National Volunteer Week: Celebrating the unsung heroes of AusCycling

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is Australia's largest annual celebration of volunteers, and in 2021, NVW will celebrate the significant contribution of Australia's almost six million volunteers.

Each year these volunteers dedicate over 600 million hours to help others.

Among Australia's six million volunteers are thousands of hardworking AusCycling members who help form the backbone of the sport, from grassroots participation sessions to national championship events.

AusCycling passionately celebrates, recognises, and thanks the efforts made by the thousands of volunteers of our more than 400 clubs across the country this NVW.

Cairns BMX Club's registrar hero

In the BMX circles of Queensland, Cairns BMX Club's Michelle Foster is a name and face many people recognise.

Foster has provided more than 20 years of service to the Far North Queensland club since jumping into the ranks of the club canteen with another family when her son was racing.

From that point on, Foster has held several volunteer roles at different times with the club, including treasurer duties, a stint as a secretary for the FNQ BMX Zone and now as the always smiling registrar at Cairns' Bungalow track.

For Foster, the joys of volunteering have always remained the sense of giving back to the sport.

"The people do make the sport," she said.

"You also get to meet a lot of different people through volunteering and also get to see how the sport is run.

"We just enjoy providing a service to our riders and seeing all the kids have fun."

Park's presidential love

When Perth MTB Club president Chris Park discovered mountain biking in the mid-2000s, it was love at first sight.

The respected Park has been at the helm of Perth MTB Club for the past six years after joining as a member in 2010 and has seen the likes of Reece and Sarah Tucknott's progress to racing at the UCI World Championships.

The volunteering blood runs deep in Park's family, with his father's work as a volunteer in cricket and football providing a roadmap to his want to give back to mountain biking.

"I've just kind of followed in those footsteps," he said.

"I got involved initially with helping the club digitally with the website and newsletters, and over time built up my experience with running a couple of races.

"I then took over the president role when there was a bit of a changing of the guard at the club and haven't looked back since.

"For me, knowing that people appreciate and get a thrill out of our work to get them racing is incredibly rewarding.

"It also sets the same example for my children that my dad did, (for me) that if you're going to be involved in sport, which is a great thing for you, then you should also give something back as part of that process."

Fahy is paving the way

Plenty of road and track riders would be used to seeing the head of Wagga Wagga Cycling Club's Fiona Fahy poking out of a commissaire car at the head of a race.

Fahy, a Bendigo local, has close to 30 years of experience as a commissaire in Australia and made history earlier this month by becoming the first female chief commissaire for Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic.

Fahy's journey to the commissaire space began in a less conventional way to most, with what she described as "not an argument, but it was a discussion".

"… which I managed to get my point across on about something which didn't involve me actually," she said.

"After the discussion, the commissaire at the time, George Nelson, said to me about a week later 'there's a commissaire course in Ballarat next weekend which starts at 9am – be there'!

"I've never looked back since – I love it."

One of Fahy's fondest times of the year is working at her favourite race, the Bendigo Junior Tour.

She will also be watching the upcoming Tokyo Olympics with a keen eye, thanks to one team member who started his cycling career in a team car while his mother raced.

"He was there, and I'd sit in a spares car down the back and would let him talk to me on the radio," she said.

"We'd be so far down in the back, so it didn't impact anything, but we just used to yak.

"And now that kid is going to the Olympics – how good is that."

Coaching Tasmania's next generation

Janelle Smith is one of Tasmania's most respected and trusted coaches, developing the next wave of the Apple Isle's cycling stars from her base in Launceston and Northern Districts Cycling Club.

A late starter to the cycling scene, Smith's entry to two wheels came nearly 20 years ago when she began to become involved in a team jointly run by a leading voice of the Australian cycling scene in Andrew Christie-Johnson (ACJ).

From there, the cycling bug had hit Smith, who began notching wins on the velodromes of Tasmania and choosing to focus on the boards.

With her love for cycling at full throttle, Smith shifted her coaching attention from netball to bikes and created Full Revolution Cycling Coaching.

Since becoming a cycling coach eight years ago, the Tasmanian has developed and helped progress many talented youngsters through the pathway system to the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

In her own words, Smith says her coaching is all about providing juniors with the opportunity to reach their peak.

