The Future Starts Here
2013 will see the 14th year of the GIB Te Awamutu Junior Tour. It was started by the Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club in 2000 as a way of introducing multi-stage racing for our U15 and U17 riders. In that year there were 50 entries from around the North Island, of those only 6 were girls.
2001 saw the introduction of U15 and U17 girl’s categories along with an U19 men’s grade. Categories for U19 Women were included in 2002 and women in 2004 as the event grew in popularity. Last year saw 242 entries across the grades with riders from all over New Zealand, a group of 3 riders from New Caledonia (managed by Laurent Gane) and a team of 12 from MTB Australia.
The Tour attracts riders from NZ wide as it is a BikeNZ selector’s race and for the past couple of years has been one of the races in the BikeNZ Junior Points Series.
Previous winners who have gone on to make a name for themselves in cycling are Tim Gudsell, Peter Latham, Rushlee Buchanan, Westley Gough, Lauren Koedyk and James Northey; and Terenzo Bozzone in triathlons.
Dynamo Events will now be organising the event in conjunction with the Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club.