‘Unknown’ Riders In N.Z. Team

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31441, 7 August 1967, Page 20

‘Unknown’ Riders In N.Z. Team

(From Our Coding Reporter)

If the Air New Zealand Grand Prix cycling series does little else, it unearths “unknown” riders and gives them the opportunity to win New Zealand selection.

Of the 16 who have been chosen for the three tours, it has been the first time that 14 of them have represented the country. This year’s team is:— T. J. Tabak (Canterbury), D. Brown (West Coast-North Island), M. L. Davis (Southland), A. J. Baker (East Coast-North Island), J. Broome and D. Beeston (Auckland). Tabak, a Commonwealth Games representative last year, is the only former international chosen. Aged 21, he is New Zealand’s best tour rider.

Brown, Davis (both 20) and Beeston (19) were all juniors last season and Brown finished third in the New Zealand junior 50-mlle championship. Davis, without having made any impression as a tour rider, is known well in Canterbury. He won fastest time in the Round-the-Gorges 100mile classic last season and with it the South Island championship. Beeston, a protege of the former great international, L. J. Byers, came into prominence early last year. Then unknown, he stayed with the bunch in the final Commonwealth Games trial and gave a lead-out to Byers in the sprint. Baker and Broome, both heading into their late twenties, are the experienced riders of the team.

Baker, for many years the only rider of any note in the old Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay centre, is the first national representative from the East Coast.

Broome was a prominent junior about eight years as an Otago rider—but faded from the scene for a time. He

reappeared in Auckland and has built a reputation as a useful sprinter on road and track. It was this ability which made him a last-minute selection. None of the team has competed in the tour of Tasmania before.