ACT Veterans Weekly Bleat, Monday 19th February, 2018

Hello Vets,

In this week’s Bleat;

• From the Race Committee
• Notice of Annual General Meeting 2018
• From the Desk of the Handicapper
• Interstate Events
• Racing this Week
• Race Reports

Please send me your contributions at: TheBleat@actvets.cc

Ian Morton

From the Race Committee

Dear Members,

It has been brought to our attention some precarious riding in some of the grades. Both riders and the race referee have noticed several riders in a TT style position with their forearms resting on the top of the bars. Although it may be comfortable, it has un-nerved some riders in the pack and your handling skills are diminished.

Riders are reminded to be in full control of their bike at all times during the race. This means hands gripped around the handlebars. Be warned that if the Race referee spots you riding in a style that puts the race at risk, you will be identified and your participation in the race may be at risk.

Race Committee

Annual General Meeting

Members wishing to nominate for a Committee position can download a nomination form here

From the Desk of the Handicapper

I’m still in Newcastle enjoying the warm weather here.

This week’s changes;
– Peter Taylor B to A
– Mark Kitchen E to D
– Penelope Anderson F to E

Regards,
Rob Langridge
Handicapper

Interstate and Local Events

• 2018 Tolland Open Handicap Weekend
  3-4 March
  Saturday: 90km Handicap &Sunday: 72km Handicap.
  $17,000 in Cash & $3,000 in Prizes. Entry Fee: $52.
  Entries Close: Wednesday 21st February 2018.
  For All Enquiries Please Contact Club President – Barry O’Hagan 0431 919 803.

  Note: Any interested Vets members should check on licensing requirements for this event (you may need to be CA licensed).

• AVCC Championships
  Easter Weekend31st Mar – 2 April
  Saturday: 25km Time Trial, Sunday: Criterium and Monday: Road Races.
  Championship Jerseys, Medals and Prize Money. Entry Fee: $25 per event, $5 transponder hire for the weekend.
  Entries open soon: www.veterancycling.com.au. For further information: Tom Finning Mob: 0418 521 420 EMail: veterancycling@yahoo.com.au.
• Giro d’Canberra
  20 May 2018
  • Want to take on the challenge? The ride features 2500 metre climbs and 130km of stunning Canberra Brindabella countryside
  • Cycling is powering ahead in Canberra
  • Giro d’ Canberra is in its third year and growing
  • Lots of interest from Sydney based riders
  • Get in on the early stages of a growing annual event
  • A chance to promote your community cycling activities
  • Fully supported ride with vehicles and food stations
  • Organised by the Rotary Club of Woden Daybreak

  Entries:www.GirodCanberra.gofundraise.com.au. For further information: Barry Welsby Mob: 0413729951 EMail: welsbw@internode.on.net.

RACING THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, 20th February: Stromlo Criterium

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
A/C 6:20 A 35m+2, C 32m+2
B/D 7:10 B 35m+2, D 32m+2

Race Director:  Mick Donaldson Contact: Email: mdonaldson@netspeed.com.au    Ph  0418486367

Track Racing

Wednesday, 21th February: Track Racing

The Program for Wednesday is as follows:
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice;
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 10-lap Graded Scratch;
6.20pm – 6.50pm: 200m Fly;
6.50pm – 7.10pm: 2-lap Handicap;
7.10pm – 7.30pm: Italian Pursuit.

Sunday, 25th February: Stromlo Forest Park Club Championship

Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
Start times and duration to be advised.

Race Director:  Mick Donaldson Contact: Email: mdonaldson@netspeed.com.au    Ph  0418486367

Upcoming Marshal Roster

Basically anyone who raced in 2017 will be required to marshal at least 1 race throughout the 2018 season. Marshals are critical to the running of events through the helping of finish line duties, driving trail/lead cars, turn points and setting up/packing up. The marshal assignment schedule for the first 6 months of the year is below. It is also on the race calendar and you receive an email advising you of it several weeks in advance, so there should be no excuses to missing your allocated race. If you are unavailable for your allocated race you need to organize a swap with another rider and advise the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc).

