KEY POINTS:
Leading cyclist Hayden Godfrey wants the sport here to "come out of the dark ages" after copping a 30-second penalty and $100 fine for racing in "incorrect club attire" at yesterday's national road time trial championship in Upper Hutt, north of Wellington.
Godfrey, of the Pegasus club from Christchurch, and Logan Hutchings, from Otago, were required to race in their club colours but started the event in the colours of their professional team, Subway.
This left chief commissaire Mark Ireland with no choice but to penalise and fine both riders.
Ireland said under the rules, riders were allowed to wear racing shorts with sponsors' names but had to wear club tops.
Alternatively, they could wear their team's entire colours if their team was an International Cycling Union (UCI) "trade team"; a recognised professional team.
Godfrey said it was the cyclists' deliberate decision to wear their team's corporate colours.
"It's not club racing any more. It's a professional sport now and it's the elite nationals," said Godfrey, who has ridden for New Zealand in World Cups, Commonwealth Games, world championships and Olympics.
"If riders are to be elite riders they are going to have to spend as much time on the bike as they can and to do that, you need sponsors.
"It was a deliberate decision to wear the Subway colours - you expect a fine but a time penalty is pretty tough."
Godfrey, a pre-race contender, was given an official time of 56m 21s to finish sixth.
The race was won by expat Glen Chadwick who rode in the colours of his United States-based professional Navigators Insurance team.
He clocked 51m 53s for the 40km run.
"We are trying to advance sport in New Zealand by bringing a more corporate presence and a professional attitude," Godfrey said.
"And cycling seems to be stuck in the dark ages, trying to knock us back from that sort of thing.
"Luckily, I didn't have too flash a ride and it didn't make too much of a difference.
"My teammate [Hutchings] got a flat tyre so [being penalised] did not affect the outcome for us but it's just a bit of a disappointment how they have a crack at us."
He said his team was just trying to build the image of cycling here.
"At the nationals, we are out here nowhere, not many people watching and [in front of] a dirty old hall; we have got to change it."
The Subway team were formed in December 2005 and one of the objectives was to "set the standard for support of riders, professionalism and achievement in New Zealand cycling", their website says.
- NZPA
