Post date: Feb 13, 2017 9:0:7 AM
Hello Vets,
In the Bleat this week;
• Big Canberra Bike Ride 2017
• From the desk of the handicapper
• Racing this Week
• Race Reports
Please send me your contributions at: TheBleat@actvets.cc
Ian Morton
BE PART OF THE 2017 BIG CANBERRA BIKE RIDE & VOLUNTEER!
Pedal Power ACT is conducting the 2017 Big Canberra Bike Ride on Sunday 5 March 2017. The Big Canberra Bike Ride is an event for all abilities and ages to celebrate safe cycling in Canberra.
Volunteers are essential to the success of the Big Canberra Bike Ride and your involvement would be highly valuable. With a range of volunteer duties that includes drivers, road marshals, event workforce and many others we will have a task for you! If you are interested in helping out on Saturday 4 March &/or Sunday 5 March please contact Joanne Brown at events@pedalpower.org.au, phone 6248 7995 or visit the website www.bigcanberrabikeride.com.au
President Torrance's recent rousing speech asserting "Dougal first, Dougal first!" was replicated at Stromlo on the past two Tuesdays earning him a promotion to A grade. Congratulations Pres.
- Dougal Torrance B to A
- Bryan Holloway C to B
- Michael Golding E to D
Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
A/C 5:50 A 38m+2, C 35m+2
B/D 6:35 B 38m+2, D 35m+2
E/F/G 7:15 28 min + 2 laps
Race Director: tba
Contact: Email: tba Ph tba
Race Director and 2 x marshals required for this event, please let the Race Committee know if you can assist.
The Program for Wednesday is as follows:
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice;
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 10-lap graded scratch race;
6.20pm – 6.50pm: 1 Lap Screamer TT (flying start);
6.50pm – 7.20pm: 2-lap match race;
7.20pm – 7.30pm: Italian pursuit.
Where:Uriarra Homestead, intersection of Uriarra Rd and Brindabella Rd.
When: 9:00 am.
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
Uriarra Homestead - Short turn - top of Uriarra Crossing - short turn - top of Uriarra Crossing - finish
Race Director: Des Brown
Contact: Email: despot1946@gmail.com Ph 0405 925 828
Marshals: John Paul De Sousa, 2 x ATC required, 2 x Marshal required
The strong winds played havoc with the 19 strong bunch starting to split on the first lap. A group of 6 headed by Michael Fawke quickly established a gap and once Michael backed off a bit they worked well together to consolidate the lead. The group consisted of Michael, Dougal Torrance, Heath Chester, Tim Minehan, Simon Junokovic and Al Bontjer. Troy Cassell tried valiantly to bridge across but got stuck in the middle and finally had to concede and drop back to the main group of around 12 riders. The main group started to swap off turns and held the lead group at a constant distance for a while, but just couldn’t make inroads. After a few laps Al decided discretion was the better part of valour and dropped back to the main bunch too. The lead 5 continued to swap off turns and, other than a bit of confusion trying to pass D grade for the second time, had an uneventful run through to a group sprint won by Dougal. Heath took a well earnt 2nd place and, despite being the obvious strong man of the break, Michael came home 3rd. There were a few moves from the main bunch every now and then, but realistically they were never going to bridge across. Roger Northcote ended up leading them home.
D grade was a much more gentlemanly affair and despite the strong cross winds they largely stayed as a close group. There were a few little flurries of enthusiasm but nothing that stuck. David Johnson made the cardinal sin of jumping on the back of B grade for a little while but paid his punishment by having to go solo in the wind for about 4 laps before being swallowed back into the bunch. In the end the bunch sprint was won by James Curran from Kirsty Cummin and Sean Fleming. Terence Merrigan won the hard man award by sticking in to the finish despite suffering a severe rear wheel buckle that had the rim rubbing on the brakes for most of the race.
Thanks to Tom our first aider for again stepping up and assisting with marshalling duties, putting out the final lap counters and taking results. There was a distinct lack of people offering up some time in response to the Bleat call for marshalls which is pretty poor form. If you coordinate with someone from another grade you can easily marshall and still get a race in, and it’s a pretty easy job. A big thanks to Roger Northcote for sharing Race Director duties with me, finishing of the duties for E,F,G and running A and C.
Paul Connor
In A-grade there was an attack on the opening lap with three riders breaking free and starting to smoothly work together. The second bunch rather than working together to rejoin, was split by constant furious attacks from riders trying to bridge to the first group. Some of these failed, but eventually, four riders got across in different attempts so that the lead group consisted of Nicholas Stewart, Marc Vroomans, Mark Harris Michael Brice, Paul Connor, Rowan McMurphy, and Sean Ifland. The race then settled down for with the front seven gradually building up a commanding lead of three quarters of a lap, and the remaining bunch also working well together, but at a slower pace. Nicholas Stewart attacked hard from the front bunch with 2 laps to go and went on to a convincing win by the length of the straight. Mark Vroomans beat Mark Harris in the sprint for second. It was a great race to watch, very fast, with everyone going hard until the end.
