Help Tom Get to New Caledonia

Hi, my name is Thomas McCallum and I am a year 10 student on a Sporting Excellence Scholarship at Rathkeale College in Masterton.

I love cycling both Road and Track and I have recently been selected to travel to New Caledonia with the NZ Men’s Under 17 Development Squad, this is super exciting and hopefully the first opportunity of many to travel and race overseas.

Sport has always been an important part of my life, I started competing in triathlons when I was 10 and I absolutely loved it, we would travel all over NZ to compete in the races. Last year my knees starting to hurt whilst I was running and I made the tough decision to stop competing in triathlons until my knees came right, and the result of this was that I spent more and more time on my bike.

Since I have made the switch to cycling and have completed several tours and day races, I have heard my parents telling people all the time how passionate I am about cycling.

I love Cycling and I am lucky to live in such a wicked area for riding where I don't have to worry about busy roads.

Last summer I asked my parents if I could give track cycling a go as several of my mates in Wellington did it.

We joined the PNP Track cycling club and I started training with Gary Gibson and it was great, I really enjoyed it and the Burkes Speed League they ran each Sunday was a fantastic way to learn all the different races. A couple of months after I started track I was selected to go to the NZ Track Cycling Nationals for the Wellington Centre, I got to travel to Cambridge and race at the new Avantidrome it was an amazing experience.

Over the last year I have gained huge experience racing in the key junior tours and one day races and feel that I have worked hard to achieve my short term goal of getting into the NZ U17 Development Squad, if I manage to get to New Caledonia, I know that I can race hard and race well and impress the coach / selectors so that I can gain my place in the squad.

I have recently started to be coached by Josh Page from GMC Coaching and I am excited to see what the future holds.

The money I raise on this page will be used for my Travel, Accommodation, Racing Insurance & Meals for the trip.

Airfares (including excess baggage for Bike) & Accommodation & Race Entries $2200.00

Insurance $500.00 Approx

Meals & Race Food $200 +

I thank you in anticipation of getting me one step closer to my dream of experiencing my international cycling debut!

Thank you for your time,

Tom McCallum