"Without coaches, they are flying blind with what they can potentially do," she said.

"I get pretty emotional about someone who performs over and above what their expectations are.

"That generally comes out at Nationals – particularly on the track."

One of Smith's coaching highlights is Sydney Uni – Staminade's Catelyn Turner, who came to her simply wanting to improve her cycling leg in triathlons.

"Caitlyn is a classic example that I've been proud of," she said.

"She has since gone on to win national road championships medals and now races in the NRS."

Port Adelaide Cycling Club's chaplaincy champion

Port Adelaide Cycling Club chaplain Phil Dixon is a man of many talents.

Dixon has fabricated equipment for para-athletes as a qualified engineer, using his cycling knowledge with significant innovation.

He also volunteers relentlessly to his club, including setting up cyclo-cross events and running track training nights at Hanson Reserve and Velodrome.

Dixon also is a man of faith; however, it wasn't until he moved to Adelaide with his family that both his main passions of cycling and religion were able to join forces as one.

"It came up in church one day that you can do sports chaplaincy, and my wife nudged me in the ribs pretty hard and said 'that's you all over'," he said.

"I went and did the course, and Mark Gregory (PACC president) welcomed me with open arms.

"It connected everything I enjoy about life, and I just get a kick out of helping people. That's me in a nutshell, I suppose."

Dixon has been a qualified sports chaplain with Sports Chaplaincy Australia for the past five years and was rewarded for his efforts at his club by being awarded PACC Volunteer of the Year in 2020.

Behind the lens with Lucas Comino

Sydney's Lucas Comino has been a staple of the BMX Freestyle photography and videography scene since 1994.

Comino has witnessed multiple changes in the media industry over the years but found his nirvana with shooting photography over the last decade.

His work behind the lens is aided by his own experience as a street rider, with the Sydneysider always hunting the best outcome for the photos he shoots and the rider making it happen.

"I'm a rider myself, and I get it – you just want to see the picture end up in the best place it can," he said.

"It's always a bit of a give and a take by going to the rider and saying 'where do you see this, what do you want to do with it'.

"If they want to deal with it with one of their sponsors or they want to put it on with one of the video projects they've got on, then 'yeah, it's yours – go for it'.

"If it's really good, then I'll say, well, we should hold on to this for something good, whether it's a yearly publication like DIG or another couple of still existing magazines."

Comino's passion for photography stems from the pleasing satisfaction of a clean and aesthetic image.

"Don't get me wrong, I love being on the front end of all the technology side of things, and I like pushing boundaries with it, but mainly it's the aesthetic of a good image which makes it appealing," he said.

"When you get that good shot, and it just looks great, then it's job done."

Comino's fondest career highlight to date is gaining the cover shot of DIG 2019, an annual photo journal.

The cover shot featured Benn Pigot and Jacob Deveney working some sunrise table teamwork at 4am in Bondi Skatepark.

"DIG only puts out one publication a year, and when they rang us up to say I'd got the cover, I've got to be honest – I was pretty stoked," Comino said.

The Grande scheme of Canberra

Head to any cyclo-cross or cross-country mountain bike race in the ACT, and more likely than not, Kristoffer Grande will be there putting in the hard yards for Canberra Off-Road Cyclists.

Kristoffer and his wife Hilde are two vital parts of the CORC juggernaut in Canberra through their assistance with coordinating races.

Originally from Norway, the pair have called Australia home since 2007 and Canberra since 2015.

As soon as they landed in the Bush Capital, the Grandes were straight into the fold at CORC.

"My wife and I were riding, and the kids were starting, so it made sense," Kristoffer said.

"Helping out followed pretty quickly."

Grande is a passionate volunteer, pointing attention to the unseen social benefits of lending a helping hand to your club.

"It's a really good way to get to know people a lot better and extend your networks compared to just riding," he said.

"This is something that is not clear when you start but is more apparent once you're there.

"When you're part of that volunteer network, you have a lot more of an interaction with people, and you get to know a lot more people that way.

"But I also find it immensely satisfying to help put events together which otherwise wouldn't happen without our involvement as volunteers.

"I think it's (cycling) such a good sport, and I'm really happy just to play my part to keep growing cycling."