SpartacusRox said:As a roadie it makes me sick the amount of cycling funding that goes into track in New Zealand. Bike NZ do virtually nothing to promote grass roots club racing in NZ but throw money around like jellybeans when it comes to track cycling. I realise that government funding is allocated with regards to medal success and that track has a far higher potential medal haul than road but it is a sad state when the national U19 road team team have to individually fund not only their own trip fares to international events but also pay for the Bike NZ entourage as well.
watching the track cycling at the games has been a joke. Take the mens team pursuit...Aussie qualified at 4minutes, NZ at 4.03 and in bronze medal position, Northern Ireland at 4.23! Despite that they still lapped India after 2km in the bronze ride off, all to the rapturous applause of the two spectators present (if you take out riders families). With a few exceptions the whole track programme has been an Aussie vs New Zealand benefit with Australia handing us our *** on a plate in every race. Great to see all that funding bearing dividends
What grates me is that they are still pumping a great proportion of the funding into the track endurance programme despite the events largely having been dropped from Olympic competition. If they're that committed to track IMO they should be concentrating a lot more on the sprint programmes a couple of years out from London!!
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