CYCLING'S HISTORY
Shortly after the introduction of bicycles,
competitions developed independently in many parts of
the world. Large races became popular during the
1890's in the "Golden Age of Cycling", with events
across Europe, Australia, the U.S.A and Japan. Cycling
had become hugely popular.  The most famous of all
bicycle races, and perhaps the most well-known race of
any type is the Tour de France which began in 1903.

EARLY CYCLING RACES IN VICTORIA
In 1887, the Melbourne Bicycle Club, the oldest
cycling club in Australia, organised the first ever
"Austral". The race was run over a distance of 2 miles
(3200 metres) on grass at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
and was considered the Melbourne Cup of cycling. The
first prize in 1887 was a Walnut cabinet containing
152 pieces of silver and cutlery.

NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB 1921
The Northcote Cycling Club was born on January 26,
1921 as the Northcote Excelsior club and was founded
by Mr. Edward "Ted" Eastman, a prominent Northcote
businessman and property owner. In later years the
club continued under the stewardship of Eastman's
nephew, Bill Bolwell, who was the proprietor of
Northcote Cycles in High St, Westgarth.
Throughout its history the Northcote Cycling Club has
produced Commonwealth and Olympic Games
representatives, National and World Champions and Tour
de France riders.

NEIWAND FAMILY BACKGROUND 
NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB
Ron Neiwand is Gary Neiwands father and recalls, “My
fathers side of the family is off German ancestory and
that’s were the Neiwand name comes from. Frederick and
Hilda Niewand came in the early days of South
Australia’s German migration in the early 1840s. They
were black-smiths and wheel-rights who made wooden
spoked wheels with steel tyres for horse & bullock
drawn wagons. They were of the Lutheran religion and
like many other Germans back then my ancestors had
been knocked about. In that period of German history,
things were unstable, they migrated to Australia. At
first our name was spelt as Niewand - later we changed
the spelling when a Neiwand boy controversially
married a catholic girl”.

GERMAN IMMIGRATION TO COLONIAL AUSTRALIA
 By 1861, the first year in which the census recorded
nationality, the colonies of NSW, Victoria, Queensland
and South Australia had 26,872 people who were born in
Germany out of an Australian population of...... By
1891 there were 45,000 German-born people in
Australia. In Darebin’s early years there was also a
very strong German presence in the German Lane -
Seperation St area which was predominately German
market gardens....see Goddefroy card.

RON NEIWAND CYCLES IN COUNTRY VICTORIA
Ron continues, “My dad was a mounted policeman and we
used to be transfered all around country Victoria. I
always liked bikes and joined my first club at age 14
in Kerang. In those days cycling was hugely popular
and we competed against Cohuna, Echuca, Swan Hill and
Bendigo.

THE NEIWANDS JOIN THE NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB
Ron Neiwan continues, “I joined the Northcote Cycling
Club in 1965.
By then Barbara and I had met on a road race between
Melbourne and Daylesford. Her great grandfather Alf
Middleton had won 1 of those early Austral races at
the Melbourne Cricket Ground. We have a strong bike
riding ‘gene pool’ and had 4 sons, David, Gary, Craig
and Mark. They’ve all been involved with the Northcote
Cycling Club and Craig is the current Secretary.
All the boys have either been Victorian or Australian
champions in either team pursuits or scratch races.
 I’ve been a member of Northcote now more than 41
years and am still riding in the masters competition.
Over the years at the World Masters Games I’ve picked
up 14 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. Cycling has been a
big part of my life. I’ve been on the committee of
‘Cyclists International’ for over 20 years. We
officiate at many of the major venues, help out sick
cyclists who need a hand, promote cycling events and
it’s all done on a not for profit basis. I coached the
Hong Kong National Cycling team at the 1989 Asian
Games to a silver medal and a year later took the side
to the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games. 

GARY NEIWAND / NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB
OLYMPIC AND COMMONWEALTH GAMES MEDALIST
Ron Neiwand continues, “Our boys were keen to ride.
Gary started riding at the Club at around 14 years of
age. He officially joined with his mate Troy Tyler
(current President of NCC) in 1971”.

