A very special event

OPINION: The Tour of Southland is special, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

Like any international event there is an enormous amount of planning involved for it to be successful.

You can't truly appreciate just how much is involved unless you have been "on tour".

Logistically, the race is a machine with a thousand moving parts. The Tour of Southland race manual runs to 91 pages.

In the 10 years I've been covering this race there have been a few errors that have made it out of the sports pages and on to the front of the book but, considering the scale of the operation, they fade away over time.

There's a lot of co-operation required to make the Tour successful. You need the bike riders, as ambassadors for their sport, to behave. You need all the officials, paid and volunteer alike, to be reading from the same sheet. You need the benevolent support of the New Zealand police.

The Southland tour is lucky that the police involved don't merely see this race as a positive exercise in public relations – many of them are passionate about the event.

Notably, in these times of recessionary pressures, principal sponsor PowerNet has confirmed it will be backing the race for a 10th successive year next year.

What is becoming really exciting about the Southland tour is the emergence of talented junior riders.

Outside of Hayden Roulston's debut on the Tour de France and a successful season from Greg Henderson, our best road riders toil away in Europe and the United States in virtual anonymity, unheard of by New Zealanders except for the annual trek home to ride the Southland and, possibly, Wellington tours.

Importantly, however, they have set the platform for the next generation.

It's obvious in this year's Tour.

Under-23 leader Tom Findlay, although something of a problem child if reports are to be believed, has obvious ability, while Patrick Bevin has had a Tour to remember, with two stage wins and a stranglehold on the sprint jersey.

Southland's Matt Marshall is a pocket rocket, while George Bennett in the KIA Motors team has proved how big his ticker is by continuing to ride despite a massive cast protecting a broken hand.

While Sam Bewley has graduated from the development ranks into Lance Armstrong's new RadioShack team, there are a host of other under-23 riders who should produce plenty of moments in the years to come – guys like Livestrong rider Jesse Sergent, Wes Gough and Michael Vink.

We've loved New Zealand's success on the boards, but the road future could be just as exciting.

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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