Geelong Cycling club would like to congratulate Marie Manskie on her recent Life Membership to Cycling Victoria.

CV would also like to congratulate Marie Manskie (Geelong) on being awarded a Life Membership to Cycling Victoria.

Marie started following cycling at the North Essendon board track in 1952 and met her future husband Norm at this venue the following year. Twenty years later (1973) her son Brett began racing. In 1976, Marie began volunteering for positions with the professional arm of the sport with the League of Victorian Wheelmen.

Marie has worked on the Bendigo Madison 32 times, the Melbourne to Warrnambool 20 times, the Austral 20 times, numerous Victorian Championships, etc. She has also volunteered for most, if not all of the major events run in Victoria such as the World Championships.

Assumed the role of “Operations Manager” for the LVW at practically all of their events which included handing out and collecting race numbers, collating results, paying out prize money, judging, ensuring the press reports were done and filed, etc, etc. It needs to be remembered that a lot of these jobs were done in adverse conditions and more often than not, these were long, tiring days and nights. It’s usual at any CV event to see Marie as one of the first officials to arrive and also one of the last to leave.

She continues to fill numerous jobs with CV which includes her much improved system of handling race numbers which has streamlined this process, especially at the Christmas carnivals. This has certainly led to a much less stressful day for the officials and competitors.

She is easily the most recognized face at any CV or CA event and certainly brightens everyone’s day with her banter. She is a great person to discuss problems with and is always available to assist any of our officials.

She was a co-winner of the CV Volunteer of the Year in 2005.