Cycling: Kiwis live the simple life

Marc Ryan gets to sample home from home when he is training in Belgium. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Amish community in Pennsylvania, complete with horses and carts and roadside fruit and vegetable stalls, will be helping New Zealand's quest for international cycling glory next year.

The Amish - a traditional Christian community known for their simple life, plain dress and dislike of modern technology and conveniences, seem unlikely allies for a bunch of single-minded, technologically-aware young Kiwi cyclists.

The conservative Christian group are providing indirect but genuine assistance. New Zealand's top riders spent a three-month block of training in the region from June this year.

The quiet, mainly horse-and-cart filled roads meant less chance of getting knocked off your bike.

Then there are the myriad of fresh, Amish-grown fruit and vegetable stalls at the roadside which keep costs down, as well as being untainted by genetic modification.

BikeNZ bases itself in Kutztown in the region. One of the team coaches, Dayle Cheatley, who spent plenty of time there in his career, says it's suitable on other fronts too.

"They're really respectful of cyclists because they know we bring a hell of a lot of money into the community. Kutztown is no bigger than Cambridge but it's actually a university town so when we're there, we get cheap accommodation because it's the student holidays. The actual university doubles the town size to around 45,000.

"New Zealanders have been going there for 15-20 years to train, even back when my father [Ron] was coaching.

"The international series of races running from June to August at the velodrome helps, because there's decent prize money," he says. "The road training around the area is also outstanding, with undulating rides everywhere, and the weather is great."

With such an endorsement, it's no surprise the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team will be using Kutztown as the final major base over another three months before heading to Delhi, probably in late September.

The cheap cost of living also explains Bike NZ's decision to uproot a permanent base at Limoux in the south of France last year.

The aim was to operate a less capital-intensive operation in the heart of Belgium near Ghent. Both new bases in the US and Belgium are being touted as blueprints for the future with a number of expensive European campaigns looming ahead of the London Olympics in 2012.

The move to Belgium was designed to place an emphasis on track work, given New Zealand's two-medal success at last year's Olympics after training in Belgium for 10 weeks prior to Beijing.

There's also no shortage of track and road races in a cycling-mad country where the level of interest is comparable to rugby in New Zealand.

The New Zealand squad, both track and road racers, can move around the cycling world at will without incurring the cost of a permanent base - as they now rent everything in Belgium, including the garage their gear is stored in over the northern winter.

BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott believes the 12-week Belgian camp, followed by the Kutztown stint, has achieved some key objectives, notably getting his riders exposure.

"It's about introductions to professional teams and getting used to racing with 150-200 riders, two-three times per week. That puts layers of experience on these young men, leaving them under no illusion as to what it takes to get to the top."

Elliott cites examples such as track rider Tom Scully winning two gold medals at the recent World Cup in Melbourne as proof of its value.

He says the likes of road racer Jason Christie signing a contract with the British-based Endura team is also a significant achievement, backing up the efforts of Sam Bewley and Jesse Sergent getting the call-up to Lance Armstrong's Radio Shack feeder team Livestrong.

"Logistically in Belgium we just have the equipment there and rent everything, you wouldn't really call it a base as such. We just went for short term opportunities and did things like pass on all our vehicles when we left," said Elliott.

Elliott has paid tribute to the post-Olympic increase in SPARC funding that has given him the flexibility to make such decisions. BikeNZ's coffers have been boosted by 48 per cent over this Olympic campaign, to $12 million.

"The growth we've seen this year is heavily reliant on it," says Elliott. "They've backed us to win medals and world titles and we're making steps in the right direction even if we're up against huge competition and resources around the world.

"It's allowed me to put extra coaching staff in place and to send athletes to events where they're best suited to develop. Until Beijing we only really had Tim Carswell as a coach full time, now we've got Stu MacDonald, Dayle Cheatley and Justin Grace. There are so many talented athletes in this country it's ridiculous. It's just a matter of creating a pathway."

One of those athletes is Beijing team pursuit bronze medallist Marc Ryan who has been part of the team in Belgium for the majority of the campaign. Ryan says the spot is great for immersion.

"It's easy. I've got a family I can live with and they look after me. I set it up when I first started going over when New Zealand didn't have the base. Cycling families just love it, especially having a foreigner - I was living in Beveren just west of Antwerp near the Netherlands border."

Being in Belgium also holds appeal for Elliott as Bike NZ begins to nurture its sprint programme. That follows the news endurance events such as the individual pursuit won't be around at the next Olympics.

"Obviously with Sam Webster winning his junior world titles this year and performance step-ups from Eddie Dawkins and Simon Van Velthooven, that is the other part of the programme being developed to race against the best in the world - the Brits, the Aussies and the Malaysians - at the Commonwealth Games. Apart from the French and the Germans those countries are the powerhouses of world sprinting.

"At the Melbourne World Cup the boys were close to riding off for a medal in the team sprint which has never happened in New Zealand's history as far as I'm aware. Fifth was an impressive effort.

"It's going to take time though. Our endurance and pursuit programmes are already at a world class level but these guys are a 2012-2016 project."

Ryan agrees the individual pursuit loss is major but says the sprinters have reinvigorated the system.

"We've potentially lost three Olympic medallists in Alison [Shanks], Hayden [Roulston] and Jesse [Sergent] but the efforts like Sam's [Webster] at the junior worlds has given everyone confidence."

New Zealand's top athletes next head to Beijing for another World Cup in mid-February, followed by track nationals at home and the world championships in Copenhagen at the end of March before heading back off to Belgium and Pennsylvania.