Brian Fowler returns early

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 29

Brian Fowler returns early

Cancellation of several races in Canada has drawn New Zealand’s road cycling champion, Brian Fowler, of the Woolston club, back to Christchurch.

Fowler has spent 11 weeks in Canada, riding for Bike Energy. It is the second year he has had a contract with the team, and this year another New Zealander, Craig Connell, was also in the team.

Fowler rode 10 races for it, all of them in Canda, and he won nine of them. Connell won the other race. Only one of those events was a road race — another reason Fowler has returned. The other events were criterium races.

“A lot of the racing over there was cancelled,” Fowler said. “We missed two week-ends, then I won a race and was disqualified because the Polish riders protested that I didn’t have a letter from my club here saying I was allowed to ride the event.

“Then there was a couple of weeks before the tour (the Niagara Classic), so I decided to come back.” Fowler will remain in New Zealand this year and work on a nationals and Commonwealth Games build-up. He will have his first race in the country, the Waipara Classic, in Canterbury on Saturday.

He said the standard of riding in Canada “was pretty good.” Several of the criteriums he raced were against

other New Zealanders who had signed with other teams in Canada.

Coming back to Christchurch’s cold winter was not as big as the shock of arriving at the first race in Canada, he said. “It was a shock going there. The first race was in snow, but two weeks later it was 26 degrees and was up to 27 or 29 and even 34 degrees most of the time.” Fowler’s success means he was offered positions on several teams for racing next year. “I will probably go back on a different team next year. Our team was a bit disorganised.” He is considering an offer from a Toronto Italian team.