Capital Region Masters – Weekly Bleat, Monday 24 July, 2023

Masters, In this week’s Bleat;

• Next Race – 29 July 1.30pm – Lookout Hill Time Trial – Age Standard
• Race Reports
• So, you want to be a race director?
• Racing Calendar changes

“I followed Asgreen and tired my best for Gino and for the team. I felt for Ben who had no chance and felt like I betrayed Kasper but in cycling you just want to win”. Matej Mohoric, Team Bahrain Victorious, Tour De France Stage 19 Winner.

RACING – Next Race

Saturday 29 July 1.30pm – Lookout Hill Time Trial – Age Standard

What’s an age standard TT? Similar to all time trials, it’s a battle between the rider and the clock, however, the overall winner may not be the fastest rider but the competitor who has the best time compared with their age standard. The age standard trendline has been calculated from past AVCC TT performances by riders of varying ages. From this, we can calculate a ‘standard’ for any male or female rider. Naturally, the standard for a 30 year old is much lower than someone in their 70s. The overall winner will be the rider whose time is the lowest against their standard for 20km . Usually, around four minutes under the standard is a very good time.  

Rob Langridge – Race Comittee

Format: Lookout Hill. 20km TT course. Two laps of – Lookout Hill 3.5km toward Tharwa, U turn, 5km toward Point Hut, U turn to Lookout Hill.

Directions: Observation lookout on Tidbinbilla Road about 2.5 km towards Tharwa from Point Hut / Tidbinbilla Rd intersection (or about 4.5 km from Tharwa village).

We require a Race Director, and ETC for this Saturday. If you can assist the Club then please email the race.committee@actvets.cc

Race Reports

Smiths Rd – Naas Rd, Graded Scratch – 22 July 23

27 riders took to the start line for the Mt Tenant Terror on what was a warm and relatively windless Canberra winter afternoon. Due to the efficient and effective setup by our wonderful race volunteers, Brian Peak, Linda Stals, Sue Powell and Neil Burton we were able to get the event away right on time. Big shout out to those that help. (oh, and thanks for the milk, Rob Langridge).

A grade rolled away first with three riders tackling 3 laps of the course. Fellow teammates Aaron Coles and Steve Crispin were there to represent Cartel Racing with Brenton Clark making up the third. Laps 1 and 2 saw the three riders all together and happy enough however on the assault up Mt Tenant for the third time Steve jumped off the front gapping the other two and like a good teammate, Aaron looked at Brenton, giving him the ‘well it’s your race to chase’ ultimatum. It was our understanding that that was indeed race for first place over. The lone figure of Steve Crispin could be seen descending Mt Tenant to the finish line to comfortably take first place, Aaron came over the line second with Brenton rounding out the podium places.

B grade field (also taking on 3 laps) had a larger field of 7 and like the A grade crew they appeared to be happy with rolling through lap 1 all together. From our vantage point at the lap/finish line, lap 2 appeared to go the same way with just a small gap to a couple of riders at the bell lap turn. These riders had no problem jumping out of the turn around and bringing it all back together. There was a problem with the feed to big screen at the finish line which made it impossible to tell what happened out there but when we glanced the B grade riders coming down the hill to the finish, we witnessed three riders with a gap on the rest, Michael Rowland, David Parker and Marc Vroomans. As they approached the line Michael looked to have it in the bag, pausing on the pedals to zip up the jersey and point to the sponsors however Marc had other ideas throwing in a very very late assault right on the line. The finish was so close that the state-of-the-art timing system could not differentiate. The ‘at the line’ judges made the call that Michael came home milliseconds in from of Marc in second with David making up the third step.

C grade was the last of the group to undertake the three laps and was by far the largest group. 9 riders rolled away with a 1-minute gap behind the B group. At the turn of the first lap the group was mostly together barring a couple who were off the back. By the time they got to the bell lap the group had decreased to 7 and round the turn they went to tackle the last lap. The point made by the timers at this last turn was that the C grade group had managed to maintain their 1 minute gap between them and B grade group. They were indeed working well. A glance up to the visitors centre from the finish line saw a lone C grade rider coming into view. Damien Copland has managed to gap the rest of the C field and cruised to a 20 second win over a close finishing David Dickson in second and Ian Preston in third.

D, E and F grades all rolled away together to take on two laps of the Mt Tenant Terror. 9 riders in total rolled away at the start and when we caught sight of them approaching the turnaround for their first and bell lap, the D graders had amassed a gap and were all making the turn together (aside from one rider who had time pressures and had to DNF). Brian Peak, fresh back after a forced injury break could be seen glancing sideways at Mark Taylor as they made their way back up the climb. As this group were doing two laps, we knew they would be the first take the checkered flag, so the marshals prepared the finish chute. Up in the distance, the two figures of Mark Taylor and Brian came into view and as they sped their way down towards victory it was Mark that crossed the line first, followed only seconds behind by Brian Peak and in third place Shirley-Anne Taylor.

Special mention from my point of view should go to Andrew Remely who, although being dropped early in his three laps continued to ride and finish. Most combative to you Andrew. 

Once again thanks to the marshals and to the all the people behind the scenes that allow the races to occur. See you all at the next one. (Results here)

Nathan Spillane – Race Director

So, you want to be a race director?

As you well know, the efforts of volunteers allow the CRMCC to offer the most extensive race program of any cycling club in the ACT. Are you interested in making a contribution, but aren’t really sure how to help? Well, fear not, race director training is coming! We are looking for expressions of interest from members keen to help out but who would like some training beforehand.

Format one—Shadowing: member will read the relevant training material, then shadow the van driver and race director for a road race held in the ACT. This will require about two hours with the van driver and about three hours with the race director on the day of a race.

Format two—Group session: this will comprise about one hour on-line, or face to face, reviewing the race reference materials and discussion of possible scenarios, and about one hour at the club’s container learning about the van equipment and how it works. Theory session would be held during a weekday evening and the practical on a Saturday morning prior to a race.

If interested, please respond to the race.committee@actvets.cc , stating your learning preference by 28 July 2023.

Thanks, Rob Langridge – Race committee

Race calendar can be found here for other race dates needing Officials

Racing Calendar changes – please see below

Subject to approvals from NSW and ACT governments, the dates have changed for the following events:

Chris Short – Race Committee

thebleat@actvets.cc