Cyclists to wear white

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32667, 24 July 1971, Page 48

Cyclists to wear white

(By

R. M. CAIRNS

WELLINGTON.

For longer than most people care to remember, New Zealand cycling teams have been outfitted in black jerseys, but the team which will travel to New Caledonia next month will wear white.

“I have, more or less, been given over-all control of the arrangements for this tour,” said Mr L. Payne, organiser of the' Air New Zealand Grand Prix filial in Wellington this week-end.

“Accordingly, I decided it was a -fit, time to introduce white jerseys for a New Zea-

land team to wear in a tropical country.” New Zealand cycling administrators tried, unsuccessfully, for their teams to wear other than black at the 1966 Commonwealth Games (Kingston) and 1968 Olympic Games (Mexico).

Mr Payne’s autocratic but realistic decision is a feature of the week-end’s racing, which will culminate in a five-man team being chosen to tour.

But undoubtedly more important features are that B. Pascoe (Waikato) and B. Cornish Wellington) are not to ride in the final.

Pascoe, New Zealand’s outstanding tour cyclist last season, withdrew in the second stage of the Waikato qualifying race; Cornish, the Com-

monwealth Games reserve last year, was not chosen for the Wellington team. (The Photograph shows the Canterbury team to compete in the Air New Zealand final. Frow left, R. E. Bush, P. D. Brydon, K. J. J. Grogan, G. V. Neale, J. I. Ryder, and H. R. Bush).