Cycling: Races canned amid legal fears

Cycling Timaru has been forced to can a 106-year-old event in the wake of the landmark prosecution of Le Race director Astrid Andersen.

Next month's annual Christchurch to Timaru race has been shelved after concerns were raised about safety and the problems posed by "a paper war" to gain race approvals.

Cycling Timaru president Brent Coe said it was not easy to pull the plug on an event that started in 1897, but the demands to meet the traffic management plan had become too much.

The plan is submitted to Opus International Consultants, who then forward it to the various district and city councils involved for approval.

The possibility of prosecution was only one factor taken into account, he said.

"They want 42 marshals, 95 signs and 147 cones on the course, which is impossible for us."

Coe said the logistics had become too much for a small club because they did not have a widespread volunteer base.

"We would need three vans and two tandem trailers for the gear and people."

Also, all the marshals would have to be registered with Cycling New Zealand to meet the insurance policy.

"Running an event has become a paper war."

Coe said that canning the September 13 event had upset many people.

"A lot of people train all year especially for this event, which is our feature race."

Coe said the Ashburton to Timaru race had also been abandoned, and he was unsure whether the Christchurch to Timaru event would ever be resurrected.

"We would have to get funding to support it and work through all the paperwork involved."

This month, after almost two days of deliberations, a Christchurch District Court jury found Andersen guilty of criminal nuisance as the organiser of the March 2001 Le Race cycle race, in which competitor Vanessa Caldwell died after a head-on collision with a car while overtaking on a blind corner.

The case against Andersen centred on whether the information given to cyclists taking part was ambiguous about whether the Banks Peninsula's Summit Road was open or closed to other traffic for the event.

- NZPA