Hello Vets,

In the Bleat this week;

  • Ride Sally Ride – Women on Bikes panel discussion
  • Race Etiquette
  • Racing this Week
  • Race Report

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

Ian Morton

Ride Sally Ride – Women on Bikes panel discussion

An evening for Canberran women that have thought about riding a bike but are discouraged by the barriers such as the distance to be covered, the time needed, safety concerns, the other errands to run, weather, concerns about appearing professional after riding to work, lack of sufficient confidence or skills, not knowing routes to travel by bike and much more.

DATE: 6:30pm – 7:30pm Thursday, 7 September
LOCATION: The Living Room, The Duxton, O’Connor
COST: free

The panel consists of:

  • Lilian Mellink, Policy Advisor Trade and Economic Affairs, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • Sophie Fisher, founder of Girls on Bikes – teaching migrant and refugee women in Canberra to ride bikes
  • Dr Jasmine Foxlee, mum of two school aged children, & full-time employee of the Parks and Conservation Service
  • Jean Allsop, Manager, Office of the Chief Digital Officer
  • Dira Horne, CEO of Belconnen Community Service
  • Facilitated by Prof Kate Auty, Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainability.

 

BOOKINGS: RSVP to TCCS.Activetravel@act.gov.au by Wednesday 6 September 6207 7302

 

In addition, I’m meeting with some of our own female riders on tonight with the aim to support our women riders and add to our numbers. Stay tuned.

 

Dougal Torrance
President, ACT Veterans Cycling

Race Etiquette

Recently I’ve received a few reports of dropped riders interfering with the racing in lower grades by pacing groups back onto a leader or by assisting a break away. I’ll be the first to admit that our website needs an update to include a section on race etiquette. I’ll get onto this very soon. In the mean time race etiquette requires any competitor who is lapped or caught by another grade other than his/her own must not interfere with, or assist any other competitor nor participate in any sprints. The lapped or caught rider may complete the race at the discretion of the Race Director however the lapped rider must give way to the passing rider or group.

Dougal Torrance
President, ACT Veterans Cycling

RACING THIS WEEK:

2 SEP: NO SCHEDULED RACE

Upcoming Marshall Roster

The nominated marshals for upcoming events are;
– 9/9- Uriarra: ATCs: Frank O’Sullivan, Ian Albery, Polly Templeton, Marshals: Simon Junakovic, Troy Cassell
– 16/9 Uriarra: Craig Tozer, Heath Chester + 4 x ATC’s required!
– 3/10- Stromlo Crit: Sue Duckett
– 10/10- Stromlo Crit: Simon Johnston
– 17/10- Strolo Crit: Liz Lowe

RACE REPORTS:

Dairy Road Crit – 26th August

After a very foggy start to the day, Saturday tuned out to be a warm and absolutely cloudless afternoon, one of those lovely Canberra winter days, though a westerly blew in providing a cross wind for the usual hot dog course on Dairy Flat Road. Perhaps the weather forecast of 30% chance of rain put some off, but for those who turned up it was a great afternoon for racing.

As usual it was sprint primes on every second lap, and we tried out a new device courtesy of Graham Hendrie that lets off a resounding siren, with the bell being reserved for the finishing sprint. It seemed to work well, the only difficulty not with the siren but in choosing when to set it off as grades and riders spread out across the course with lapped riders and grades making a challenging process for the recorders to keep up with who was on each lap.

In crit racing it is consistency that really pays off, and that really shows up in each grade with those in first overall position significantly ahead of their rivals on accumulated points. The most outstanding ride of the day was by Steve Crispin, who was first in all but one sprint on lap 8 of a 50 minutes plus 1 lap course. After lap 8 Steve broke away from the pack and blew everyone else off the track. In fact he was so far up we (on the line) lost track of how many laps he was doing and in the end he basically sprinted for just about every time around. Good training ride for him he commented at the end for next weekend championships! The rest of A grade broke up into two’s and three’s with the tandem not really suited to a hot dog course with insufficient distance to close down the gaps after each turn. Andrew Chamberlain was consistent in placings and took out second with Matt Hinchcliffe in third overall. B grade mostly stayed together for the first two thirds of the race before the combination of cross wind and pace saw of couple drop off the back. Still, with the biggest group of the day with 8 riders and their were lots of challengers for the sprints. David Dickson held our Rob Langridge to take the most points with Ben Healy edging out Nick Boylan for third.

C grade only had the two contenders, with Conan Liu beating James Curran in all but one of the sprints to take out the points. They rode a solid time staying together and working at taking turns. D Grade was the most challenging of the day, with every rider except Jonathon Chowns taking points on the line throughout the race. Daniel Grillo broke away from the pack early on and like Crispin had a largely solo race out the front leading the pack on. That left the minor placing up for grabs each sprint, with Mark Fairweather and Gillian Lugg battling out for second overall, going to a count back to put Mark in second.

E grade also had everyone vying for points though in the end John Lowe held the best hand for first, with Angie Wren in second and Ian Morton in third place. F and G grades only had one rider in each, with Paul Robey in F and Bruce Jones if G grade.

We had one visitor, Todd Sowter who reported he had a great ride in A grade – and would have come in third place as a member. Hope to see you in the club Todd.

Thanks to Wayne Shippley for marshalling, Simon Whitehead for First Aid, Graham Hendire for the van and help in set-up, and also to all the riders who happily assisted with putting out and collecting signs and equipment especially as we were not able to get the van into the race area. One of the things that makes this club great is the friendliness and assistance of the club members.

Bob Miller
Race Referee