Junior cyclists face tough assignment

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 80

Junior cyclists face tough assignment

Two of Canterbury’s leading junior cyclists, Jon Andrews and Wayne Eyre, have been selected in a squad of six riders to represent New Zealand at the junior world cycling championship in Stuttgart, West Germany, on July 21. They are teaming up with Craig Connell, Peter Harding and Errol Hughes, of Auckland, and Gary Anderson of Wanganui. For the last month Anderson has been training with the Danish national junior squad in Denmark and is to join his colleagues when the team arrives in Britain on June

The New Zealand team will be based in Newport, Wales, and is to be hosted by the Wyvern Cycling Club, and will race against the club’s members. The team, which is coached by Mr Don Johnson, of Canterbury and managed by Mr Bob Pratt, of Wellington, will compete in track and road racing in the region. In the middle of June the riders will leave Wales and compete in their specialist fields in an international meeting on the Isle of Man for a week. - Mr Johnson sdsd that

when the team returns to Wales he hopes to make arrangements for the squad to compete in an international race in Edinburgh. It is at the Meadowbank Velodrome, which has a wooden track and was used in the 1970 Commonwealth Games. He added that the track they are racing on in Germany is also wooden, and would give the team the finishing touches on this type of surface. Mr Johnson said that the over-all ability of the team was of a high standard and would be one of the strong-

est junior teams to leave the country. The Canterbury riders

Eyre and Andrews, both represented their country at the Oceania Games in Tahiti in 1984 with distinction. Eyre won a gold medal in the team pursuit and a bronze medal in the one kilometre time trial. He is the current New Zealand junior sprint and kilometre time trial champion and was runner-up to Andrews in the national junior 8000 metre scratch race. Andrews performed well in Oceania and just missed out on the medals, but is in top form at the moment, winning the junior sect-

ion of the DB Harbour race. Eyre, who is coached by Don Johnson and Andrews, who is coached by Wayne Thorpe, the Olympic track coach, have been doing 5000 km a week training on the road for the last two months and two nights a week weight training. Both riders have theneyes set on next year’s Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Andrews’ and Eyre’s specialist events at Stuttgart are the sprint and kilometre events, and they will also be riding in the 120 km road race.