- From the Desk of the President
- Next Race – Stromlo Crits
- Reduced Price Membership
- Pedal Power 50th Anniversary Ride
- NARRABUNDAH TRACK RACING
- Race Report – Stromlo Crits
- Race Report – Track Racing
- Upcoming races requiring volunteers – race calendar can be found here
From the Desk of the President
A few important announcements arising tonight from our Committee meeting.
Here are the key ones
- From next Tues 11 Nov, we will return to all 3 times slots in rotation, commencing with A/C at 5.40pm, B at 6.15pm, and ending with D/E/F/G at 6.55pm.
- Where there are going to be overcast and low light conditions like tomorrow on Tues 4 Nov, the Committee will instruct the Race Director to shorten each race by 2mins.
- The Club will go through its first mass grading revision for criteriums commencing Tues 6 January 2026. We will publish lists of everyone’s new crit grade mid-December so that everyone has been consulted. Be prepared for new grades to start at different times, in our attempt to evenly distribute the numbers across all of the time slots.
- the NSW Gravel Pit scratch race will return on Sunday 30 November 2025 9am, Hadlow Drive. ABCD 3 laps or 48km. Other grades 2 laps. Stay tuned for the RMS Calendar event to replace SDTC.
- Are there any electrician members out there who can test and tag our timing clock so that it’s certified? Please contact committee@crmcc.org.au and you’ll receive a race credit upon completion.
Conan
CRMCC President
Next Race – Crits at Stromlo Forest Park – Tuesday 04 November 2025
Please note, 5:40PM also holds the Women’s specific criterium grade (20mins) to foster participation and confidence in riding on the Stromlo Forest Park criterium track. Perfect for women and non-binary riders who are looking for an introductory ride or those that prefer cycling in a smaller group.
Race registration cut-off is 12:40pm. Cost is $10.
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 committee@crmcc.org.au 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 being allowed to participate.
All riders are required to sign on before their race start.
We will be running an entry chute, where riders are called 1 by 1 onto the circuit in numerical order of sign-on.
Reduced Price Membership
Now available, reduced priced racing membership of $99 (same price as last year) for those new or renewing members wishing to join us financially for racing up to and including the Christmas criterium wheel race qualifier on 16 December 2025, or the equivalent track wheel race on 18 December 2025.
Pedal Power 50th Anniversary Ride
Pedal Power will conduct a ride from Woden to Stage 88 to mark its 50th anniversary. We don’t know what Canberra’s cycling infrastructure would have been like without PP battling away over the past 50 years, but I’m sure it would have been much worse! The Dickson to Woden on-road line was mainly thanks to PP’s lobbying prior to an election many years ago, and it certainly made commuting much safer for me. The ride is at a weird time, so bring your lights to get home safely. Website link is here.
Event details
Date: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Start: Eddison Park, Woden – gather from 5:30 pm, depart 6:00 pm
Finish: Stage 88, Commonwealth Park – join us for food, fun and festivities
Distance: Around 8 km, at a relaxed pace suitable for families and entry-level riders
Leaders: John Widdup and accredited ride leaders will guide and marshal the group
Rob Langridge
Race committee
NARRABUNDAH TRACK RACING – THURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER, 5.30 PM
The Program for Thursday is as follows:
5.30pm – 6.00pm: Warm-up and free practice.
6.00pm – 6.20pm: 8-lap graded scratch race.
6.20pm – 6.50pm: 1-lap Screamer (FS TT).
6.50pm – 7.10pm: 2-lap handicap.
7.10pm – 7.30pm: Italian pursuit.
Spare Track Bikes
We have several spare track bikes if you wish to try track racing. You will need to bring your own pedals.
You may need to pump up tyres (we will have a pump available) and adjust saddle / bar position. You will
need to check over the bike for safety purposes. Although we will assist as far as practical, equipment
safety and providing tools for fitting / adjustments is your responsibility.
Attendance
Please register your attendance at https://rms.crmcc.org.au/calendar?5021932 . Each race will cost $10,
or purchase the season track pass at $80.
Race Report – Stromlo Crits – 28 October 2025
A balmy overcast evening of 7 degrees saw significant reductions in those racing to those that had
registered.
