Not sure but the Canterbury bid consulted all BMX clubs, Downhill, Recreational, XC as well as road and track pointing that all facilities were within 30min of the airport. Hopefully it could mean an greater stimulus to build more tracks and courses for Downhill riders. We were looking at building a International standard BMX track in Christchurch as part of the complex.

There would also be crossover in the sport science support. The sprinters, DH and BMX can all share ideas as can track endurance, road and XC.

I guess it depends on your interests and aspirations wuffy. For the mountainbike side of things they will have a skills area there and will be using the site as a base for conditioning training etc. The thing to realise is that this is a central base for all cycling and that a lot of the practical work will be done down at the Redwoods.
For the average rider, I guess programs developed there can be exported out to the various clubs that are doing rider training.

Oli wrote:

wuffy wrote:What benefits does this Centre of Excellence that caters to all cycling styles offer me, as a mountain biker...?

Surely you need all the help you can get??

Exactly!

My question was hypothetical. I myself am not looking for help, just wondering if it has the potential to help others.

We have a tonne of potential in the youngsters here in Chch and at their level the differences in the needs as far as coaching when you compare Road Cycling and Downhill are pretty big. Half the guys here aged 11-14 are faster than me (not that hard to do , but still) yet I only know a few who have had any coaching or tutoring.

I also see a LOT of young kids ride during the weekend, some notably fast, but they never show up to races, most of the time because they aren't aware of them, which I think is a waste of talent. Especially considering our younger WC guys like Brook MacD are now tearing it up overseas. Shows the potential our guys have for getting up there amongst it, even from a small place like Napier.

wuffy wrote:

Oli wrote:

wuffy wrote:What benefits does this Centre of Excellence that caters to all cycling styles offer me, as a mountain biker...?

Surely you need all the help you can get??

Exactly!

My question was hypothetical. I myself am not looking for help, just wondering if it has the potential to help others.

We have a tonne of potential in the youngsters here in Chch and at their level the differences in the needs as far as coaching when you compare Road Cycling and Downhill are pretty big. Half the guys here aged 11-14 are faster than me (not that hard to do , but still) yet I only know a few who have had any coaching or tutoring.

I also see a LOT of young kids ride during the weekend, some notably fast, but they never show up to races, most of the time because they aren't aware of them, which I think is a waste of talent. Especially considering our younger WC guys like Brook MacD are now tearing it up overseas. Shows the potential our guys have for getting up there amongst it, even from a small place like Napier.

That's why you have things called Clubs (as in groups of people, rather than wooden implements). The Centre of Excellence comes a long way down the track with talent identification / development. Basic coaching of Juniors is (or should be) very much a Club function.
Over our way (Western Australia), Clubs, and Cycling WA, take ergo's around schools for identifying those who have the huff and the puff. Many of the current stream of U-17's and U-19's have entered cycling through this initiative. There is also communication with the BMX Clubs to get their riders to do sessions on the velodrome. This gives them some discipline and technique to go with their existing speed.

I think Cam Cole does a bit of work with Juniors here in the Summer. I will be talking about the training of DH riders at the Club Development Conference at Living Springs in July.

I'm surprised that kids are not racing. Do you want to start another thread that can address why this is happening?

Yeah Cam does, as well as Joe Nation as part of GC.

I think its just a case of more sign postage at the bottom of Bowenvale about GC, the events, fun days (which there need to be more of), meetings etc. Especially with the sport growing there needs to be a way of letting them know.

I would never have even known about GC if it weren't for a friend in high school showing me their site back in '09, and that was a fluke just meeting him.

Just filming and chilling at the Bowenvale jumps I see quite a few kids that push up to do runs that I don't recognize, getting them notified and aware of events is the main thing.

All of which has precisely nothing to do with any CoE.

That's the point, it only helps Roadies and XCers, while DH is left to sort itself.

We're doing far better in Dh on the world circuit than XC or Road Cycling.

wuffy wrote:That's the point, it only helps Roadies and XCers, while DH is left to sort itself.

We're doing far better in Dh on the world circuit than XC or Road Cycling.

Maybe it is because they are doing it on their own that they put in the extra effort needed?

Over the years in several sports I have seen some amazing prospects fall by the wayside as soon as they found themselves funded. Pretty mnuch the desperation went out of the equation and they eventually lost the funding.

Wuffy, go do your research on sports that matter to NZ versus SPARC funding. Where does DH fit into that? It's not a cultural sport, it's not at the Olympics. DH in the Olympics would change things completely given our talent and results, and nothing would be better than taking money from equestrian or canoeing. UCI are working hard on it, but so is every other sport, some of them with far more near-naked people too which helps attract the punters. Even XC could be on it's last chance based on viewer ratings versus cost of broadcasting. Maybe DH could replace XC??

Isn't freestyle BMX replacing XC in Rio?

Yeah could be be easier to pay off the judges too..

XC could be on tipping point because costs are crazy for XC broadcasting (41 cameras) versus return. Hence the track in UK is an open-field highway so te punters can get more action (cyclocross style) and can use a Formula 1 broadcast style. I still think it'll be a yawnfest compared to other modes of MTB. They've got a new XC format out for next year's WC circuit - XC eliminator. There are street versions going on in europe. It's pretty cool IMO and could be done on Dirt. Pro-sprint eliminator pretty much 4X.

cruiser wrote:If you want to moan about funding go ask why equestrian sports get given millions - based on results from 2 exceptional horse/ rider combinations from over 11 years ago. Since then it's been massive FAIL.

Equestrian will receive increased investment for its eventing programme, from $525,000 in 2010 to $900,000 in 2011 and $1m in 2012, on the back of results at this year's World Equestrian Games. Showjumping will get $50,000 next year, towards Olympic qualification.

BikeNZ's funding will be $4.085 million, boosted by an extra $500,000.


Millions, I tell you, MILLIONS!

SPARC generally commit funding to NSOs towards 4yr [olympic] cycles with yearly reviews, this is what is meant by millions. Sure it's not as much as Bike, but $$ versus placings and medals. Equestrian, swimming, canoe (and previously hockey) performed the worst out of the 8 targeted olympic sports.

Take this Olympic campaign, Katie McVean sells her horse (and fair enough too) but along with the sale goes any chance of doing well. No doubt Katie's performances with her horse influenced SPARC's funding decisions, which is dead money as far as London goes. Is that a good investment?

How much of funding should be based on historical results?

cruiser wrote:How much of funding should be based on historical results?

It's not?

on the back of results at this year's (2010) World Equestrian Games

Todd then lost his horse after WEG but managed to pull it together with a new ride and win Badminton this year.

The lack of results since Athens is directly attributed to the change in the Olympic eventing format...it no longer favours our NZ-bred Thoroughbred than can gallop but only moves fairly.

And as for Katie....she got $50K....and it wouldn't have gone far (probably mostly used up just getting Delphi to Europe to try to qualify).