Post date: Oct 26, 2015 3:27:17 AM
Hello Vets,
In the Bleat this week;
• From the desk of the handicapper
• Vets out and about
• Register for Fitz's Challenge in 2015
• Racing this Week
• Race Reports
Please send me your contributions at: TheBleat@actvets.cc
Ian Morton
Here's the first round of promotions. This week is also a come-and-try-A-grade round. We have a large discrepancy between A and B numbers so if you are keen on trying a smaller bunch and relentless attacks or chasing--welcome aboard.
- Allan Bontjer B -> A
- Jeremy Muir B -> A
- Ian Mongan C -> B
- David Medlock C -> B
Rob Langridge
Among the bike tragics who gather at the bike racks at work is an electrical engineer who's developing a device to enable a mobile battery to be charged by a hub generator. If you've got a hub generator and would like to part of the R&D process, contact me at langridge@netspeed.com.au.
He also fixes batteries and LED lights--John Paul de Sousa, my daughter and I are all happy customers. Cost is $15 per half hour to solve your bike lighting problems.
Rob Langridge
Fitz's Challenge - Canberra’s long distance cycling event – will be held on Sunday 25 October 2015 to provide participants the chance to choose their challenge from one of five course distances while also raising much needed funds for The Kids’ Cancer Project.
The five course distances on offer in Fitz’s Challenge are:
• 50 km Tidbinbilla Challenge
• 105 km Tharwa Challenge
• 165 km Fitz's Classic
• 210 km Fitz's Epic
• 255 km Fitz's Extreme
Registrations for the event are now open.
Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
G 5:40 18 min + 1 lap
E/F 6:00 20 min + 2 laps
A/B 6:25 25 min + 2 laps
C/D 7:00 22 min + 2 laps
Race Director: James Meredith
Contact: Email: JamesMeredith5@bigpond.com Ph 0427477521
The nominated marshals for this event are;
• Angie Wren
• Steven Jones
Please confirm with the Race Director that you are available. If you unable to make the date that you have been rostered please find a replacement.
The Program for Wednesday is as follows:
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice;
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 6-lap scratch race;
6.20pm – 6.40pm: 2 Lap Handicap;
6.40pm – 7.00pm: Mystery Race;
7.00pm – 7.20pm: 6-Lap scratch (All in with B Grade early start).
Where: Dairy Rd, Fyshwick
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
*** Note the earlier start time than was previously listed on the RMS ***
08:00 EFG 30 mins + 1;
08:40 CD 40+1;
09:30 AB 50+1
Race Director: Nick Boylan
Contact: Email paddlepower@grapevine.com.au
The nominated marshals for this event are;
• Andrew Balzanelli
• Mark Gillett
The nominated marshals for upcoming events are;
- Nov 03 @ Stromlo: Lindsay Graham, Daniel Grillo
- Nov 10 @ Stromlo: Angelika Mauch, Craig Pearsall
- Nov 15 @ Uriarra: Reinhard Mauch, Clinton Porteous, Andrew Swenson Andrew Sinclair, Karen Steinicke, Simon Tennent, Simon Junakovic
- Nov 17 @ Stromlo: Paul Frankcom, Mary Lovett
The Marshal Roster for the remainder of the year has been uploaded on to the club website at;
With the scheduled race director in the US, Ian Morton and I split the duties to ensure the race went ahead. Hence the need for more volunteers to train to become race director: so far two have volunteered out of more than 300 members. We are still having problems with the RMS results, hence the appearance of various phantoms appearing instead of those who raced with a 700 series number. The RMS developer, Al Bontjer and Graham Hendrie are working on a solution.
I battled a head wind to get to Stromlo on time and on arrival was greeted with perfect conditions. G grade opened the proceedings. Bruce Jones led around Karen Steinicke and visitor David Witteveen for the majority of the race, while Bernie Crowe, not used to his electronic gears, or perhaps underdressed, dropped off early. In the finishing straight Karen had the lead but it was experience that won the day, with Bruce chalking up another win. Visitor David rolled in smoothly for third.
