Canterbury Summer Track Carnival

Late in December, Dad was stumbling around on Vorb where he came across a poster for the Canterbury Summer Track Carnival on 5-6 January. We already had plans to spend the week after that in Picton, which meant missing the PNP Screaming Hot Carnival, so it was a good chance to make up for that. A quick scan of Air New Zealand’s Grab-a-Seat page found me some cheap transport, and a phonecall to my grandparents in Christchurch found me a bed.

I went down to Christchurch not really knowing what to expect. I knew that Canterbury is one of the top centres for track cycling, and I knew that the velodrome was 400m around and that was about it. The day before the racing started, Hamish Ferguson, the coach down there kindly offered to let me do a bit of riding on the track, and to come down and help me.

The Hornby velodrome was very smooth with no bumps at all. The 400m track was so long, every lap goes on forever! I did some standing starts, some sprints, and some motor pacing behind the motorbike with Hamish. It was brilliant to be able to experience what the velodrome felt like before racing on it. I also met Syd Martin, Canterbury Track Chairman, who was there for a while. I was told a list of names to look out for, and I was getting a bit worried when every girl seemed to be a national champ for this or that, and another one is a time trail road champion. Slightly nerve-wracking . . .

The next evening we turned up for racing. I was amazed by the huge number of participants, but even more so by the spectators. Every seat in the grand stand was taken, and more people stood to watch. The whole A grade was made up of world champions and New Zealand champions. There were also some top women, a four time Olympian and a New Zealand Champion.

As much as I would have liked to sit and watch everyone else I did have to get up and ride myself, so I lined up with the other girls to race. Most of the races for us on both nights were scratch races, with one Devil Take the Hindmost, and a couple of Handicaps thrown in. The longest race was 3000m and the shortest was 800m.

Unfortunately due to my slackness I still had my Under 15 gear on, giving me a small roll-out. As of the 1st of January I am Under 17 so this was a disadvantage.

The pace was hard but I managed to keep up with the girls despite my tiny gear. I got dropped in most of the mixed boy/girl races but I only came last in one. That is a result I was relatively pleased with given that I was racing some of the top young athletes in the country. I was at the rear of the girls races but didn’t come last in any of those either.





It was a really good experience and great practice for Nationals in March. The Cantabrians were all very friendly and nice - so I have to forgive them for spelling my last name without an E. A couple of weeks later I received a very kind gift from Syd Martin and the team, a pair of bib shorts, something that my wardrobe was previously lacking. Thank you very much, they fit perfectly. Hopefully I can ride to victory in them in Invercargill!

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