President’s Report – 2025
Barnaby Grant
This marks the end of my second year on the Port Adelaide Cycling Club Board, and my first year as President. This is the club where I first started competitive cycling, and I am loving the opportunity to give back to the club that gave me so many opportunities.
That said, I’m in awe of the amount of work that has been done by the people whose shoes I am standing in. I am rapidly coming to understand the phenomenal amount of work which is required behind the scenes to deliver events such as our Zero Friction Time Trial series, and the Pedla Crossfire Cup.
I would like in particular to acknowledge Tim Tuppence, whose work on the Crossfire Cup in years past has been, I think, largely unacknowledged. Even with his support and background knowledge, I’m finding it really hard to keep up with the work required to get the event off the ground.
This has been something of a theme for the board this year. The work required to deliver PACC’s events has largely fallen to a few of us who want to see the Club continue to be the vibrant, exciting, active club that we’ve been in years past.
Successes:
Reflecting on some of the things the Club has achieved this year, we got the Zero Friction Time Trial series back up and running after a two-year hiatus, and the events were a whole lot of fun. We were lucky with amazing weather, and I want to extend a big thank you to Pete Davis who did the start lists and timing, Will Lyons who set up all the signs every single event, Benny Janssen who came every week and helped with the junior starts on the other side of the course, and Darren Searle who assisted with the finish line. We couldn’t do this without your help.
Thunda in Tanunda was my first foray into event management, and it was a huge success, albeit a financial loss for the club. The wind made racing really tricky on the day, but the atmosphere was phenomenal.
We again ran the Roller Frenzy at the Tour Village. Daniek Hengeveld and Maeve Plouffe each made an appearance, and Andre Greipel, whilst he didn’t compete, was fascinated by the event. I want to acknowledge again Peter Davis for running the technology behind the event, Marky G for MC’ing, and the rest of the team that ran the event.
Our weekly Motopacing sessions continue to be well attended, and I want to acknowledge Troy here, who has been delivering this event nearly single-handedly in the last few months. I’ll speak more about Troy in a moment.
What’s coming up?
Looking forward, the Board is considering what the future of the Club is, and what the future of the sport is. AusCycling is embarking on Horizon 2 of its 'renewal', and is intending to start delivering on some of the plans which have been developed over the last 2-3 years. We are excited but cautious about what that may look like.
From the club’s perspective, there are a few core themes which we identified during our Strategic Planning process.
- Firstly, the Club is known for its events, particularly time trials, CX, and motopacing. We’d love to see our range of offerings expand, but for the moment, we’re focusing on getting those events delivered to a high standard.
- Secondly, we want to develop the Club’s social identity, and continue to engage with our members to deliver an inclusive and engaging community, and continue to engage with our sponsors to build those partnerships.
- Thirdly, we want to focus on recruiting junior riders, and offering them pathways from ‘bike curiosity’ to ‘cycling as a sport’. Whether that is recruiting parents and training them in the AusBike or Coaching programs, or whether that is delivering Junior-only events, or engaging with schools to promote inter-school competition, we’re still exploring those options.
If you have other ideas, we’d love to hear about them.
Help Needed:
This is now a call-out for assistance with some upcoming events:
Crossfire Cup:
- We need help setting up, please arrive at 8:00am. Any volunteers there before 8:30 will be rewarded with caffeine and baked goodies from Social Coffee.
- We need help timing and managing callups.
- We’d love an MC!
We’d also really appreciate if you spread the word on your social channels, and with any of your friends who you think might be keen on getting involved. Remember you can do the races on a 4-week trial licence, and kids under 9 race free. (as long as they have a licence).
National CX Series:
- We’re hosting two rounds of the National CX series on 25 and 26 July. I’d love some help arranging that event.
Club Sponsors:
I can’t let this opportunity go by without acknowledging some of the businesses who contribute to the Club.
Long-time supporter Bevan at Pink Carat has continued as a club sponsor, but is also supporting the Crossfire Cup and enabling us to offer prizes for the podium winners in the senior grades.
Seafaring Fools continues to support the club, as does Keystone Project Advisory, with Luke Medhurst's contributions extending from club support to running his own team.
Giant Adelaide has come on board for the Crossfire Cup, offering a massive $4,199 bike prize for participants. Michael Slater at Giant is keenly focused on supporting club-run events, and in particular ensuring that there are opportunities for women’s racing.
The Pedla is our naming rights sponsor for the Crossfire Cup, again coming on board with huge prizes and this year, leaders’ jerseys for the leaders of each senior grade.
The Burgh Cycling is also supporting the Crossfire Cup, offering a range of podium swag.
These businesses support our club and our events, and we encourage you to support them.
We’ll be opening up the club kit store in a few weeks, in time for the Super Series. We’re going with a new kit supplier in Tineli, and whilst the kit will be a little more expensive, we’re looking at some amazing value from a company that supplies into the National Road Series, the ProVelo League, and other national level teams. It would be awesome to see more people repping the club. I note that if there are particular items which aren’t in the store, Tineli can produce them for a slight surcharge. Please reach out to us for more details
If you are interested in racing in the Super Series for PACC, please speak to the Committee! We'd be delighted to support you to do so.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the significant contributions made by retiring Board Member Peter Davis. Pete has designed the architecture behind our tech systems, from our website to our timing systems, to the way the Board communicates. We would be paying huge amounts for the support that Pete gives the club for free, so I want to acknowledge his time on the board, and thank him for his massive support.
Here's to 2025/26!