Christchurch track coach eyes Games

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 28

Christchurch track coach eyes Games

By

MALCOLM CONDIE

With the announcement that he is to be made the assistant track cycling coach to the Commonwealth Games, Wayne Thorpe, of Christchurch has adopted the policy: “If the job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” Thorpe is well-know in New Zealand cycling circles, mainly for his direct involvement with the cyclists, on a coaching level. But his history in the sport goes much further back.

He started cycling as a junior novice in the mid--1950s at the invitation of a friend at school. When first racing, Thorpe shared a bicycle with his friend, who was a senior novice. As soon as a senior novice race was finished the bike was handed over and Thorpe would do his bit Thorpe admits he was never brilliant as a cyclist, but he did represent Canterbury on the road and track as a junior and a senior. He rode scratch in novice, junior and senior ranks and his specialty was in stamina events, particularly the 100 km races. At one stage he recorded the fastest time in the Timaru to Christ.church race.

“Then I married quite young and gave up serious cycling, because of house and family commitments.”

Early in his cycling career Thorpe took an interest in other cyclists. “I was more interested in helping others because I had had nobody to help me and I could see the young ones in the same position I was in,” he said. One of his first pupils, in the early 60s was a boy named Bill Kendall. As a novice, Kendall was riding on heavy, high pressure fixed wheels and with Thorpe’s help discovered the joy of tubular tyres and , training schedules.

Kendall performed well under Thorpe and went on to a second placing in the New Zealand junior championships. An irony of Thorpe’s coaching was the fact that: “I was coaching guys when I was still racing, and I was coaching them to beat me. I would put guys on training schedules which I would like to have been able to do.” “If I hadn’t got married, I’d still be cycling probably. I’d possibly be more dedicated too.” Even so, Thorpe has managed his share of success. He won the odd national title in teams racing — the type of cycle racing which has always taken his fancy. “When I started coaching proper, Canterbury cycling was at a low ebb. We were frightened by

anything Auckland and even Wellington had done,” he said. “Winning the points shield on the road or the track was unheard of.” "I was keen on teams racing. I would be manager and coach of the Hope Gibbons teams while still racing in them,” he recalls. When Canterbury began to do well in teams racing on the road, in events like the Hope Gibbons, that began to rub off on the province’s track racing.

In the early 19605, Thorpe remembers being in a Canterury pursuit team at the nationals. The team had managed to make the final, against the seemingly invincible Auckland side. Thorpe was the number two rider in the team, a position he still thinks was too difficult for him. “I should have been at number four really, I was only a first year senior.” Consequently he was dropped in the final, and Auckland won gold. But Canterbury had made it known its track strength was building.

To this day, in all his coaching of team cyclists, Thorpe uses the lessons he learnt about riding in that final to help his pupils. He said he was fearful of being dropped from the team in the 4000 m pursuit. “I’ve always tried to psychologically build up the team before-an event so nobody’s scared of being dropped.

In those days there were few qualifications a rider needed to employ

the services of Thorpe as a coach. He trained club teams, Canterbury teams and even high school teams. The dedication of a Shirley Boys’ High School team he once oversaw was something that stuck in his mind. The team wanted to attend the national final of the schools team time trial. Eventually they talked Thorpe into coaching them, and “when I’d tell them to train 20 miles, they’d do 25 just to make sure,” he said.

In the first year the team attended the national final, it was third. The next three years, with few changes, the team was first each year and broke the course record each year. Now Thorpe is a bit more selective in the pupils he coaches. He joined Laurie Dawe Cycles straight from school, in 1961, and now is managing director of the shop. In 1972 he became selector with the New Zealand Amateur Cycling Association and missed by one vote on travelling to Edinburgh as coach for

the Olympic cycling squad. One of his boyhood idols, Warwick Dalton, was chosen for that position. Later that year he took an Air New Zealand cycling team to New South Wales. In 1974 he was given the job of coach at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. In the late 19705, Thorpe’s business became such that he gave away

his position on the N.Z.A.C.A., but his interest in the sport on a provin-

cial level, and particularly at the Papanui club level, continued.

Thorpe was present at the 1982 Commonwealth in Brisbane Games, to see another of his pupils, Craig Adair, take gold in the 1000 m time trial there. Adair, showing so much potential, went to

the Olympics in Los Angeles two years later. That event, for Thorpe was one of the biggest disappointments of his career. “I virtually gave away the Olympic level after the 1984 disappointment,” he said. “I feel the riders worked so hard to make the team, that when they were selected they thought that’s the end, it’s all a picnic from now on.” It was so glamorous at the Olympics that it was distracting for the cyclists, Thorpe said. That, combined with the fact that the team was boosted in numbers because of the Eastern Bloc boycott, meant New Zealand cyclists did not perform to the standard expected. Next year’s Commonwealth Games will be different. “At Commonwealth Games and world championship level, unless you can sacrifice everything, you might as well not go.” It is the first major event Thorpe has been associated* with since the Los Angeles Olympics and he is determined what mistakes were made there will not be repeated. Because Thorpe is assistant track coach he will be in command mainly of the country’s best sprinters. Ron Cheatley, of Wanganui, is the chief coach and will be looking after the team pursuiters. New Zealand’s fastest three sprinters, Jon Andrews, Russell Ownsworth and William Rastrick, all products of Thorpe’s training, are all from Christchurch. He has nurtured those pedallers since they first took to track cycling. “My interest still lies in team pursuiting,” Thorpe said, but he considers the sprinting scene a bit of a x challenge since the success of the Canterbury riders.

As for New Zealand’s chances of a first ever Commonwealth sprinting gold? “I don’t know if

we’ve got the ability to win medals — I hope we have, but you never know what other countries have got.”

Even so, Thorpe has definite ideas for Commonwealth preparations. “My plans are for dedicated riders only.” As yet he is unsure if he will continue national coaching after the Games. “I’ll just wait and see what happens there.”