Post date: Nov 13, 2017 7:5:17 AM
Hello Vets,
In the Bleat this week;
• SportsMed Course
• From the Desk of the Handicapper
• Call for ATC’s for last road races in 2017
• Racing this Week
• Race Reports
Please send me your contributions at: TheBleat@actvets.cc
Ian Morton
There is a Sports Med training course on 18th & 19th November, 8:30am-5:00pm, $285. Here’s the link: https://sma.jobreadyrto.com.au/terminal/online_book_course/12238.
The club will pay the fee, in return for which qualified members will be expected to be available in a non-racing capacity on the rare occasion that Sports Med can’t provide a trainer.
Ian McVay
This week's Promotions;
- Dave Roberts B to A
- Rainer Wilton B to A
- Wayne Benham D to C
Rob Langridge
2 x ATC’s required.
A lot of the ATC’s who re-certified in the last few months will be aware of the mentor sign-off to be completed before you can renew your licence. We will have a mentor available at both of these road races, so it is a great opportunity to complete the renewal process for your ATC licence. And all ATC’s are now eligible for a $50 payment for volunteering at each race. If you are available, please let me know bdavis@internode.on.net.
Ben Davis
Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
E/F/G 5:50 25 min + 2 laps
B/D 6:25 B 38m+2, D 33m+2
A/C 7:05 A 38m+2, C 33m+2
Race Director: Robert Langridge
Contact: Email: langridge@netspeed.com.au Ph 0450400658
Marshal: Sean Fleming
The Program for Wednesday is as follows:
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice;
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 8-lap graded scratch race;
6.20pm – 6.50pm: 200m Fly TT;
6.50pm – 7.10pm: 10 Lap Snowball;
7.10pm – 7.30pm: Italian Pursuit.
Where: Park in the "Gravel Pit" Old Federal Highway - Shingle Hill Way.
When: 9:00 am.
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
Shingle Hill Way - Lake George 2 Laps.
Race Director: tba Contact: Email: tba Ph tba
Marshals: Radi Kovacevic, Dale Dummett, Robert Mackey, David Dickson, Andrew McRae.
The nominated marshals for upcoming events are;
Date: Event - Marshals
21-11-2017: Stromlo FP - Brendan Lakey
26-11-2017: Dairy Road - Rico Fitch
28-11-2017: Stromlo FP - Peter Kitchen
3-12-2017: Cotter/Mt MacDonald - Michael Fawke
5-12-2017: Stromlo FP - Terence Merrigan
10-12-2017: Dairy Road - David Dickson
12-12-2017: Stromlo FP - Duane Toohey
17-12-2017: Dairy Road - Matthew Haddock
19-12-2017: Stromlo FP - Ben Davis
Robin Mules, only 2 days since his 255km epic, shot out the gate and put in a sizable gap into the bunch for a while. For the next 15 or so minutes there were a number of flurries from the usual protagonists, but nothing stuck. With a few laps to go Mr Smoothie Andrew Chamberlain slid off the front and maintained a huge gap with only half a lap remaining. Ben Morrison did the unsprinter-like act and actually chased him down himself. In the home straight Andrew's effortless pedalling was replaced with standard vets clunkiness and he was mowed down by Ben just before the line but held off Paul Connor who got third.
B grade has had more successful breakaways this season than in the past 5 combined. After Nick Boylan and Mark Taylor had finished their usual opening lap display, it was once again, and for the last time (I might add), the Dave Roberts and Rainer Wilton show, but on this occasion visitor Dave Coyles came along for the ride and the B grade policemen were powerless to stop it. Such was their pace that they were close to lapping the field so I was dying to red flag the rest of the bunch but we ran out of time. In the charge for the line, Dave R won the sprint from Rainer and David C.
Master tactician Allan Bontjer set this one up with an early attack and the composition of the group changed a few times until settling with Ian I-don't-try-on-the-last-lap Preston, young Tim Brown and Michael Hanbury. A breakaway in C grade is a rare thing and the bunch kept splitting up and was in chaos as a result. On the back straight for the last time, Tim used the A grade vortex to get ahead of the others and then maintained the gap until the finish with Allan and Ian following.
