Cycling: German Rene Wolff to replace Anthony Peden as New Zealand head sprint coach

Former Netherlands and now New Zealand sprint coach Rene Wolff. Photo / Getty

A former Olympic and world championship medal winner will take over as Cycling New Zealand's sprint coach.

German Rene Wolff will replace Anthony Peden, who has left the organisation in the wake of an investigation into the culture of the sports body, amid allegations of bullying and inappropriate behaviour.

Wolff, from the old East Germany, steered the Dutch national team at the last two Olympic Games. As a rider, he won two medals, including one gold, at the 2004 Athens Olympics and was a two-time world champion.

The Olympic gold was in the team sprint, where he rode with multiple Olympic champion Jens Fiedler and Stefan Nimke.

He was in charge of the Dutch programme since 2010 and has worked with many notable riders, moving from national coach to high performance manager for the Netherlands Olympic Committee last year.

"We received strong interest from around the globe for this role, which is understandable given the status of our mens' sprint programme in particular," CNZ high performance director Martin Barras said.

"Rene has a successful background in coaching at the highest level of the sport and a thorough understanding of all aspects of sprint coaching.

"Rene's success in the Netherlands, in particular, included a strong emphasis on team culture which he believes is a core component of any success."

Wolff will take up his role this month with his first assignment being the UCI World Cup competitions in France and Canada in October.

The long-awaited review into CNZ's culture is still to be made public, having been delayed at least once from a projected release.

The sport has taken a public relations hit in the wake of Peden's departure and a cone of silence has descended over the organisation.

Cycling is one of four tier 1 sports who receive heavy public funding through High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Cycling was given $4.4 million this year, an increase of $200,000 on last year.

It is the country's second best funded sport, behind only rowing, which has just ended a poor world championship campaign, with just three podium finishes and no gold, its poorest return since 2003.

Rowing receives $5.1 million this year. It, too, has been doing a review into the sport, and that in part led to the resignation of longtime high performance boss Alan Cotter.