The numbers don’t lie - junior cycling in New Zealand is on a high right now and many of this country’s best young riders are about to descend on Southland.

Cycling Southland will host both the Yunca Junior Tour of Southland and the New Zealand secondary schools track cycling championships in early October, with big fields registered for both events and a high likelihood that the next Corbin Strong or Ellesse Andrews will be on show.

A record field of more than 165 riders have entered the junior tour, which runs from October 4 to 6. That’s an increase of more than 25 riders from what was an impressive start list last year.

The field will include 20 riders from across the Tasman, a mix of members of AusCycling Development Academy and the Australian-based Rauland Development Team.

Twenty-two Southland riders will also be taking part across the grades, many of them inspired by former SBS Bank Tour of Southland winner Josh Burnett, who became the first local rider in nearly 30 years to win the senior event in 2022 and who will be involved as a guest speaker during the junior event this year.

The October holidays offer a feast of youth racing, with Timaru hosting the New Zealand secondary schools road championships from September 29 to October 1. Many riders will continue on to Southland to try and add their name to an impressive list of former winners in the ‘Yunca’.

Yunca Junior Tour of Southland race director Marc Prutton said it was exciting to see so many young riders looking to gain more experience.

“The Yunca tour is renowned in New Zealand cycling and is a fantastic proving ground for any young rider. This race offers riders a true multi-stage experience, including a mix of open road and criterium racing that is hard to find. It’s also possible that we will find a variety of weather conditions to give them a real test as well,” he said.

“As always, we are very grateful to Yunca, who have supported this race for 41 years, along with our other sponsors, funders and volunteers. Without them it just wouldn’t be possible to run a race of this scale.”

Many riders will also remain in the province and swap their group sets for fixed gears to ride the national schools track championships on October 8 and 9 at the SIT Velodrome, an event Southland shares every second year with Cambridge.

The intensive two-day programme will feature New Zealand’s strongest school cycling programmes, including the likes of St Peter’s Cambridge, which has three-time Olympian Rushlee Buchanan on its coaching staff, and Auckland Grammar, coached by Tim Pawson, who helped guide Dan Gardiner to the Tour of Southland’s orange jersey last year.