September 29, 2003 – The Hamilton 2003 Road World Championships Organizing Committee is pleased to announce that its' partnership with The Hamilton Spectator on a Newspaper in Education program has received an overwhelming response from area schools, one of the best responses ever in the 25-year history of the program.

The academic program through The Hamilton Spectator's Newspaper in Education program was originally designed to accommodate 150 classroom packages to area schools. Thanks to an infusion of funding by Dynamex, some 340 lesson packages have now been distributed to date.

The Hamilton Spectator's World Cycling Newspaper in Education program is designed to heighten the profile of this tremendous international sporting event coming to Hamilton, as well as to promote the sport of cycling to youth and provide an avenue for them to pursue it as a sport (CCA's SprocKids program). The Newspaper in Education program entails students receiving resource packages that are based on coverage of the Worlds found in The Hamilton Spectator.

The academic program was first promoted through The Spectator during the Tim Hortons Road Nationals from June 27 to 29. Teachers were told that prepared lesson packages with a cycling theme would be available to schools for September. The first 15 teachers to apply for the academic packages were awarded the “bonus” of a school presentation.

School presentations include a brief cycling video – produced in partnership with Cable 14 – and are hosted by Adam Oldfield and Daniel Maggiacomo, a member of the Gears Racing Team, a 16-year professional racer and a participant at the Tim Hortons Road Nationals. Presentation highlights include comparisons between mountain and road biking, discussions about the aerodynamics of a road bike; Dan riding the computrainer to hit 100 km/h and the excitement over the pending Hamilton 2003 event.

The Road World Cycling Championships will be staged in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from October 6 to 12, 2003. Over 800 athletes from over 50 different countries will compete in ten different races. There are two disciplines – the individual time trial and the road race with five different classifications, elite men and women, junior men and women, as well as Under 23 men. It will be only the sixth time the Road World Championships have been held outside Europe and the second time in Canada, the first occasion was 1974 in Montreal. For more information, visit the official web site, <Leave a Reply

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