BikeNZ names strong squad for World Junior Track Championships

BikeNZ has named an 11-strong track team to contest August’s UCI Junior Cycling World Championships in Italy.

After some promising performances at the New Zealand National Championships, Bike NZ have named a strong team to compete in Montichiari from 11-15 August.

The team is led by Josh Atkins (Christchurch), who is returning for his second junior World Championships and will be looking to improve on his fifth place in the individual pursuit and fourth in the teams pursuit from last year. Atkins is joined by Alex Frame, Pieter Bulling, Andy van der Heyden, Brad Evans and Will Bowman, from which the team pursuit will be selected.

The girls’ team sees Cantabrian Liz Steel returning for her second Junior World Championships alongside Georgia Williams and Alexandra Neems in the endurance events, with talented pair of Henrietta Mitchell and Stephanie Mckenzie in the sprints. Both riders were in sparkling form at the recent national championships where they recorded an unofficial world record of 35.820.

BikeNZ National Development Coach Stuart MacDonald is looking for the team to build on New Zealand’s previous results at the World Championships but also to ensure that the riders are given the opportunity to gain the international race experience needed to develop into senior world champions.

“With the team that has been selected, there is a mix of first and second year juniors, and I feel we can cover each event with enough quality and depth to be able to perform on the Worlds stage as well as expose the youngsters to a higher level of racing needed for their development.”

“It is a fairly large team for us to be taking to Italy but the riders’ performances at the recent national Championships and their first training camp together were encouraging.”

The New Zealand team is: Josh Atkins (Christchurch), Will Bowman (Christchurch), Pieter Bulling (Invercargill), Brad Evans (Dunedin), Alex Frame (Christchurch), Andy van der Heyden (Waimate), Alexandra Neems (Auckland), Stephanie McKenzie (Auckland), Henrietta Mitchell (Auckland), Elizabeth Steel (Christchurch), Georgia Williams (Auckland).