Hello Vets,

Sorry for the re-send, there was a spurious space in the sender email address which might have caused some email clients to reject the message.

In the Bleat this week;

  • From the Desk of the President
  • 2020 Australasian Masters Cycling Championships, NZ
  • Gunning Marshals
  • 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

Firstly, I would like to thank Dougal for his service to the club as President over the last three years, and for his continuing role on the Committee for 2020. Thanks also to all past and present Committee members for all the great work that they do to enable us to race week in and week out.

I have been a club member since 2009, and since then have raced in almost every grade, beginning in F grade, which has given me the opportunity to meet many members over the last 12 years. If you have raced with me you’ll know that I’m a keen (yet flawed) sprinter and always up for a crazy attack. Those of you who monitor the Club’s Facebook page may be familiar with my bike related dad jokes. Please be assured that even though I have attained this lofty position, they will continue.

I feel immensely proud and privileged to take on the role of President and look forward to representing you all, and for the Committee to continue to build our good work, with a well-organised race calendar and races.

I’m very willing to listen to members’ ideas to put forward to the Committee, so please get in touch. I see many of our 250 paid members posting great rides on Strava and I’m keen to find out how we could encourage more members to be active in the Club’s racing.

Thank-you to all for the confidence and support I have received thus far. The ACT Vets Cycling Club is a great community to be part of and I’m looking forward to being more involved this year.

Seymour Savell-Boss
President ACT Veterans Cycling Club

2020 Australasian Masters Cycling Championships, NZ

The first Australasian Masters Cycling Championships will be held in New Zealand over Easter 2020. Details are on their Website: http://masterscycling.co.nz/

Australian Masters are also able enter the NZ age group championships the following week, details: https://age-group-road-nationals.cyclingnewzealand.nz/.

Gunning Marshals

The Gunning 2 Day event will held on the weekend of the 2/3 May 2020. To be able to run the event, we need the assistance of marshals, lead and tail drivers and general helpers.

All helpers are reimbursed for this event. We currently only have one helper and need 6 each day to run the event.

Family members and friends are OK to come and assist as volunteers. If you are willing to assist, please contact the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc).

RACING THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, 3rd March: Stromlo Criterium – Christmas Wheel Race

As a result of the abandonment of the Christmas Wheel Race event last December due to smoke, this is a re-run of the Christmas Heats and Wheel race. FREE ENTRY and prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
E/F/G 5:50 25 m 2 laps
A/C 6:20 A 30m 2, C 25m 2
B/D 6:50 B 30m 2, D 25m 2
The first 5 riders from each grade qualify for the final
Wheel Race Final:
Final 7:35 4 laps with each grade handicapped

Race Director:  Ian McVay Contact: Email: imcvay@grapevine.com.au    Ph  0406378509

Marshal: Rosemary Robinson

Wednesday, 4th March: Track Racing

The Program for Wednesday is;
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice;
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 8-lap Graded Scratch;
6.20pm – 6.50pm: 2-lap Match Race (Omnium Event);
6.50pm – 7.10pm: 2-Lap Handicap;
7.10pm – 7.30pm: Italian Pursuit.

Road Racing

Sunday, 8th March: No scheduled race due to Canberra Day long weekend

From the Race Committee

Upcoming Race Officials Roster

Rostered race officials are shown against each race in the Race Calendar http://rms.actvets.cc/calendar.

If your name is followed by TBC (To Be Confirmed) you need to contact the race committee as soon as possible to either confirm your attendance or to request a swap.

Empty race directors and marshal positions are denoted as Vacant. Some marshals for races in the ACT need to be Events Traffic Controllers (ETC) and appear as Vacant ETC.

Please review the vacancies for upcoming races and email the race committee with events you would like to help out at, rather than wait and be asked to help at a race you wanted to do.

Races cannot happen without members contributing to make them happen.

Ian McVay
Race Committee

RACE REPORTS:

Club Championships – Part 2 – 25th February

The last race of the night was three categories combined, with no M1 riders, only two in M2, with a new rider doing well to hang in until the bug split

Lewis Cressy won the M2 race by default, but was part of the action for the whole race

M2: Lewis Cressey

M3

Rainer Wilton made the pace for most of the race. Causing many splits, mostly the bunch came back together in the first 20 minutes.