Such was the pace of this race that Ben Davis was spotted early on chatting with one hand on his hip. As far as I could tell nothing happened until the last lap. Wayne Benham crossed the line first followed by Dan Grillo and Sean I-can-chat-and-race Fleming.
Despite the gloom and spitting rain, E grade provided plenty of action. There were numerous attacks, the first involving Tess McLachlan, Angie Wren, Phil Anderson and Frank O'Sullivan. The rest of the bunch waited behind Elton and Lindy on the tandem hoping it would close the narrow gap but it didn't so single riders started to cross by themselves. A new break was also formed with Des Brown, John Ignatius and others but it didn't last. On the final back straight Tess gapped the bunch but was mowed down by Michael Brice with the finish line beckoning. Visitor David O'Keefe got third.
This was shaping up to be a two-man slug-fest, but instead Tim Gavel and David Witteveen politely swapped turns until Tim got a slight gap in the home straight. It was getting dark, however, and Tm was dressed in black so David may have a different story.
Bernie was nowhere to be seen so let's hope he had his money on Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling and was still celebrating.
Robert Langridge
The fifth Track Racing session for 2016-17 attracted another good roll up of 18 riders. The evening was perfect for racing, warm, sunny and with just a slight breeze that moved around directionally over the evening.
The 8-lap A grade scratch race unfolded to a conventional script. With Mark Harris and Michael Langdon in the bunch, there was no one up for an early attack. The pace was solid and held the pack together for the first six laps, with no riders dropped. As lap 7 commenced, Mark Harris hauled off the front, pursued by Michael Langdon, Paul Kennedy, Hamish Anderson and John Paul De Sousa. There was no catching Mark, who won comfortably. Michael Langdon and Paul Kennedy took second and third in that order. Hamish Anderson showed his potential by taking fourth, one up from last week.
The 8-Lap B grade scratch race started at an easy pace. However, the pace lifted incrementally as the laps ticked by, until one rider was dropped on lap 6. The remaining pack was together approaching the bell lap. The race transitioned to a classic lead out and bunch sprint from which Phil Anderson emerged victorious over Tony Beasley and Ross Scutts. It was a good tactical win by Phil.
The next event was a 2-Lap time trial from a standing start at the railing. There was a little apprehension, as 2 laps provide the perfect distance for a real gut busting effort. The times were quite interesting with A grade all under 60 seconds and B grade mostly over 60s except for sub-minute times by the two (unrelated) Andersons, Hamish and Phil. Michael Langdon set the best time at 51.06 seconds, closely followed by Paul Kennedy in 52.69 seconds. Ed Garnett showed his recent good form by setting the third best A grade time at 53.01 seconds. In B grade, Hamish Anderson set a great winning time of 53.70 seconds. He was followed by Phil Anderson in 59.64 seconds, then Tony Beasley in 60.61 seconds.
The track session closed with the usual all-in, Italian pursuit. This race had a large field with nine riders on each team. The teams generally executed rider changes quite well. However, Team 2 gained an advantage by mid race and could not be hauled in. The anchor riders Michael Langdon, Paul Kennedy (Team 2), Ed Garnett and Mark Harris (Team 1) had quite a torrid time with a long, fast contest. Congratulation to team 2 for a hard fought win.
Major place getters were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A Grade): Mark Harris, Michael Langdon, Paul Kennedy (B Grade) Phil Anderson, Tony Beasley, Ross Scutts.
2-Lap SS Time Trial: (A Grade): Michael Langdon (51.06s), Paul Kennedy (52.69s), Ed Garnett (53.01s) (B Grade) Hamish Anderson (53.70s), Phil Anderson (59.64s), Tony Beasley (60.61s)
Combined Italian Pursuit: Winner Team 2 (Michael Langdon, John Paul De Sousa, Paul Kennedy, Graeme O'Neill, Ross Scutts, Hamish Anderson, Andrew Peel, David McCook, Phil Anderson).
