1983 Southland Cycling Strong

This season also saw the rise of a new star, 17 year old Murray Hewitson who was the best performed rider in the pro-am Tamahine tour and took a well earned third placing and was the first amateur home.

Hewitt was prominent in all four stages and displayed judgement well beyond his years. His ability to produce speed on the flat and handle the hardest climbs were strong points in his favour. Barry Harcourt, at the opposite age bracket of 42 years had a series of stunning rides that to take the B grade honours by a narrow 10 sec margin ahead of fellow Southerner Eric Malcolm. Harcourt gained some precious seconds in the first stage down to Milton when he joined forces with eventual tour winner Otago professional Wayne Hillary. They were 600 M in front at the line. After a late start to the winter's racing, Harcourt is obviously working back to the form that has made him one of the most feared cyclists in Southland and next time he starts he is bound to be classified as an A grade competitor. The consistent Malcolm was seldom far away from the pace while the up and coming Graham Howie with four wins to his tally this road season shared third position with Dunedin amateur Lydon Stenning. The rest of the Southland team met with mixed fortunes. Wayne McLellan was always there without doing anything spectacular while the speedy Steven Harcourt showed up best when collecting the big group sprint for third spot at Milton.

Mike Hughes returned to the cycling scene in 1982 after five years away from the sport. His return to the bike was bought about by his training and competingin the Original Iron Man event in Hawaii in 1983.  This contest involves a 2.4 mile ocean swim, a 112 mile bike ride and running a full marathon of 42 miles. The winning time last year was 9 hours and 9 minutes.  Last summer he worked on his swimming and running and this year he has been building up the miles on the bike to get himself right back to his best form. He is currently training for four hours a day and feels that he is nearing his best form.  He feels thought that he needs harder races to be able to achieve his goal.  He had some good results in the Air New Zealand series and felt he had done enough to win selection in the national team but he was only named as a reserve which caused some comments in northern newspapers. He is hopeful that he can do well in the tour of Southland.