KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's best road racing cyclist Julian Dean has expressed disquiet at the state of cycling following the resignation of BikeNZ high performance director Michael Flynn just 18 months before the Beijing Olympics.
Like fellow senior rider, track and road star Greg Henderson, Dean feels the environment in BikeNZ has forced out Flynn.
Flynn, an Australian, started his job in January last year and was looking to take New Zealand to the Olympics and beyond but BikeNZ announced on Wednesday he had resigned and was returning to Australia for personal reasons.
"I just throw my hands in the air again in dismay at BikeNZ and the directors of BikeNZ because they have made a stupid mistake, again," said Dean from Rotorua where he is preparing himself for another tilt in Europe with his French Credit Agricole Pro Tour team.
"Personally, it [Flynn's departure] doesn't really affect me too much because I'm past that stage of my career.
"Myself, Greg [Henderson] and Sarah [Ulmer], we have been involved at the elite level as athletes of BikeNZ for 15 years and we have seen how ... bad they can make things.
"And it has been like that for 12 years. But for the last three or two years, when Michael Flynn has been involved, it has had me more excited and wanting to be involved in BikeNZ again.
"For BikeNZ to put Flynn in a situation where he wants to resign - which seems to be what happened - they have got no idea what they are doing ... Michael Flynn is very specialised at what he does, he knows cycling, he understands Europe and he knows how to build a programme.
"He's created an incredible environment for the young guys.
"He's proven to the public, to Sparc [sports funding agency Sport and Recreation NZ] and to everyone except these BikeNZ directors that we have got the depth and they just need a programme and that's what he was doing," Dean said.
"To take this all apart just 18 months out from Beijing, when you have got two years of teams at junior world championships level that have been medallists, is absolutely ludicrous. I can't believe their incompetence."
BikeNZ chief executive Rodger Thompson said the disappointment of senior riders such as Dean and Henderson was understandable.
"BikeNZ understands that there is real concern from many of the senior riders. However, the decision to resign was taken by the high performance director and we must respect the decision."
He conceded Flynn's resignation was not good timing.
Thompson said Bike NZ acknowledged the great work by Flynn in the last two years bringing on the junior riders at world level and in laying out a road map to Beijing.
The search was on to find a new high performance director within seven weeks with the new person starting in February, Thompson said.
- NZPA