Season Point Score Update:
Hamish Anderson (91), Michael Langdon (81), Paul Kennedy (73), Phil Anderson (70), John Paul DeSousa (66), Tony Beasley (64), Ross Scutts (62), Ed Garnett (57), Phil Coulton (54).
Graeme O'Neill
Under grey skies with a slight north-westerly wind, 35 riders and a few million flies congregated at the Uriarra Homestead for the first road race of the Summer Season. Uriarra always throws up a few challenges with swooping magpies, aggressive 4wd drivers often par for the course. However on this morning we had a rogue sheep and a newly surfaced road to contend with. The race was conducted over 2 laps for all grades with the turn points at Condor creek and the top of Uriarra crossing.
With CCC holding their TT club champs on at the same time, A grade only produced 3 riders. So a quick vote was held on the line and they decided to join in with the B grade field of 10 riders. After 1 lap, the A’s had dropped a few of the B’s but there was still a good handful of B’s hanging in hoping to make it up and over the final climbs with the speedy A’s. Coming past the judges with ½ lap to go, Peter Marshall had obviously attacked somewhere in the mountains to hold a slight 300 mtr lead over the chase group. Would he hold on to the end or get caught was the big question? Coming into the finish line sight he was still alone and maintained roughly the same distance over the latter half of the lap to win in the fastest time of the day 1:20:41. The sprint was a mixed affair with A and B graders thrashing it out. Marc Vroomans sprinted home for 2nd place in A with Brad Peppinck only 3 seconds behind in 3rd. In B grade Wayne Spratford was 3rd overall, and 1st in B grade in a close wprint from Rohan Verco just 1 sec behind and Rainer Wilton only 7 seconds behind in 3rd.
9 riders to begin with only 1 DNF during the race. With some very strong riders in this grade, it’s always hard to pick who will be in prime condition on the day. Often strong crit riders in B will drop back into C road races, but with a course like Uriarra, it doesn’t guarantee them an easy ride. Ian Preston shows why he loves these types of races with strong attacks early on breaking up the field. A select group of 4 riders cleared out over the 2nd lap. With half a lap to go, it was anyone’s race and resulted in a sprint finish. On the line Ian Preston took a narrow win of 1 sec over Ian McVay in 2nd and Ben Healy another 1sec behind in 3rd.
5 riders began the journey with only 1 DNF. Even though all the riders are graded D for road, the diversity in this group is obvious when you look at the crit grades and you have B right through to E grades represented. Anything can happen in this grade and it did early on with a select group jumping off the front and punishing Bryan Holloway who is coming back from a chest infection. The 3 riders of Brian Chugg, Des Brown and Steven Simms were all in contention over the final lap and it came down to Brian and Des battling it out right to the line. Brian Chugg took line honours just ahead of Des brown only 1 sec behind with Steve Simms rounding out 3rd place.
5 riders started in E and this was a very closely fought race with 4 making a break on the 1st lap. Sue Powell, Alex Sommariva, John Ignatius and Kirsti McVay all traded places throughout the race and none were giving the others an inch over the tough 47km course. And it came down to a race of inches in the end with Sue Powell outsprinting the others to take a fine win ahead of Alex Sommariva and John Ignatius. Great to see all that track sprint work pay off in a road event Sue!
Tim Gavel had the enviable task of marking the tandem of John Barlow and Tony Beasley in F Grade. The rule with tandems is generally what goes up generally comes down 10x quicker and by the 1st lap, Tim could not hang onto the tandem freight train. The tandem continued to push hard over the course and finished very well in a time of 1:46:51.
I’d like to thank the following people who gave up a few hours of their Sunday morning to help out:
Doug Widdup who controlled the turn point at Condor Creek
Frank Sullivan who controlled with turn point at Uriarra Crossing
Bob Kent for the T intersection and finish line traffic management
Sue Duckett for finish line duties
Paul Robey our sports med genius who ensured all riders made it back safely
Graham Hendrie who never lets us down with the van duties and the very popular coffee/tea/bikkie setup at the end of the race.
Ben Davis
Race Referee