ACT Veterans Weekly Bleat, Monday 8th April, 2019

Hello Vets,

In the Bleat this week;

• From the Desk of the President
• Racing this Week
• From the Race Committee
• Race Reports

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

Ian Morton

From the Desk of the President

Last Sunday saw the final event in our summer series of racing. 24 Crits were scheduled along with a similar number of Track events and 17 road races. Whilst we lost a few to rain, that’s still around 65 races since October 2018 – a huge effort from the Race Committee and those that marshalled and directed races. I thank everyone involved with the smooth running of the Summer series.

A particular thanks to those that assisted when, on the rare occasion, a rider came down and was hurt. One of the things I love about the Vets is that even in races, people will stop to help out another rider, whether it be an accident, or just to throw a spare tube at the rider who’s punctured.

From this week on races move to the Winter Calendar and riders should note that start times are adjusted to 1:30 PM to take into account the cool temperatures that are due to descend.

I am heartened to see that we’ve had some really good numbers turn out to the summer road series and would hope this continues into winter. See you on the road!

Final Summer Season Points

Men

Women

Season medal presentation will be at the Christmas Wheel Race event in December.

Dougal Torrance
President
ACT Veterans Cycling Club

RACING THIS WEEK:

Saturday, 13th April: Cooma Handicap

Where: Cooma Bobundra Rd.Start is 6km south of Cooma. Head East from Cooma on Monaro Hwy towards Nimmitabel. Turn right on Church St – Start is 6km from Cooma.
When: 1:30 pm.
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number
Race Description:
Cooma – Bobundra Rd – 40km out and back.

Race Director: Michael Carr Contact: Email: Michael@chars.com.au    Ph  0407177957

Marshals: Andrew Remely, Michael Foulds, Russell Marston, Paul Welsh

From the Race Committee

Race Directing and Marshalling Records in RMS

The requests for members to help as race directors and marshals at races is based on race records held in the rider management system (RMS). So if you have helped at a race, please check that your name is listed as director or marshal in the race results. If you are not listed, please contact the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) so that the results can be amended. These records reflect rostered helpers who have agreed to help in advance and have given up the opportunity to ride on the day, rather than ‘casual’ helpers, for example, a rider who pulls out early and helps at the end of the race.

Event Traffic Controller course for 1 June 2019

The next ETC Training course is on Saturday 1st June.

We did not get anyone interested in going on the March Course! We currently only have about 40 ETCs from a club of 300 members. Members need to share the burden of helping to run races. Having enough traffic controllers available in the club is critical to our ability to run races in the ACT and it is likely we will need to have ETCs for NSW races in the future. ETCs are eligible for reimbursement of $100 for marshalling at ACT road races.

Course details are available on Blended Learning’s web site – http://www.blendedlearning.edu.au/home/courses/programs-courses/event-traffic-controller/. I am still awaiting information on funding the training. YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO PAY.

Upcoming Marshal Roster

Thank you to those who have already volunteered to help. Nominees, in blue have been selected based on results from the previous race season and the period since they last helped at a race. Nominees are requested to advise their availability/unavailability to the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) as soon as possible.

Summer series crit races are held at Stromlo Forest Park on Tuesday evenings and road races are held on Sunday mornings.

#REF!

* denotes ETC required for ACT races.

Ian McVay
Race Committee

RACE REPORTS:

Orroral Valley Secret Handicap – 7th April

Five A graders set the pace from the gun on the 2.5km lap course.

To adhere to the Government requirements for the turns the course was lengthened from the advertised length.

After one hour 19 minutes flat, Peter Marshall took out the bunch sprint with Bradley Peppinck second and new member Nigel Smith third, returning to racing and good form Neil Skipper fourth, Anthony Willemsen new member fifth. These were the top five over the line and the top five overall.

Darren Blackhurst the first C grader was sixth, the recent ACT crit and road champion Anthony Beasley was seventh, pipping Des Brown who left his climbing legs in the car.

The handicapping was performed by the club expert Rob Langridge at the sign on.

A special thanks to Marshalls: Sue Powell, Robert Langridge, Frank O’Sullivan, Simon Milnes and Simon our trusty First Aider.

Nick Boylan

Mountain Creek Road – B Grade Report – 31st March

Eight B graders shivered their way off the start line on the inaugural running of the Mountain Creek Road to Caven out and back course. With chilly temps and a strong headwind on the way out on each lap, the bunch was quite happy to let the strong men of the group shoulder the majority of the work with Bruce Goodspeed, Simon Costello, John Paul De Sousa and the occasional cameo by club president, Dougal Torrance making up the lion’s share of those who put their faces in the wind on the first lap.

Buoyed on by the slight tailwind and temps nearing double figures, Simon Costello obviously felt like he’d seen enough of the new course to know where to hit the rest of the bunch and he drove a hard pace up the long climb – with still around two-thirds of race distance still to be covered, some wondered whether it was too far out to be more than a hit and hope. His strong effort shattered the bunch and left two others struggling to hold his wheel, debutante Hardy Lohse and the evergreen, Bruce Goodspeed. The trio were joined over the top of the climb by the man who dances up the hills, Ian Preston, and the four managed to stay together until the last few rollers into the finish. Each of the four tried their best to get away over the last few climbs, however, with Simon and Bruce being the strongest of the four, each attempt was quickly reeled back in. Coming in to the line Simon held a small gap gained by a solid effort over the last rise, but was overhauled in the final few metres by a fast finishing Hardy Lohse, followed by Bruce Goodspeed to eventually finish third, with Ian Preston taking fourth. The rest of the B Grade bunch finished separately, each making the most of the tailwind on the way home to record solid individual rides.

Hardy Lohse