Backing for Waikato-BOP cycling centre bid

Taupo is  looking to work with  Waikato and the Bay of Plenty in their  bid to become the national centre of excellence  for New Zealand cyclists.
Although Taupo had been unsuccessful in its bid,  project manager Will Samuels said one of those behind the Taupo bid had been approached to be involved in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty quest for  the centre.  Discussions were due to  start this week.
A lack of money, the size of the town, and running too short of time were the main reasons believed to be behind Taupo's unsuccessful bid.
The other unsuccessful bids were from Hawke's Bay, Wanganui and Christchurch.
Sport and Recreation New Zealand (Sparc)  short-listed  three regions: Auckland, Palmerston North and  Waikato-Bay of Plenty.

Mr Samuels said he was disappointed Taupo was no longer in the running  but he always knew the town would have needed a miracle to compete against the other bids.
Most of the other proposals, including Auckland and Wanganui, had strong funding to back  their bids, which Mr Samuels believed were between $10million and $15million, while  the Taupo District Council had committed no money.
While Mr Samuels said having no funding wouldn't have helped  Taupo's proposal, the council's decision  had been the right one.

"As a small district of 30,000 residents, we were always aware it would be impossible to compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis with the larger regions. Our investigations indicated construction of a multipurpose building to house a world-class velodrome and Bike New Zealand headquarters would financially be out of reach unless Sparc and central government were willing to shoulder most of the cost."
Mr Samuels said Taupo  had had three months to put its proposal together, a factor that would have hindered its bid.
Sparc  had sent application documentation to the Taupo bid authorities only late last October.
"Many of the other regions have been working on their proposals for a number of years, while we only started thinking about this last August, so basically we've been trying to get up to speed."
Existing infrastructure and the passion and experience of the Taupo district's cycling fraternity  were what the Taupo bid had been counting on to get  through, Mr Samuels said.
Owner of Taupo's Top Gear cycling store Mark Gibson said it would have been "awesome" to have the centre based in Taupo, but the unsuccessful bid hadn't  upset him. "Even though it probably would have been good for business, it's not going to affect us too much. It would have been great for the town and cyclists would probably stay here longer but we're pretty positive with events here anyway, so it hasn't concerned me too much."
Destination Great Lake Taupo general manager Scott Pearson said the bid had been a long shot, but  all was not lost.
"It's disappointing but we've got to recognise who we were competing against. However, I do think the bid was a good idea and it's great that [Taupo] is showing we're committed to cycling.
"I'm sure if we keep on applying for these types of things something will come our way some day."