D grade's Terry Merrigan's promise to shout the grade a Guinness each if he won meant that no-one was keen to chase him down for quite while, and the bunch just cruised around with hands on the hoods and barely peddling. Then the glory of winning surpassed a free drink and Terry was consumed by the mob. Next Trent Wiseman had a good go out the front, taking good advantage of C passing to confuse everyone. In the end it turned in to a last lap dash with Bernie Shaw first, followed by Malcolm Parker and John Wilson.
Newcomers to the club and C grade (but not for long) David Medlock and Ian Mongan gave C grade a good thrashing with numerous attacks. Phil Walker also had a go to add to the misery. This left a small group well off back and out of the action. Ian also created a break for a while. Although the official results, don't reflect this I think Ian and David got the quinella over Chris Kon.
Rob Langridge
Both E & F Grades settled into a steady pace for most of the race with no signs of anyone wanting to make an attack. With 8 minutes to go, the pace started to take it's toll on F Grade with the bunch spreading out. By 3 minutes to go, E Grade was down to a core group of 5 riders.
In E grade, Peter Jovanovic, a visitor, took first place followed by Linda Stals and Paul McKay. In F Grade. In F Grade, Lloyd Bennett took the honours followed by Dennis Puniard and and Peter Lafferty.
The A&B Grade saw a bit more combatitive racing with Rob Langridge and Ed Pelligrino making an early break in A Grade and Dougal Torrance making a solo charge in B Grade. Both of these attacks were reeled in by the peleton after a few laps.
There were a few more attacks in B Grade but these were all pulled back in by the bunch. It came down to a bunch sprint with Allan Bontjer, Jeremy Muir and Craig Tozer taking the podium. Three riders in A Grade, Aaron Thomson, Marc Vroomans and Jeffrey Dau were able to establish a solid breakaway and held on to the finish.
Thanks to the marshals, David Morgan and Ross Robinson, for the assistance at the finish as well as Henry Beaverstock for race organisation.
Ian Morton
After the previous week’s effort of a successful breakaway from C grade, we suspected that there might be some grumblings if we lined up in C grade again (even though during the Iron Mike C grade demonstrated an ability to chase us down if only they would work together). Mind you looking at the results it seems that our breakaway partner of last week rode C grade again and took out another win, so I suspect that he will be tapped on the shoulder before Tuesday to be invited up to B grade.
In the spirit of jumping before we were pushed we lined up in B grade. The weather was suitably atmospheric with darkening clouds and storms predicted. There was some lightning on the horizon later on in the race, but the rain held off.
There were 31 starters in B grade, and compared to the winter numbers it is a nice change to have a good sized bunch to race with. What was also a nice change was the behaviour of the bunch. It seemed to me that everyone was riding with consideration for each other and there were few wayward moments.
At least that was the case until the A grade bunches (they had split into three groups) started to come past and the shouts of ‘stay left’ seemed to get ignored until they were almost in a position to physically push the recalcitrant riders out of the way. Mind you I am a little puzzled as to why the third bunch found the need to try and get past at all. They caught us on their last lap, and there was already 8-10 riders up the road, so they had no chance of featuring in the placings and it seemed totally unnecessary to me. They ended up finishing just in front of us as we were receiving the bell to start our last lap and to their credit when they finished they cleared right off to the sides of the track to allow us to go past, showing more respect to our bunch than we did to theirs, so kudos to them.
As for John and I we sat in the bunch and for the most part kept a low profile. We did move up a couple of times and did a couple of turns, just to hold our end up but we were only on a watching brief this time. Some might have described the progress of the race as dull, since even though there were a couple of breakaway attempts, none really looked like being able ride away with it and they were reeled in without much fuss. However not for us, just riding in the bunch was good fun. It was just straight out fast, bunch riding. I first got into bike racing because I like going fast, and that hasn’t diminished.
In the last laps I was not prepared to go up and fight for position, so we just sat back and watched. In the end we were able to finish with the bunch reasonably comfortably, and enjoyed the faster pace. It may have been our worst ever placing in a criterium, but it was one of the most fun races we have had, so we came away buzzing. We expect to be back for more on Tuesday.
Cameron Ermert
The Wednesday 21 October Track session was cancelled due to rain.
Graeme O'Neill