'Huge coup' for city

GOOD ONE: Wayne Jack (left), former national cycling champion and Olympian cyclist Rob Oliver and Bill Dalton are thrilled Napier will host the national cycling champs next year. PHOTO/WARREN BUCKLAND

Napier has landed a sporting coup by beating Christchurch in a bidding war for the national road cycling championships.

The city's three-year rights to stage the event in 2016, 2017 and 2018 were confirmed by the Napier City Council and national cycling body Bike NZ yesterday.

An announcement had otherwise been expected during the January 9-11, 2015, championships where the Elite Nationals have been held each year since 2010.

The event has been held in Hawke's Bay twice since the start of the new century, on the Puketapu course near Taradale in 2003 and 2008.

The course will again be used for the major race of about 180km, but council chief executive Wayne Jack, a former Cook Strait swimmer who last week cycled around Lake Taupo in the Taupo Cycle Challenge, said: "It will then come into the city and do a number of laps over the Napier hills."

Also being planned in conjunction with the championships is a criterium over a short street circuit in and around Taradale, bringing a European feel to what is shaping up to be a festival of cycling in Hawke's Bay at the peak of the holiday season.

Finer details were still being discussed but Mr Jack said the Napier bid provided a "point of difference".

"We basically said to Bike NZ that Napier City Council would back the event with some sponsors already secured and would put a team of professionals, including event director Ivan Aplin, in place to make sure it ran smoothly."

"Not only that - we are planning a festival of cycling around the event to ensure the sport is promoted to all ages and abilities."

While there is understood to have been some fall-off in competitor numbers in recent years - some enthusiasts claiming the event needs to be moved around the country - the championships have attracted thousands of spectators to a circuit from the city into the Cashmere hills.

Thus, the move annoyed Sport Canterbury chief executive Julyan Falloon who was reported as describing the loss of such an event from Christchurch as "a catastrophe".

Bike NZ chief executive Andrew Matheson said: "While it was a very tough decision, the Napier proposal edged out the others.

"We look forward to partnering with Napier following the 2015 championships in Christchurch and working together to take this great event to an even higher level. "

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton described it as a "huge coup," and added: "This is a big deal and I think it's an early Christmas present for the people of Hawke's Bay."

Napier's major coup in the new era of council bidding for major sports events was the Rugby Championships test between the All Blacks and Argentina at McLean Park in September.

It attracted a crowd of more than 23,000, the biggest crowd for any single sports event in Hawke's Bay since the 1966-69 Ranfurly Shield era.

Another coup is expected to be announced soon, with an NRL rugby league competition match understood to be all but confirmed for McLean Park next winter.

The NRL draw for 2015 will be announced later this month.

Mr Dalton said: "We are committed to bringing more events to Napier ..."