NATIONAL CHAMPION IN ONLY TWO YEARS Heyde continues to develop his track cycling talents

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 38180, 21 March 1973, Page 14

NATIONAL CHAMPION IN ONLY TWO YEARS Heyde continues to develop his track cycling talents

(By

R. M. CAIRNS)

When Rene Heyde started track cycling—it was on January 23, two years ago—it was “because other riders said it was a good idea.” Before that, and when he was stroke of the rowing eight at Christchurch Boys’ High School, all Heyde had thought of was trying out road cycling, “something I had always wanted to do,”

Thus, it is a little odd that since 1970, when he competed on the road till August and only stopped then because of the School Certificate examination, Heyde has never made any impression as a road rider.

His finest performances, by far, have been on the track, and none better than at the beginning of this month at Kew Bowl, Invercargill. But for two months, until the Canterbury championships, it did seem something had gone wrong with Heyde. He had started road training, every night, in October — which was unusually early for this individual — but had an awful time around Christmas, and was, in his own words, “a bit down in the dumps, and still not going that well up to the Canterbury championships.”

"A few words from Wayne Tharpe put a bit of confidence into me. and I. did a good time. Then, the results and times at the South Island championships did a lot too. even though Grant Strahl beat me in the final of the individual pursuit. "So by the time the nationals came along, I was feeling very confident, even though 1 didn’t really expect a medal in the kilometre time trial. But I thought if John Mullan got a medal, I would too — but he missed out. and I never thought I’d beat Bryce Preston or go so close to John Dean. "In the last three weeks, Kevin Grogan had spent a lot of time with me, on the motor-bike, and that helped my good kilo time." Then to the pursuits, the real object of Heyde’s trip to Invercargill, the event in which he had been placed third, as a junior, the previous year and thus catapulted himself to the fringe of Olympic Games selection.

“The first round was hard, but not too hard: riding to a time is harder than riding to beat someone. But that first round, beating Robert Oliver as well as doing the fastest time, put a hell of a lot of confidence in me.

"Riding Grant (Strahl) in the semi-finals, I felt different—not nervous at

all, relaxed, maybe confident. maybe even I thought I was going to be beaten and it would be all over.”

The final, then, almost became a matter of course for the so-relaxed Heyde. "Tony Paviell was running around doing such a good job with my gear, and I realised Oliver was not going as well as last year. “I started reasonably fast, and I knew I was all right. Wayne was saying to take it easy, but the lead got bigger and bigger and I let it go in the last three laps.” Heyde was New Zealand pursuit champion, and in taking the title he had not just toppled the previous year’s winner, but crushed him completely.

Oddly enough—but he admits it might be because the fact has still not completely sunk in—that prestigious championship win is not the one which gave Heyde most pleasure. He remembers best finishing second in the junior 8000 metres at the Velodrome in Wellington the previous year. “The way I came round those jokers” —Heyde travelled five-wide to get his medal—“still gives me a big kick.” Heyde’s career has not been one in which he has built up slowly to big things. Within four weeks of first riding the track, just two years ago, he had won Canterbury championship medals in the junior sprints

(second) and five-mile (third), and open individual pursuit (third equal), and kilometre time trial (fastest junior). Further, he was in the second-placed pursuit team.

“It was quite surprising, really. I didn’t know what training was in those days,” said Heyde. “I was in the pursuit team before I was told anything specialised.” Then came the Marton national championships, which were a tragedy for that brilliant young team. “We were feeling pretty confident because we were only two seconds off the national record just before the trip.” But, in a sickening moment, the team crashed when it hit a dropped rider and all four members received painful injuries. “We we’re pretty upset, especially missing the New Zealand record we knew we would get,” said Heyde, but there was a form of compensation at Invercargill this month. The pursuit medals were presented by W. D. H. Dalton, who dominated the event himself for so long, and he told Heyde: “I knew you would do it.” As long ago as Marton, Dalton had been impressed with Heyde —and a year ago, in fact, he was a central figure in Heyde’s swift elevation to national prominence. After the national championships, Heyde knew he had a chance of getting in the track trials for the Olympic Games, “but I

didn’t know if third in the individual pursuit was good enough to get in the last 12. “Then they narrowed it down to six, and I was not in. But the trials were in Christchurch, Dalton (a national selector then) was pushing hard for me. and one or two of the others were not going so well.” The outcome of those trials — and even though Heyde crashed — was that four “certainties” and himself were named to compete finally at Wanganui. As five were to be nominated for Munich, it seemed certain Heyde would go on that trip. But as it happened, and because Heyde had crashed, N. R. Lyster was asked at the last minute to attend the Wanganui trials. Without riding, he was given the fifth place ahead of Heyde. The then-junior did not feel let down. “It hadn’t hit me still, it just hadn’t sunk in: the possibility. of competing on the other side of the world, and still a junior.” But he found the atmos-

phere in competing in those trials “a great experience, and I will do much better next time.” Next time for Heyde is obviously the Commonwealth Games, where he would like to ride the individual and team pursuits. He will be just 20 at the Christchurch Games, 21 at the time of the Montreal Olympic Games. The horizons are extremely wide for Heyde in track cycling, just as he became so keen on that facet of the sport because of his immediate success “and without having to work for it.” What makes it just a little more odd is that he appears to have forsaken his first love, the road, except as a means to an end with the track, because he is basically lazy. That Heyde has achieved very little — except handicap wins in his first season — on the road makes him something much different to virtually every New Zealand pursuit champion. Almost without exception, the winner of this strength event has also shone on the road.