Fledgling cycling club gets a star recruit
MATT Sherwin is in the top handful of club cyclists in Victoria, so his decision to saddle up for the fledgling Maccabi Cycling Club is remarkable.
ADAM KAMIEN
MATT Sherwin is in the top handful of club cyclists in Victoria. He has consistently been at the peak of the A-grade competition in recent years, and is a walk-up start at any club in the state.
So his choice to saddle up for the fledgling Maccabi Cycling Club (MCC) is remarkable.
His decision wasn’t based on the standard of cyclists at the Maccabi club -— there are few riders that can go with him —- nor was it a choice based on prestige or resources.
MCC is a club on the move. It is one of the fastest-growing Maccabi clubs and while it has been developing exponentially since its inception late last year -— thanks to an explosion in the sport’s popularity among Melbourne Jews —- it is still very much in its infancy.
In fact, Sherwin’s motivation for choosing Maccabi isn’t really based on competition at all.
“Cycling offers so much more than a competitive element,” Sherwin told The AJN.
“It offers a lot of social interaction and camaraderie. Then there’s the fitness element … there’s so many benefits for such a wide range of people. Cycling’s not confined to the racing element.”
Time and again, Jewish athletes have abandoned the Maccabi movement as they approach the elite level, but as a proud member of Melbourne’s Jewish community, this was not a consideration for Sherwin, who is dedicated to growing the sport at the grassroots level.
Prior to joining Maccabi, Sherwin was racing for the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club, the biggest club of its kind in Australia and one of the biggest in the world. In 2007, he spent a year in the US, racing for professional team Sakonnet Technology.
“It was a bit of a decision to move across, but supporting the community was a big motivator,” Sherwin told The AJN.
“I wanted to help promote the club because it’s a very tough market out there. I wanted to give a bit of exposure to the club to help get it off the ground.”
Maccabi Cycling was launched in August last year and caters to all riders. It will launch a junior development team later this year and already has around 80 members. Late last month, the club rode for a charity event through Marysville to help raise money for victims of the Black Saturday bushfires.
In Maccabi colours, Sherwin is a near-permanent fixture in the top five and, in January, was asked to compete in the Jayco Bay Criterium Series — one of the fastest criterium races in the world — as part of a team comprising riders from Canberra and Victoria.
Sherwin has now turned his attention to making the jump from club level to open level, and plans to compete overseas again.
“I’m probably at a level in between the professionals we have in Australia and the rest of the world and club level. The next step is very difficult because you’re racing against professional riders a lot, but it’s a step I’m in the process of taking at the moment,” Sherwin said.
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