Joel Rahman and Gavin Stephens rode bravely, but were dropped for good after a flurry of attacks from Lewis Cressy, followed by Rainer, Bradley Perrernick and Andrew Murrell. The strain on Kurt Andrews face was obvious.

Kurt and Andrew formed a chasing bunch, trying their best to catch the leaders, but the A graders increased their lead each lap.

Rainer seemed to be doing too much work, but when he started his sprint before collarbone corner and held off attempts by Matthew Corby and Bradley to come around in the final straight.

Kurt won the sprint of the second group.

M3: Rainer Wilton, Mathew Corby, Bradley Peppinck

M4

This was an exciting and animated race, with lots of attacks, chases and re-groups. Mark , Paul Scherl and Marc . Early on their were some dropped riders from the initial stress of the attack and subsequent chase. Jason Chalker came in with a dud battery, but replaced it and was back out within a lap.

The race came back together, but again and Crispin were up the road again. A few more riders suffered because ot the pace and Paul Ledbrook, Michael Hanbury, CraigO’Neall and Peter Merrick became the chasing group.

The larger chase group was now 8, with the occasional attempt off the front to try and join the leading two. Chalker made his way across, joined by Vrooms, then Liam O’dea. With break away neutralized for the moment the race came back together monetarily. Liam saw the pace go off and attacked, followed by Scherl and Ben Carmody. All this action in only two laps saw the demise of Lance Purdon, Lance, Rowan McMurray and Dominic Romano.

Although they nearly made it back to the peleton late in the race. Their problems were made worse by an attacking Liam O’Dea, which was swallowed up buy the chasing bunch including Crispin who took this opportunity to attack, ride away and stay away for the win. The chase was on with Vroomans, Chalker, Carmody and Terracini tryint bo make in roads on teh lead. Towards the end the spirit went out of teh chase and the Scherl lead chasing bunch containing Goodfellow, Seymour Savell-Boss and Ledbrook got back on for an instant before the sprint started.

Steve Crisping won with a handy lead. Marc Vrooms showing good form out-sprinted the attacking Terracini and Jason Chalker.

M4: Steve Crispin, Marc Vroomans, Mark Terracini

M5

The M5 race was a more gentle affair, although we were all waiting for Steve Blackburn to unleash his usually effective attacks. The pace was on though, with riders succumbing to the pace every few laps until Paul attacked. Dougal tried to go across. But Hollings retained his lead. Then the serious part of the race ignited with Blackburn, Spillane and Barberet putting in a serious chase.

The selection was made, with Christophe, Nathan Spillane and Stephen Blackburn in the lead. The hard working chase comprised of Dougal Torrance, Conan Liu, Darren Blackhurst, Simon Junakovic and Mark Vardy.

The lead bunch stayed in the lead, the chase was short on power now and we all expected some more attacking to come, But it came down to a 4 up sprint with Christophe out-sprinting Nathan and Steve Blackburn. Paul Hollings came in 4th, maybe a little fatigued from all his attacking efforts.

M5: Christophe Barberet, Nathan Spillane, Stephen Blackburn

Allan Bontjer
Race Referee

Track Racing – 26th February

Wednesday’s track racing commenced in quite good weather conditions. A strong wind had been blowing throughout the day. However, the wind settled down by race start time and further moderated during the session. The temperature was warm, though comfortable. Oddly, attendance was quite low with just two riders in A grade and six in B grade. Given the conditions, this was hard to explain.

The first race was an 8-lap scratch with A & B grades combined because of the low turnout. The B grade bunch was given half a lap start and results were separately recorded for A and B grades. James Newhouse, Graeme O’Neill and Ross Scutts led out sequentially over the first three laps. On lap 4 the B grade bunch were surprised by Rowan McMurray and John Paul De Sousa who scorched over the initial laps and quickly washed out their initial half lap deficit. Bruce Griffin tried to pull the B grade bunch up to Rowan’s pace. However, Rowan and John Paul were just too quick for the B grade bunch. The race then diverged into two races. Rowan McMurray held on the pace to take the A grade win from John Paul De Sousa. The B grade bunch dropped back at steady pace and began accelerating again over the final two laps. Ross Scutts emerged from the B grade bunch to take the win by an emphatic 10 metres. Bruce Griffin and James Newhouse had strong rides to take the second and third placings in that order.

