I’m Josh Page and for those of you who don’t know me, I am a road cyclist and a second-year Bachelor of Recreation and Sport student at EIT.  It’s been an honour this year to have been awarded a Sport Hawke’s Bay/EIT Sports Scholarship.

The end goal for my study is to coach cyclists.  I’ve been racing bikes for the last 10 years and have always been very interested in the preparation and training side of sport, pushing my limits and trying new things – generally causing my coach during this time, EIT lecturer Carl Paton, a headache.  It was Carl who suggested studying sport and rec at EIT.  While it took a few years to make the decision, I signed up at the last minute at the start of last year and have enjoyed it ever since.

I had a full-on summer break, training hard as I prepared for a big block of racing through January.  The hard work paid off early in the month when I won a stage, the sprint ace classification and the overall for the Hawke’s Bay Hub three-day tour.  This is a pretty tough tour and it attracted many leading New Zealand riders and top up-and-coming junior riders.  It’s my biggest result to date.

After a rest and starting back at EIT, I began my second build-up for the year.   Another block of racing runs through to the club nationals at the start of May.  Things are going well so far.  With a couple of wins already under my belt, I’m looking forward to keeping the ball rolling.

This weekend, I join the Benchmark Homes cycling team – a South Island-based trades team – racing in the South Island Elite cycle series.  I was stoked to pick up a spot on the team after my good spring and summer of racing.

I’m hoping to report some good results for my next blog entry.  And hopefully, I can match those with good marks in my degree studies.