By 1980 Gary won the Victorian School boys title at
the Brunswick velodrome. From here the Northcote Club
Cyclist went from strength to strength. Ron Neiwand,
“Gary went onto be a champion cyclist for Australia at
the Commonwealth Games where he won 3 gold medals in
the 1,000 metre sprint catagory at Edinburgh, Scotland
in 1986 / Auckland, New Zealand in 1990 and Victoria,
Canada in 1994”.

“At the Olympic Games he ran 2nd & 3rd to the Russians
and East Germans when the drug doping laws weren’t
strongly enforced and I reckon he would have won a
gold medal or 2 at the Olympics. Still he did really
well and picked up a bronze medal at the Seoul games,
Korea in 1988, a silver medal in Barcelona, Spain in
1992, a 4th place in Atlanta, U.S.A where he broke the
200mt Olympic Record which still stands today in 1996,
and silver and bronzes medals at the 2000 Sydney
Olympic Games”.

“He also won 3 gold medals in the 1000 mt and Kierin
events at the number of World Titles : at Oslo, Norway
in 1993 and a gold and silver medal at the World
titles in Manchester in England in 1996”.

Gary has always been with the Australian Institute of
Sport and the Northcote Cycling Club and on tours of
Europe holds a number of track records over 200 mts at
Velodromes in Copenhagen - Denmark, Berlin and
Dortmund in Germany, Ghent in Belgium and Zurich in
Swizerland.

DANTE ‘CHOOKA’ CECCHINI IN NORTHCOTE CYCLING
Dante ‘Chooka’ Cecchini was born in Toscano, Italia in
1949. He migrated to Australia in 1956 on-board the good ship ‘L’ Australia’. Dante recalls, “my father Emilio was a
keen competition cyclist in Toscana and he passed onto
me a love for cycling. The family settled in Northcote
near the Westgarth Railway Station and I went to St
Josephs Primary School on the Northcote hill. I joined
the Northcote Cycling Club when I was 14 years old in
1963 and started racing. In those days the cycling club had a flat bitumen track. Franco Agosta and I were the only youngsters with Italian background.
Up at the Preston Cycling Club there were the
Sansonetti twins who we enjoyed racing against.
Sometimes we would get together with them in an
Italian group to race against the Anglo Aussies. The
Northcote Cycling Club was strong and family
orientated. Back in the 60s the President was Bill
Boswell who kept us together. He ran the Northcote
Bike Shop in High St and the clubrooms were out the
back. The bitumen track in those days was big, wide
and in the summer so hot that your tyres would melt
into the track”.

NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB 
NEW BIKE TRACK FUNDRAISING 1967.
In 1967 the Northcote Cycling Club decided to build a
new bike track. Dante recalls, “A Reservoir local, Jack Wincup deserves much of the credit. He had the idea for the bottle drive and got us all going. All of us riders
did ‘bottle drives’ to raise money. We must have
knocked on every house door through Northcote and
Thornbury and  ended up raising $10,000. We then went
to council where they helped fund the new concrete
velodrome with us dollar for dollar. The Brunswick
Cycling Club looked after us for a year and a half
while the new track was in construction. By 1969/70
Northcote had itself the best concrete bike racing
track in Victoria. Special mention needs to made -
Eddie Martin and the family, our Albanian born
secretary Reg DeMur, Jack and Graeme Windcup, the Langley family and Ray Larkin who owns Ray’s Bike Shop in Preston these days. We’d borrow Ray’s ute and Frank Agostas truck to bring along all the equipment needed. We
loved the club and it was a real community effort”.

NORTHCOTE HOSTS THE BIG BIKE RACES
Dante continues, “All the big races came here at some
stage. For instance Northcote hosted the Austral event
here in 1985. There were 10,000 people in attendance.
That year the Tasmanian Danny Clarke won the race. He
was one of the best 6 day riders the world has seen
and went onto be the silver medalist at the Munich
Olympics in 1972. Danny used to come to Northcote
alot”.