E-Grade kicked off with three riders including Rob Langridge making an appearance after a prolonged
lay off from riding over winter. This didn’t stop him from mousing around with Cat Riley with both of
them surging away from Chris Copeland after two laps with Cat making a huge gap to the energy
depleted handicapper to take line honours with Rob second and Chris taking third.
D-Grade bunched for the first few laps with Linda Stals maintaining her usual safety first position at
the back of the bunch. Out front the dominant drivers of the pack were Alex Sommariva who looked
particularly strong for the whole race. He was joined early on by Marty Boyd, Ian Morton and later
on by Chris Daly who looked suspiciously fresh until he had a rush of blood, surged to the front and
then faded. Dasher Wheatley also kept a bit in reserve and drew on his long experience to be second
in the sprint behind Tim Moore with Kev Newhouse finishing third and Alex finishing a comfortable
fourth.
C-Grade was the dominant grade for the evening with 24 in the bunch. Dave Witham was dropped
early with very strong leads from the usual workhorses – Lance Purdon (for a little while), John
Stokman and Ian Preston who were unable to hold off Ben Healy (1st), Charles Black (2nd) and Shirley-
Anne Taylor (3rd) who came over the top of them at the end.
B-Grade saw 23 riders riders front up to the start with a fading light and everybody was grateful that
Alexander Gorringe was thoughtful enough to turn on his light so that everybody could see where to
go. It was a great race with Alan Reitsma and Luke Cartwright jumping out to an early breakaway
which blew out to 100m before it was closed down. There were subsequent breakaways with Mark
Terracini closing down a particularly strong bunch of seven and then pairing up with Andrew
McCosker for some work out front. This was subsequently neutralised by Krusty Bryant. There were
various aggressive efforts made by Gareth Downey initially and then by Paul Scherl who managed to
catch the lead two of Terra and Andrew and finish Terra (1st), Paul (2nd) and Andrew (3rd) -top class
racing.
A-Grade managed 17 riders out of 28 registered with four DNFs. Jason Irwin punched out an early
breakaway which was closed down pretty quickly. Daniel Lekhac had a rush of blood and then fell in
a hole. The pace was hard and fast and to the end Matt Rizzuto and Steve Crispin drove the pace to
come 1st and third respectively with Kris McCreath sneaking into second.
Rico Fitch, Race Director
Photos thanks to Ian Hutchings
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AVbWyzoMj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BMPvKubfz/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Race Report – Track Racing – 30 October
Thursday 30 October saw the third track racing session for the 2025-26 season. The weather was fine
for track racing, sunny, warm temperature and a moderate head wind in the back straight. Attendance (7
riders) was enough to run a full track session.
The session races and place getters were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A Grade) John Paul De Sousa, Alison Hale, Dave Buckley. (B Grade) Ian Drayton, Phil
Coulton, Graeme O’Neill.
2-Lap Handicap: John Paul De Sousa, Jess Laws, Dave Buckley, Alison Hale, Phil Coulton.
200-Fly: (A1 Grade) Jess Laws (29.76s), John Paul De Sousa (30.00s), Dave Buckley (30.17s) (A2
Grade) Alison Hale (15.65s). (B Grade) Ian Drayton (32.66s), Phil Coulton (33.45s), Graeme O’Neill
(35.07s),
2-Lap Handicap: John Paul De Sousa, Jess Laws, Dave Buckley, Alison Hale, Phil Coulton.
Italian Pursuit Winner: Team 2 (John Paul De Sousa, Alison Hale, Phil Coulton).
For Michael Langdon’s commentary on the races, click the following links:
2 lap handicap
Italian pursuit
Season Point Score:
Alison Hale (55), Phil Coulton (54), Graeme O’Neill (44), Dave Buckley (38), Ian Drayton (35), Chris
Chant (34), John Paul De Sousa (24), Paul Angelatos (18), Jess Laws (17), Ben Davis (15).
Upcoming races needing volunteers
We have multiple vacancies for race directors for SFP crits.
Please self-register as a volunteer, where you can put your name down against those roles marked ‘Vacant’ in this Google spreadsheet. We will follow-up and confirm your volunteering with an email from committee@crmcc.org.au
Thank you to those members who have offered their services to fill roles so our races can run.
