"I'm pleased to be elected. I think it is really good to have someone from the grassroots on the board.
"No-one else had a direct mountain bike link on the board either."
Thomas said one exciting mountain biking initiative currently on the cards for Rotorua was a development centre in the city, which could go ahead by the end of the year.
"At the very top of mountain biking in New Zealand we have our elite athletes who compete at the Olympics and on the world scene. Then we have club riders, but there is nothing really in between."
He said a development centre was going to be set up in Rotorua to help promising riders.
"Cycling NZ have received some funds from Sport New Zealand for the centre but they do need to get more funding from other areas."
He said the NZXC Racing team, started by Rotorua's Sam Thompson a couple of years ago, was the only organisation filling that space to help promising mountain bike riders become elite riders in the country.
Thomas said he did not know exactly how the centre would function yet, and gaining further funding was the main priority at present.
He moved to Rotorua with his wife, Deborah Jolly, and family almost 20 years ago from Tauranga, and first got into mountain biking when he moved here.
"When we moved here we lived on a street with five houses and all our neighbours went mountain biking.
"I went out for a ride with my neighbour ... and it all went from there."
Thomas has been involved in finance since 1986 and is an investment advisor at Craigs Investment Partners.
He said a big part of his role with Cycling New Zealand was making sure they were financially stable and their goals were realistic with the amount of money and staff available.
Thomas is also one of six directors of the company which runs Crankworx in Rotorua, Mountain Bike Events Ltd.
