New Zealand sport owes a fair bit to sports fans who have deep pockets. People whose passion leads them to take a punt, put their money where their mouth is, whatever you want to call it.
Murray Bolton is one of those punters. An Auckland rich-lister who discovered cycling in his 40s and decided road cyclists are a rare and precious breed - The kind of athlete that can’t hide behind raw talent, the kind of athlete that needs to put in the work to get the real reward.
But admiring a sport is one thing, parting with millions of your own money to grow the sport in this country is something entirely different.
Black Spoke began in 2020 as a cycling academy, a way to help young Kiwi riders get to Europe and bigger and better contracts.
Bolton initially looked at buying a World Tour team but that kind of money made even the man who NBR values at $400 million’s eyes water, so along with former pro cyclist Scott Guyton, he started his own. Majority Kiwi riders, majority Kiwi support crew, fully Kiwi-funded. This year they’ve moved up to the second tier Pro Tour – it’s a spot that’s been earned by results but a spot that doesn’t come cheap.
Last month in Geelong, Australia they became the first New Zealand team to ever ride at a prestigious World Tour race.
A team filled with local cyclists, funded by an Auckland rich-lister, is breaking into cycling’s big leagues. (Source: Sunday)
In a peloton of teams made up of hired guns, riders out for themselves and whatever outfit will pay them, Black Spoke stands out. Four-time Commonwealth Games champion Aaron Gate is one of the team’s lead riders.
Most of them have known each other since they were at school. They’ve raced against each other at Nationals, trained together on the velodrome in Cambridge, dreamed of one day riding a Grand Tour side by side.
One rider describes it as more of a brotherhood, a group of Kiwis who like to wind each other up in their spare time, enjoy a good coffee and even more so enjoy beating the Europeans at their own game.
For a sport that had an annual investment from Cycling NZ of about $100,000 in 2021, Bolton’s interest in road cycling is priceless. Kiwi riders on the World Tour aren’t new but the opportunity for so many to get a chance - 16 of Black Spoke’s 22 riders are Kiwis this year, the rest have Commonwealth connections - is a huge boost for the sport in this country.
1News Sports editor Abby Wilson and Sunday went behind the scenes with Black Spoke as they prepared for their historic debut on the World Tour.
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