The second event was a one lap screamer, that is, a one lap time trial from a standing start. This event was part of a four race Omnium Championship. The lap times were very generally quite good with John Paul De Sousa setting the A grade benchmark at 29.11 seconds. James Newhouse and Ross Scutts dominated B grade with the only times under 31 seconds. This event relies on a rapid initial acceleration for a good time. It was interesting to speculate whether a sharp or gradual surge down the banking was optimal. The verdict – issue still unresolved!

A 4-lap handicap was the next event. With low numbers, this event was run all-in, combining A and B grade riders. Rider handicaps were the equalisers. Phil Coulton made an early move, mowing down the limit rider in under two laps and holding a rapid pace. However, Ross Scutts eventually overtook Phil when he slowed marginally in the final lap. James Newhouse made good progress from mid handicap but could not catch Phil Coulton and had to settle for third place.

The final Italian pursuit had only four riders per team, but still held interest. Both teams made good starts and were tactically, error free. Team 2 soon looked the hot prospect with a comforting lead by mid race. However, Ross Scutts took over for Team 1 on the penultimate lap and scorched around the track to convert a small deficit to a 10 metre lead for Team 1. John Paul De Sousa finished it off with a strong ride for Team 1, increasing the margin to around 15 metres by the finish.

Place getters for the session were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A Grade) Rowan McMurray, John Paul De Sousa (B Grade) Ross Scutts, Bruce Griffin, James Newhouse.
I-Lap Screamer: (A Grade) John Paul De Sousa (29.11s) Rowan McMurray (30.78s) (B Grade) James Newhouse (30.85s), Ross Scutts (30.97s), Phil Coulton (31.09s).
4-Lap Handicap: (A&B Grade) Ross Scutts, Phil Coulton, James Newhouse.
Italian Pursuit Winner: Team 1 (John Paul De Sousa, Ross Scutts, Ken Birch, Graeme O’Neill).

Omnium Championship Points Update:
James Newhouse (8), John Paul De Sousa (7), Steve Hirsler (5), Ben Davis (5), Graeme O’Neill (5), Phil Coulton (5), Dougal Torrance (4), Rowan McMurray (4), Ken Birch (3), Hamish Anderson (3), Ross Scutts (3).

Season Point Score Update:
Ross Scutts (174), Tony Beasley (160), James Newhouse (146), Ken Birch (145), John Paul De Sousa (145), Hamish Anderson (139), Martin Graham (137), Dougal Torrance (131), Phil Coulton (111), Warwick Wilson (103).

Graeme O’Neill

Lookout Hill – 1st March

A Picture perfect morning and conditions greeted the 19 starters for the Lookout Hill Age Standard Time trial on Sunday morning. The 20.8km Race started and finished at Lookout Hill and consisted of two laps along Tidbinbilla Road between Tharwa and the Point Hut Crossing Road intersection, finishing at the top of Lookout Hill.

The conditions made for some impressive performances and times with more than half the finishers beating their Age Standard times.

On the podium for the Mens event were:
1) Steve Crispin – 5 mins 17 Secs under Age Standard
2) Gerard Tiffen – 4.17 under
3) Owain Tilley – 3.03 under

On the Podium for the Womens Event were:
1) Kirsti McVay – 18 sec under
2) Polly Templeton – 7.23 over

There were only 2 finishers in the womens event.

Fastest time was Steve Crispin who covered the 20.8kms in 29.15 mins.

Well done and thanks to all participants for an awesome display of power riding and for making for a safe event.

Thanks to the marshals on the day, John Bridge, Paul Walsh and Andrew Hislop and to our first aider Simon Whitehead. Special thanks also to Graham Hendrie for his help and wisdom.

Bryan Holloway
Race Referee