RACE REPORTS:

Stromlo – 13th February

A Grade

Bang, it was that quick. 6 riders attacked from the gun and were away. The group had notable riders such as Mark Harris, Seymour and Michael Foulds. Was this going to be a 38 min break? By the end of lap 1, 2 extra riders who missed the first break had managed to bridge the gap with a chase group about 75 metres away. There were working furiously to make it onto the back. After several laps, the chasers after a mountain of work had made it onto the back and thought they’d take a breather. But Mark Harris had other plans and attacked again. You could see the demoralization kick in and several legs became very heavy, very quickly. At the halfway mark of the race, Seymour and Harris enjoyed a 90 mtr lead over a few chasers but a few minutes later they were caught by 4 other riders. They rode as a group of 6 for the rest of the race and it came down to a mass sprint. Mark Harris at this time of the year as he looks to collect a bag full of gold medals at track events in Sydney is very hard to beat and held off Seymour Savell-Boss and Mark Terracini in 3rd.

B Grade

El Prez (Dougal) and Tim Minehan got their legs moving early but were quickly caught. Usually attacks in the early stages generate a bit of a look around in the main pack as riders look to each other to chase down the attackers. But judging from the faces of B grade they weren’t looking so fussed with several attacks in the early stages. With 12 mins to go, Peter Taylor attacked but once again the peloton look confident that the attack would burn out like so many before it on the night. This was to prove a fatal mistake. As the pace heated up so much that El Prez blew a puncture, Mark Taylor kept applying the pressure out front and eventually rode away with the race to take a fine win. 2nd was a sprint with Heath Chester taking 2nd ahead of Ben McDuff in 3rd.

C Grade

Chris Daly and Ian Preston joined forces early on to split the grade. Wayne Benham joined them and the rest were always chasing on the night. With around 10 mins to go, Wayne drpped off and left Chris and Ian to ride alone. The rest of the field was split to pieces mixed in amongst the stragglers of A. It was near impossible to keep track of where everyone was on the course. With so many riders spread around the track, Ian and Chris had to navigate a few riders in the finishing straight during the sprint with Ian taking it a few mnetres ahead of Chris with Wayne in 3rd.

D Grade

Matthew Haddock took off early. It was to be a strategic attack as he made most advantage for when B grade overtook the D grade peloton, B grade slowed for a few laps and held up D. This enabled Matt to stay away and build a strong 700 mtr lead. Once B grade got motoring and overtook Matt, he once again gained a very slight advantage by staying just off the back of B grade. A reminder that you should stay a good 10 metres off the back of the faster grade to avoid any advantage. Matt rode strongly for the rest of the race to hold off the big chasing group. He certainly looks like he can ride up a grade or two. 2nd place went to Gillian Lugg who rode strongly all night and did a lot of the chasing on behalf of the 17 other D Graders who were hiding out of the strong wind that had picked up. 3rd went to Steve Hirsler who is improving well.

E Grade

A great sized field of 16 riders in E Grade. Once the race was underway, they were all over the shop and by lap 4 were split up to all parts of the course. It was incredibly difficult to track who was leading, who was fading and who was overtaking. What I do remember was that there was Ian Morton and Mark Kitchen on a fairly solid break. They seemed to be joined by one or two others halfway through the race but then they caught up to F Graders who then started to lap some of the E graders with Ian and Mark dropping the others who had caught up. As you can imagine, it was chaos! In the end Mark Kitchen rode away for the win ahead of Ian Morton with Bruce Maclay rounding out 3rd.

F Grade

6 riders and again all spread over the course. One rider who rode clear was Penelope Anderson who figured the best way to win was to drop everyone else. Usually is the best tactic. She rode away for the win ahead of David Witteveen in 2nd and Lindsay Graham in 3rd.

G Grade

Mijo and Bernie battled it out for a few early laps until Mijo got a break into the wind and gapped Bernie. After that it was all smooth sailing for Mijo to the line with Bernie cruising home for 2nd.

Thanks as always to Simon the sports med for helping at the finish chute and Phill Coulton for helping me to keep track of the various grades spread all over the track on one of those nights where it was hard to keep track of everyone.