DANTE ‘CHOOKA’ CECCHINI RIDES WITH THE SANSONETTI
TWINS
‘THE AUSSIE ITALIANS VERSUS THE AUSSIE ANGLOS’
Dante recalls, “In the late 60s, early 70s I used to
ride with the Sansonetti twins, Remo and Salvotore.
Every night I’d go to their place in Reservoir and
we’d ride up Plenty Road to Mondah near Whittlesea,
across to High Street and back. We must have trained
together like this for 12 years, just like brothers.
We knew every pot hole in the road. On Sunday we’d
gather in the shed and drink a home made vino or 2 at
the Sansonetti’s place. On Saturday nights we’d race
together. Sports promoter Bill Long would put us
Aussie Italians together and we’d race the Anglo
Aussies. The competition was fierce! I’d join with
Salvotore, Remo and Renato in the team pursuit. We
were hard to beat and we took on teams with former and
current world champions like Danny Clarke, John
Nicholson and Gordon Johnson”.  

Dante continues, “In 1972 I was in the training squad
to go to the Munich Olympics as a 21 year old. In 1973
I turned professional and moved up the road to the
Preston Cycling Club and have been riding for them
ever since. Today I’m a life member of the Preston
Cycling Club but have been coming to Northcote for
more than 43 years”!

NORTHCOTE CYCLING CLUB - UNDERCOVER VELODROME
In 2004 the Northcote Cycling Club (NCC) was once
again upgraded and a world class cycling velodrome was
constructed. The club is one of 2 covered velodromes
in Victoria and one of only 6 across Australia. Todays
N.C.C is a locally born Darebin Cycling Club that now
sports an international reputation across the world.
At the Thursday and Saturday meetings one can witness
European, North American, Australian and Victorian
riders all  competing on the new purpose built wooden
floored, undercover velodrome.
An example of Northcote’s international reputation is
the Scottish Commonwealth Games Cycling team has been
training and preparing for the 2006 Melbourne
Commonwealth games.

New members welcome, please contact Troy Tyler on 0417 369 250.


THE SANSONETTI TWINS
Remo Sansonetti recalls, “Salvatore and I were really
keen competitors. It didn’t make any difference
whether the prize money was $1 or $1,000. It didn’t
matter, it was the challenge, each week we went abit
harder. Sometimes we’d both be awake at 3 o’clock in
the morning, excited and keen to get to the next race.
When we started racing in Australia some people called
us wogs and dagos. Then when we raced in Italy they
called us ‘I kanguri”.

EXERTS FROM THE CYCLING MAGAZINE ‘THE CHALLENGE’ SEPT
1970
ABRUZZO - RESERVOIR - PRESTON - MILANO
When Stefano and Felice Sansonetti left Raino,
Abruzzo, Italia bound for Australia with the 5 boys on
the 11th of the 11th 1959, little did they know that
the oldest twin sons would return 10 years later to
captivate the hearts of thousands of Italian Cycling
fans in Milano.

The Sansonetti family first settled in Reservoir where
they started to adapt to Australian living. The two
oldest boys Remo and Salvotore are identical twins and
from the earliest days in Australia all the Sansonetti
boys would head to the Preston Cycling track and watch the Saturday afternoon races. It was the twins Remo and Salvatore who first joined the Preston Cycling Club at 16 years of age. Success followed quickly for the twins and club championship wins enticed Stefano’s next son, Renato to the sport 2 years later. Like his elder brothers, renato displayed a natural ability and by 1965 he had won Prestons two Junior Road championships. 4th son Achille joined the Preston Amateur Athletics Club while 5th son Maurizio joined the Preston Cycling Club at age 14.

TEAMS RACING
It was evident early in the cycling career of the
Sansonetti twins that teams’ racing would be the top department. This was proved in the first Victorian Teams Race Championships raced at the Olympic Velodrome. Although inexperienced in this type of racing they finished in 2nd place to olympians Ray Bilney and Don Wilson.

The following year they won the championship with a
fine display of race teaming. Then followed a
scintillating series of performances from the talented
twins. racing in a four night teams race they thrilled
Melbourne board track cycling fans by defeating a
classic field and relegating the highly rated German
champions Karl Kobusch and karl Henrichs into 2nd
place. Next season world rated Italians Giordano
Turrini and Luigi Roncaglia fell a victim to the
sensational twins. Other minor wins followed in teams
madisons and Melbourne Velodrome promoter, Mr Bill
Long, commenced planning the ultimate test, a six day
race.

