Masters, In this week’s Bleat
- Next Crit Race – Summer Series Evening Criterium Tuesday 19 December. 5.50 PM
- Crit Race Report – Tuesday 12 December
- Narrabundah Track Race Report – Thursday 14 December
- Uphill Time Trial Race Report – Sunday 17 December
- Race calendar can be found here for other race dates needing Officials
RACING – Summer Series Evening Criterium Tuesday 19 December
| Grade | Time | Race Duration [ sunset @ 8:17 ] |
| E/F/G | 5:50 | 25mins + 2 laps |
| C/D | 6:20 | 25mins + 2 laps |
| A/B | 6:50 | 30mins + 2 laps |
| Wheel Race | 7:35 | First 5 riders from each Grade – 4 laps with each Grade handicapped |
Please Note, the Winner of the Wheel Race will receive a $100 Trek store voucher!
We will also have 4 x 30min massage gift vouchers to give away from bike fitter and remedial massage therapist Vicki Whitelaw.
At Winning Position, Vicki aims to prescribe comfortable, injury free cycling positions that maximise performance. It is a process that involves addressing an individual’s biomechanics, the bike and the
interaction between the two.
Race registration is 3:50pm. You need to register by looking up the calendar entry in the RMS https://rms.crmcc.org.au/calendar
You must wear your CRMCC assigned race number to race. Late registrations will be assessed by race.committee@actvets.cc and if allowed, a late fee of $10 will be applied.
If you are unregistered and show up to the crit track, you must convince a committee member (not the Race Director) of your club member financial status for insurance purposes, before allowed to participate.
Committee member on duty:
**Lights needed if riding home from crits**
C
CRITS RACE REPORT TUESDAY 12 DECEMBER
Coming to the end of 2023 and leading into the Wheelrace, the most colourful round of CRMCC criteriums took place with annual Downtube Shifter Derby seeing 20 entrants rolling out together for a ceremonial start to the race. I certainly don’t miss any of my of downtube shifter bikes but there were some beautiful machines, captured as always by the CRMCC Official Photographer Ian Hutchings.
Once the racing proper kicked off Paul Scherl, Dale Kleeman and Ian Preston came together with a few others, including Darren Blackhurst. Gears were fiddled and gaps grown as Ian Preston was the first to fall out of this group, followed a little bit later by Dale. Meanwhile, the bulk of the others were rolling around in two and threes and much conversation was heard. It did seem like a very social race away from the pointy end, where Paul Scherl managed to shake Darren off his wheel to lead the field home by a good margin, followed by Darren Blackhurst and Dale Kleeman rounding out the podium. Rob Langridge was the first of the non-A/C graders home and Simon Milnes leading his E grade fellows and Mick Donaldson rounding out the grade leaders.
E/F/G started together with six entrants and five starters across the grades with only Lindsay Graham being a sole entrant (F grade). In E grade Chris Copeland and Rico Fitch were joined by Lindsay for most of the race length, before the E graders dropped Lindsay and came to the line in a two up sprint with the sharp looking Rico getting over the top of Chris for the win with Lindsay doing a fair portion of the race solo for an F grade win and third across the line. The battle of G grade mirrored E grade with Gai Monahan and Robyn Smallwood keeping each other company with Gai taking the win.
D grade has 16 starters with 14 finishers once Simon Milnes and Dale Dummett found the heat oppressive and didn’t make it to the end. Not a lot to report in D with the bunch sticking together for the first third of the race, breaking into two groups shortly after that before splintering into four for the last few laps once the pace heated up to make the temperatures. Elizabeth Lowe took a great win ahead of Steven Simms and John Stokman completing the podium. It was a very hot race, and those backing up from the Downtube Shifter Derby deserve an extra chapeau.
C grade saw 17 entrants with a couple of ring ins, including Dale Kleeman forsaking his usual B grade (after backing up from the Downtube Shifter race) and Bruce McMillan being a late entrant. This race stayed together the whole evening with Terry Danahar emerging victorious ahead of Wayne Benham and Craig O’Neall.
B grade had the largest field of the night with 28 starters and it escalated from the beginning with Krusty Bryant and Kate Vandenburg putting in an almighty effort with an early break, their lead waxing and waning with Mick Rose attempting to bridge across but not quite making it and being absorbed back into the group. Aaron Thompson put his good form to use (nice podium at the CCC Cart’s Crit Aaron) and got across making the pair a trio with Andrew Chamberlain chasing, but with not a lot of luck, or support. At about 20min to go the B grade bunch had split into two with a group of about eight away and a couple of riders, including Stephen Terracini who weren’t able to sustain the lead group’s pace fell back to the main bunch. This led to the big move of the night with Andrew Chamberlain and Paul Scherl putting gritting their teeth, splitting the larger group and bridging across, taking a couple of others with them, with a dozen rider comprising the break. There was some minor confusion toward the end with D grade being given the two laps to go sign and some B graders believing their time was up (apologies from your humble race director) with the winner being Matthew Pooley getting a great sprint win with Krusty Bryant a very well deserved second and Paul Scherl taking his second podium of the night for third. B grade saw a few DNFs due to the heat and hard racing splitting the group and Gareth Downey suffered a blown tyre at toward the end of the race who came back to the start/finish area finished missing some bark, hope all is well Gareth.
