Mountain Biking

Aoraki Cycling 2024

On Wednesday the 8th May, 3 Craighead students competed in Aoraki Cycling at Levels Raceway.

We were lucky enough to have awesome weather and there was a great turn out of riders from all over South Canterbury.

Sophie Burton came away with a 2nd place in both the Time Trial and RoadRace in the Year 7 and 8 Grade.

Zoe Spillane came away with a 2nd in the Time Trial and 3rd inthe Road Race in Over 16yrs category.

Carmina Cabrera-Martin came away with a 4th in both the Road Raceand Time Trial in the Over 16yrs.

To round out the successful day Sophie, Zoe and Carmina rode together in the Team Trial, and came away with 1st in the Over 16yr girls category.Zoe Spillane

Year 13

Cycling New Zealand Track Nationals 2024

Recently Olivia Ewing travelled to Cambridge for the week ( 29th Feb – 8th March) to represent Cycling South Canterbury and compete in the Cycling New Zealand Track Nationals, these were held at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome.

Olivia had a very successful week picking up the below listed places and medals.

Her week was abruptly bought to a halt by way of a very bad high speed crash in the scratch race, 7 riders in total came down very hard on the final lap while sprinting for the line , Olivia was carried off the track in a stretcher and was taken to hospital by ambulance for scans and x-rays , she was given 24hours stand down from racing and returned to racing two days later bruised and missing skin, to then take part in the points race, and then her final race on the Wednesday where she picked up her silver medal.

Looking back on the week it was a great experience for Olivia with both lows and highs but the highlight for me as Team manager and coach was witnessing Olivia’s determination and strength to fight back, get back into the racing and push hard for her results after the crash.

Individual Pursuit – Silver Medal – 2nd Place

Elimination Race – 4th Place

Scratch Race – DNF – Due to a major crash in the bunch

Points Race – 4th Place

We have been advised that Olivia has been selected by Cycling NZ to represent New Zealand at the UCI Asian Track series in Malaysia in early May, which is a superb achievement for a young rider. Congratulations Olivia, we will be watching your progress at this meet and wish you all the very best!

Cycling 2024

Olivia Greenaway-Ewing was recently selected to represent Cycling New Zealand as an Under17 cyclist to be a part of a team of junior New Zealand Cyclists to travel to Malaysia ( Kuala Lumpa ) and take part in racing in the MNCF Malaysian President Cup.

The opportunity and experience for Olivia was amazing and a huge learning curve, as the athletes were away from home for 10 days which consisted of a full-on high-performance sport itinerary.

The team consisted of 25 riders aged 15 –18yrs from both sprint and endurance track disciplines along with 8 Cycling New Zealand staff/ coaches/ mechanics / medics.

7 countries in total were represented at the event and all the races were full fields with the best from each country representing.

The journey started with a 2-day training camp in Cambridge at the grassroots velodrome, which included many hours or training and refining their cycling race craft, cultural education classroom sessions, disassembly and packing of all their own equipment and team equipment to Cycling NZ standards.

On arrival in Malaysia, they then had to assemble their bikes and get into their work. With a total of three days full-on racing ahead.

Olivia had a very successful racing campaign and came away with some great results from such strong fields, with two outstanding podiums.

Team Medal --- Silver Medal – 3km Team Pursuit. The NZ team qualified fastest but were narrowly beaten by Australia by 0.4 sec in the ride off for the gold medal.

Individual medal --- Bronze Medal – Elimination Race- Olivia rode a very smart and strong race and showed why she had been selected for team, finishing strong in 3rd place.

Overall, Olivia really enjoyed the experience and came away with many positives and a few things she can improve on. Having the opportunity to take part in an event at this level has many positive outcomes and she will only grow in in sport and in person following this.

Olivia is very excited as to what opportunities will arise and open for her in the months/ years to come.