Hamish Ferguson's Blog: Update: Getting colder

Gidday everyone

It’s been a crazy year. Going from Commissaires Course to MTB Nationals to Track Nationals, back to Tertiary study, to Post Grad Study, to 2 Junior Selection events and a Cycling NZ Junior Training Camp and other events it has been an intensive learning phase. New ideas and better combinations of ideas which some have seen and others will see when they get their next programme.

Study is going well. In my first semester of a Bachelor of Applied Science at CPIT with a Sport Sciences Major. This term we are covering communication, anatomy, physiology, nutrition and fitness assessment. But being a glutton for punishment I have signed up to carry on with the Post Grad Diploma in Science in Community Nutrition through Otago University starting next semester.

Just come back from the North Island where I had my Cycling NZ Junior Selector Cap on looking at U19 and U17 men’s and women’s riders to go into NZ Developmental Teams to events in Canberra, Adelaide and Canada. The Canadian event sounds awesome and includes a time trial that starts in a Mine 800m underground.

In between the Te Awamutu Tour and Rotorua Tour I assisted Ken Bewley and Lyndon Cooney at a Cycling NZ training camp for the guys in Rotorua (the women also had one in Cambridge) where we had four days of lectures, rides and some fun events. I took a session on Nutrition and on the Cycling NZ selection process.

Only down side of the camp was I did very little exercise and have put some weight back on. But now I am home it’s back out on the bike even though things are cooling down in Christchurch. Looking forward to doing some racing with the Winter Series about to start.

As per usual riders have been doing the bizzo around the world. Cameron Cole was an excellent 6th at the first UCI World Cup Downhill event in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with Justin Leov in 7th. David Vazquez was 19th and Sam Blenkinsop 29th.

Justin backed up his performance from South Africa with 4th place at the Sea Otter a week later in Monterey, California. Justin, Cameron, Sam and Amy Laird have all been named in the New Zealand team to ride the World MTB Champs in Canberra later in the year.

Nicole Anderson featured in the last two NPS events taking 5th in both Grape Ride and Round Brunner events working hard to combine a new job involving a bit of travel with her racing.

Tom Hubbard has made a promising return from illness that had him thinking his season was lost. As an U19 he placed 9th at Le Race then put on some great rides to finish 2nd in the Grape Ride before riding well at Te Awamutu and going on to win a stage at Rotorua and placing 3rd on general classification.

Brooke Williams and Will Bowman both rode Te Awamutu for the first time and found out what a challenging event it can be. Adding that many of the North Island riders had up to four stage races in their legs before this event. Will bounced back with solid performances at Rotorua and really stood out in the Criterium.

So keep riding, eat well, stay healthy, aim to be a lean mean cycling machine and look forward to hearing your performances over out winter and the Northern summer.

Hamish