Council Sweats it out for Velodrome

Hastings councillors and staff put their bodies on the line to contribute more than 1800 laps to the Black White Let’s Bike campaign in support of the Regional Sports Park’s bid for a velodrome.

Councillors were the first to mount the three stationary Unison track bikes with Crs Sandra Hazlehurst, Ru Collin and Jacoby Poulain starting off with a hiss and a roar on steps of Council’s main entrance at 9am yesterday morning (Tuesday). 

Cr John Roil tagged in for Cr Poulain when she had to make a meeting and took the Councillors total to 30kms or 120 laps over 18 minutes.

Staff made a competition of it, splitting into three groups: Regulatory and Corporate and Customer Service, Asset Management and Community and Finance, Strategy and Human Resources.

With staff popping out during their breaks to compete, each team member had 18 minutes to go as hard and fast as they could Regulatory and Corporate and Customer Services making 579 laps of the virtual velodrome and an average speed of 48kms an hour to win the challenge.  

With more than a few drops of sweat in the ever increasing heat councillors and staff contributed a total of 1811 laps of the virtual velodrome or 422kms.

Councillors and staff are enthusiastically throwing themselves into cycling this summer, showing their commitment to the velodrome, the Model Communities project and Hawke’s Bay’s rightful place as Cycling Capital of New Zealand