MELBOURNE SIX
When the Sansonetti’s had demolished the best amateur
teams race riders racing in Australia, including a
combination of Australian champions like Gordon
Johnson and Italian champion Mario Boglio, in the
Melbourne Amateur six, it was realised that as a team
combination they were in world class. An Italian press
agent hasily made arrangements for the Preston Stars
to race in the Milano Amateur 6 day race.
So Remo and Salvatore returned to the land of their
birth as representatives of Australia in the greatest
Amateur 6 day race in the world. 17 teams were
competing.

FINAL SESSEION OF THE 6 DAY RACE
PALAZZO DELLO SPORTO MILANO
The final session opened in the evening with every
team attacking and the race leaders defending with
rare skill. Sansonettis were content to stay with the
bunch and not take any initiative. At 100 laps to the
end of the great race Remo Sansonetti burst from the
bunch at tremendous speed. The whole Palazzo came to
life as the fans urged him on. Salvatore came in, then
Remo, again Salvatore, on it went and after 30 laps
half a lap gained with the bunch chasing at top speed.
This was teams’ racing at its best and 13,000 Italians
were now standing on their seats roaring for Australia. Remo and sal rode like madmen, another 10 laps and now only 20 yards behind the bunch, another 5 laps and the twins had reached the tail of the bunch. Then it happened. Algeri and the Belgian Goens broke from the bunch and gained 60 yards. The crowd yelled to the twins as they swept around the bunch and gave chase, victory was in sight, nothing could stop them now. Yard by yard they closed the gap, at 30 laps to race end the breakaways were caught and as the Australians took the lead all Italy seemed to join the pandemonium. The rest is history.

The final result: Remo and Salvatore Sansonetti,
Australia, 1st place:
Avogardi and Giaccone, Italy 2nd place:
Goen and Brasseur, Belgium 3rd.

SANSONETTI TWINS REPRESENT ITALY IN 1971
Salvotore continues the story, “Every race we went to
we gave ourselves a chance. We cycled for Italy in
1971 as Remo and I were invited back after we won the
1970 6 day race in Milano. We were a part of the
National Azzuri team. In the 1971 Milano 6 day race we
came 2nd to another Italian team. Remo and I stayed on
in Europe and continued racing in Italy, Switzerland
and France where we won a few races. In August 1971 we
won the World Championship in Varese, Piedmonte,
Italia. By then our exemption from serving in the
Italian Army had expired and we returned to continue
racing for Australia”.



REMO SANSONETTI AT THE
COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Remo Sansonetti represented Australia at the
Christchurch Commonwealth Games. He won a Bronze medal in the 180 kilometre Road Race. Remo also represented Australia at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games were he won a Silver medal in the 100 kilometre time trial. The 1st time this event was staged at a commonwealth games.

SANSONETTI TWINS CARRY THE FLAG -
1978 EDMONTON GAMES
LEAD AUSTRALIAN TEAM AT OPENING CEREMONY
Salvatore and Remo represented Australia at the
Edmonton Games in Canada
in 1978. Salvatore recalls, “2 days before the opening
ceremony at Edmonton they surprised us by inviting us
to a press conference. It was announced that we would
be leading the Australian team into the stadium at the
Opening Ceremony. We’ve been the only twins, members
of the cycling team and Australians of Italian background to have carried the flag so far. We competed in the 180 kilometre road race alongside Gold medalist Phil Anderson from the Hawthorne Cycling Club and Queenslander Robert Glinderman”.

SANSONETTI TWINS AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The Sansonetti twins also represented Australia at the
Olympic Games coming 9th in the world in the 4,000
metres teams pursuit at the Munich Olympics. At the
Montreal Olympics 4 years later in 1976 the Sansonetti
boys were once again 9th in the world. This time the
event was the 100 kilometre time trial event.

SANSONETTIS TODAY/2006
Salvotore describes, “when we raced together we used
to think of ways to go faster. Today I’m building
bikes to make other people go faster. My company
Nezkot produces carbon fibre bikes and has been
supplying the Australian team since 1992 and lately
the whole of the New Zealand and Dutch teams. The
English, Canadians, Americans, Chinese and Koreans
plus many others also have used Sansonetti bikes.
In 2006, my two boys, Steven and Adrian today ride for
the Northcote Cycling Club”.