C-grade was comparatively a more sedate affair, with the 12 riders largely content to stay in a bunch, and work together, apart from a couple of stragglers who eventually got dropped. It seemed C-grade were motivated to measure themselves against the truly furious pace of A-grade. In that regard they did really well, as they were overtaken twice by the lead A-grade bunch and only once by the second bunch. Bryan Holloway made a good move on the last lap and won quite easily, and was almost apologetic about his victory, saying “I did do a lot of the work with the bunch”. That was certainly the case. Jayson Clarke beat Graham Tanton in the sprint for second.
The E-grade race split into two main bunches, with Linda Stals eventually losing touch with the front bunch, but worked very hard to stay ahead of the second and finish in fifth place. Andrew O’Neil won the final sprint ahead of Michael Golding with Theresa McLachlan third and Simon Johnston fourth.
Most of F-grade stayed together until the final sprint, with Mike Hayes narrowly winning from David Witteveen and Bill Frost.
Bernie Crowe was again the sole G Grader.
Roger Northcote
Again, the Track Racing was cancelled due to rain.
Graeme O'Neill
After two days of extreme heat, Sunday morning greeted the riders at Dairy Flat road refreshed after some overnight rain. Excellent racing conditions with the temperature around 25 degrees and some good numbers in the grades.
Bernie Crowe went off with Paul Robey in F Grade via a handicap start. As Bernie was the only contender in G Grade this week, he obviously cleaned up all the points on offer. He is keeping his fitness up for when Bruce Jones comes back to racing so they can resume their battles.
I gave Paul Robey a bit longer handicap to the chasing E Grade this week with Paul warming up for his tilt at the 500mtr time trial next weekend in the NSW Track championships. Unfortunately Dairy Flat is not held over just 500mtrs and after Paul took the first sprint he was quickly caught by E Grade and promptly spat out the back. Graham Hendrie also in F grade held onto the E Grade pack for longer and subsequently cleaned up all the other F Grade sprints. Although it was great to see Graham contend for the final E Grade sprint of the day, I really should have told him he didn’t need to. Oh well good exercise!
It was a 3-way rider square up in E grade with Linda Stals the only female competitor on the day. Come on ladies, come out and race! John Lowe took out the first 2 sprints, but these obviously took the wind out of him for the 3rd and final sprint. Linda once again has the tactics to storm home on the final sprint to collect the bonus points and the overall 1st position in E Grade. 1st- Linda Stals 11 pts, 2nd -John Lowe 10pts, 3rd – Des Brown 9pts.
4 riders took to the course which was now getting quite humid. Once again close sprints each time with the intermediate sprints being shared between David Gunther and Simon Johnston. It came down to the final sprint for it to be decided where Simon edged out David to take the overall win. 1st- Simon Johnston 11pts, 2nd- David Gunther 10pts, 3rd- Phil Anderson 4 pts.
6 riders started, 5 finished with Rico deciding to keep riding around the lake after one of the laps. Ian Preston takes out most aggressive rider on the day with quite a number of big efforts at the front or attacks out of the corners. Unfortunately other riders were able to stick to his wheel and nullify the pressure he was heaping on the group. In the intermediate sprints, Tony Beasley was duking it out with Jamie McRae. Coming into the final sprint lap, Tony held a slender 1 point lead over Jamie and it was anyone’s sprint. We needed the high tech slow-mo video on the finish line (otherwise known as the iphone) to determine the eventual winner with Tony Beasley using his track skills to push the front wheel forward on the line to take the win. 1st- Tony Beasley 15pts, 2nd-Jamie McRae 13pts, 3rd-Ian Preston 5 pts.
10 riders lined up for the start of B grade with all eyes on club president Dougal Torrance. The big question was whether he was going to sandbag the race to stay in B. With the eyes of the handicapper right behind him, anything was possible. Things started rather evenly. After 3 intermediate sprints we had Dougal, Tim Minehan & David Dickson event on 6 points each. Pressure applied at the turns and more surging than an Uber car meant some riders began to drop off. Tim then went on an enterprising but the danger back in the pack was sensed and he was reeled in. Chris Nolan waited right to the end to take out the final sprint with all eyes on the minor placings to decide the overall winner. Equal on 13 pts was David Dickson and Tim Minehan however David Dickson was declared the winner on countback after coming in 2nd in the final sprint with Tim coming home 3rd. 1st- David Dickson 13pts, 2nd- Time Minehan 13pts, 3rd-Dougal Torrance 13pts.
5 riders in A. It was neutral to the first turn at which point Christophe Barbaret declared his intentions for the day by attacking. He took the 3 points in the first sprint by a good 100 metres. Good tactics were then shown as he slowed down to let the chasing pack make the catch. It would be a game person to try to hold off A grade for the next 30 mins in the humid air. Peter Young then went on the attack on sprint #3 and took an easy 3. Once again the final sprint was to determine the overall winner. We expected a ding dong battle between Christophe and Mark, however as they rounded the tree, Peter Young was again disrupting the proceedings and took out the final sprint with Christophe and Seymour. The 2nd placing for Christophe in the final was enough to seal overall victory. 1st- Christophe Barbaret, 2nd- Mark Harris, 3rd- Peter Young.
Thanks for all who raced. After the heat of the past two days it was thankfully not too hot for racing. Thanks to Graham Hendrie for van duties and Tom Roberts for Medical support.
Ben Davis
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