Regards
Ben Davis

Narrabundah Track Racing – 14th February

There was a reduced turnout of 13 riders for Session 16 of the track racing season. Upcoming state competitions may have had an impact on numbers. The day was hot and dry. Initially there was a very stiff headwind in the back straight. However, this wind moderated over the race session providing quite good conditions for racing.

An 8-lap combined A & B grade scratch race was added to the race schedule as the small turnout would allow the following individual events to be completed in shorter time than originally expected. The 8 lap race was nominally a scratch race. However, to give B grade a fighting chance, they were given almost three-quarters of a lap start on A grade. Initially B grade combined well to hold out the pursuing A grade bunch. By lap 5, B grade were getting ragged. Tony Beasley and Steve Hirsler held their pace and the group started to split apart. Around this stage, A grade had worked up a head of steam and were pursuing ferociously. Mark Harris could see that the A grade bunch would not quite catch Tony Beasley so he accelerated off in lone pursuit. By lap 7, Mark had Tony in his sights and comfortably reeled him in over the bell lap. Tony held on for second place and Steve Hirsler held on for a creditable third. Rowan McMurray and Ross Scutts came in next. Overall, there were very good efforts from the lead riders.

The evening’s second event was a 1-lap screamer (flying start) time trial. This is an exhilarating event. However, it is amazing how spent you can feel after one lap flat out. The stand out in this event was Mark Harris, whose time of 21.73 seconds was more than a second ahead of the next best and several seconds better than the average. In this event seconds are a big margin.

In A grade Hamish Anderson and Ed Garnett put in good screamer times of 22.91 seconds and 22.95 seconds respectively. The best B grade time was by Steve Hirsler at 24.34 seconds. I know this type of short sprint event is a favourite with Steve. Tony Beasley and Ross Scutts also put in good B Grade times at 25.27 and 25.59 seconds respectively.

Third event for the night was series of two up, match races over 2 laps. The first lap was made neutral in order to blunt the tactic of sprinting off from the start (normally employed successfully by el presidente!). The match races are always interesting particularly from the perspective of winning tactics. In A grade John Paul De Sousa, Ed Garnett and Dougal Torrance emerged as winners. Dougal is obviously adaptable, tactically. In B grade the clear winners were Ross Scutts and Bruce Griffin. Tony Beasley and Steve Hirsler had an interesting sprint where they could not be separated by the naked eye at the finish.

The evening finished with the usual all-in Italian Pursuit. These are often great races and the event did not disappoint this time. With Mark Harris as anchor rider on Team 1, the selector was forced to even things out by allocating a majority of A grade riders to Team 2. In the event, the Team 1 riders simply excelled, performing way above expectation. Team 2 managed to gain an initial lead and hold it right to the final riders. However, with Mark as anchor, the lead was never enough. Mark chased down John Paul De Sousa and took the win by several metres for Team 1. Congratulations to the whole of Team 1 and especially their B grade contingent, for a great effort.

Major place getters were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A & B Grade): Mark Harris, Tony Beasley, Steve Hirsler.
1-Lap Screamer: (A Grade) Mark Harris 21.73s, Hamish Anderson 22.91s, Ed Garnett 22.95s. (B Grade) Steve Hirsler 24.34s, Tony Beasley 25.27s, Ross Scutts 25.59s.
2-Lap Match Races: (A Grade winners) John Paul De Sousa, Ed Garnett, Dougal Torrance. (B Grade Winners) Ross Scutts, Bruce Griffin, Tony Beasley & Steve Hirsler (dead heat).
Combined Italian Pursuit: Winner Team 1 (Mark Harris, David McCook, Ross Scutts, Bruce Griffin, Tony Beasley, Steve Hirsler).

Season Point Score Update:
Michael Langdon (286), Hamish Anderson (234), Ross Scutts (226), John Paul DeSousa (197), Tony Beasley (189), Steve Hirsler (170), Phil Anderson (128), Ben Robey (128), Ed Garnett (118).

Graeme O’Neill