A grade was fast and furious from the beginning with the racing interrupted a couple of times due to kangaroos crossing over to the running track for their evening dinner. Stu Griffiths lit it up early with an attack before it all coming back together… which only led to another attack with Steve Crispin and Daniel Lekhac drilling it and opening up a maximum of 15 seconds. The bunch got close a couple of times and after about ten minutes eventually it was all back together, only for Tristan Dimmock to take a turn attacking the field and opening up a small gap, being caught and allowing Stu Griffiths to try again. Then it was déjà vu all over again with the bunch re-forming only for Jason Irwin and late entrant Seb Mueller taking their turn to attack, with Jason staying away a bit longer than Seb, with Jason being joined by Steve Crispin, an aggressive Mark Harris, Steve Crispin and Jason Irwin. These four stayed away with Stu Griffiths kicking ahead of Mark Harris, Tristan Dimmock and Jason Irwin holding on to the chocolate podium spot. Noted fast twitch QUON Elder Nathan Spillane led the rest of the bunch home for fifth, an unlucky Daniel Lekhac was forced to DNF with a slow leak and Mark taking the Harris Cup ahead of Greg.
Ben McDuff
TRACK RACING REPORT- THURSDAY 14 DECEMBER
Firstly, a correction from last week. Last week’s 2-lap handicap saw Hamish Anderson take the win over
John Paul De Sousa rather than the other way round, as incorrectly reported.
Thursday 14 December was the last track session for 2023 and hosted a major trophy event, namely the
Christmas Wheel Race (a 6-lap handicap). Conditions were good for racing and 11 riders showed up for
the session. It was also good to have one of our former regulars, Ken Birch, visit for the Christmas
celebrations.
The Christmas wheel race was first up. Graeme O’Neill was on limit and led out for almost two laps.
Graeme’s intention was to jump on the first passing group. However, when the B grade group (Hamish
Anderson, Alison Hale and Sarah Stephens) caught Graeme they blasted past in a blur that left Graeme
just making up the numbers. Meanwhile the (A grade) limit group were working well together, taking half
lap turns and slowly advancing on the leaders. It was a good contest at the finish with several riders in
contention. John Paul De Sousa has been in good form this season and took out a good win from the
bunch. Conan Liu and Martin Graham have also been in good form and took the major placings in that
order. It was pleasing to see Hamish Anderson and Alison Hale salvage something for B grade by
finishing fourth and fifth. The handicapper was happy, as it was a good, close contest.
The evenings final event was a 200m fly (flying start time trial) that was postponed from last week’s rain
affected program. The 200 fly is a popular event, particularly with riders in the fast twitch muscle group.
Time for the event were very close with five riders in A grade all within a 0.7 second margin. B grade’s
Hamish Anderson set the best overall time at 13.17 seconds (54.7 km/hr). The best 3 times in each
grade are listed in the results below.
The sessions race program was shortened, as usual, to make time for drinks and nibbles to celebrate the
festive season. A great time was had by all.
Merry Christmas to all club members on behalf of the track group.
Note that track racing will resume in the new year on Thursday 4 January.
Major place getters were as follows:
Christmas Wheel Race (6-Lap Handicap): John Paul De Sousa, Conan Liu, Martin Graham, Hamish
Anderson, Alison Hale.
200m Fly: (A1 Grade) Steve Jones (13.29s), Conan Liu (13.69s), John Paul De Sousa (13.76s) (A2
Grade) Gavin Stephens (13.43s), Craig Kentwell (14.40s) (B Grade) Hamish Anderson (13.17s), Sarah
Stephens (14.55s), Alison Hale (14.89s).
Season Point Score Update:
Conan Liu (139), John Paul De Sousa (131), Alison Hale (89), Graeme O’Neill (85), Hamish Anderson
(63), Craig Kentwell (62), Warwick Wilson (61), Wayne Benham (58), Phil Coulton (57), Martin Graham
(49), Ben Davis (47), Ian Drayton (45), Steve Jones (45), Ed Garnett (43), Sarah Stephens (42).
Graeme O’Neill – Chief Commissaire
Uphill Time Trial Race Report
It was a pleasant start to the day, with mild temperatures and no wind to speak of. 12 riders turned up at the last road ride before Christmas. It was an uphill TT from Cotter Bend to the top of Mt MacDonald a distance of 6.7km. The first rider home and the winner overall was Steve Crispin, followed by B Grade winner Simon Costello, and A Grade second place, Brenton Clark.
Thanks to Sue Powel as the ETC, Robert Craine as Marshall, Paul Robey for providing first aid and Andrew Murrel as van driver.
Well done everybody and Merry Christmas.
Chris Copeland
Race Director
The 30th Anniversary Bleat has been posted on the Club Website.
Please see the following link:
The Bleat
If you would like to contribute to the Club and put the Bleat together each week, please reach our to us!
