ACT Veterans Weekly Bleat, Sunday 17th March, 2019

Hello Vets,

An early Bleat this week;

• Summer Points Table
• Racing this Week
• From the Race Committee
• Race Reports

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

Ian Morton

Summer Points Table

Race results contribute towards points for the Season. There are 6 more races to go before the end of the 2018-19 Summer Season. The current points table can be found under the Member Points page. The current top placings so far this season are;

Men

Women

RACING THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, 19th March: Stromlo Criterium – Scratch Race

Where: Stromlo Forest Park
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.
Race Description:
A/C @5:50 A 28m+2, C 25m+2
B/D @6:25 B 28m+2, D 25m+2
E/F/G @7:00 E/F/G 20 m + 2

Race Director:  Rosemary Robinson Contact: Email: rosemaryr2@iinet.net.au    Ph  0417898917

Marshals: Michael Hanbury

Wednesday, 20th 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: Graded 200m Fly;
6.50pm – 7.10pm: 2-Lap Handicap;
7.10pm – 7.20pm: Italian Pursuit.

Please note that the Track Presentation evening will be on Wednesday 27 March (6.00pm). Free drinks and nibbles provided. A plate will be appreciated. All Welcome!

Sunday, 24th March: Uriarra Rd and Mtn Creek Rd Graded Scratch “Uriarra Roubaix”

Where: Intersection of Uriarra Rd and Mtn Creek Rd. Keep intersection clear when parking.
When: 9:00 am.
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number
Race Description:
Uriarra Roubaix – combined bitumen and dirt race
Start at crn Mtn Creek Rd and Uriarra Rd. To top of crossing, return and turn right onto Mtn Creek Rd to Swamp Crk. Return to intersection for 1 lap.
ABCD – 3 laps, EFG – 2 laps

Race Director: Steve Crispin Contact: Email: steven.crispin@ed.act.edu.au    Ph  0419429453

Marshals: David Jukes, Robert Brunato, Seymour Savell-Boss, Lyn Vasudeva

From the Race Committee

Event Traffic Controller course for Sat 23 March 2019

There is an ETC Training course this Saturday 23 March.

We currently only have about 40 ETCs from a club of 300 members. Members need to share the burden of helping to run races. Having enough traffic controllers available in the club is critical to our ability to run races in the ACT and it is likely we will need to have ETCs for NSW races in the future. ETCs are eligible for reimbursement of $100 for marshalling at ACT road races.

Course details are available on Blended Learning’s web site – http://www.blendedlearning.edu.au/home/courses/programs-courses/event-traffic-controller/. I am still awaiting information on funding the training. YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO PAY.

Please contact me via email (imcvay@grapevine.com.au) if you can attend and I will forward on the nominations.

Uriarra Roubaix

I’ve had some comments from riders about the Uriarra Roubaix race being ‘scary’ due to the dirt section. Last year’s race showed all riders were well capable of riding the dirt and rider feedback was very positive. So let your tyres down a bit and come and give it a go.

Gunning 2 Day marshals

We still need a few more marshals for Gunning 2 day. I will shortly need to start nominating people to help. Which may be inconvenient for those hoping to race.

Gunning 2 Day race is on 18-19 May. We will need 6 marshals each day to safely and effectively run the race. If you are planning to race and have a partner, child, friend etc who would be interested in coming to help marshal, please let me know. Early volunteering to do marshalling would be appreciated.

Upcoming Marshal Roster

Thank you to those who have already volunteered to help. Nominees, in blue have been selected based on results from the previous race season and the period since they last helped at a race. Nominees are requested to advise their availability/unavailability to the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) as soon as possible.

Summer series crit races are held at Stromlo Forest Park on Tuesday evenings and road races are held on Sunday mornings.

* denotes ETC required for ACT races.

Ian McVay
Race Committee

RACE REPORTS:

Criterium Racing – 12th March

The prize money criteriums produced some interesting results. Whereas in the age championships many of the results reflected the grades the riders usually ride in, riders lurking in the lower tier trumped those in the higher grade when there was money on the line. This was not the case in the AB race, however, where the faster riders in A grade totally destroyed the race. It was not possible to have equal prize money for each grade as this would have required seven separate races. Different formats are worth implementing for next season if it’s considered we should try this again with an emphasis on races for B, D and F&G grades.

The evening started with warm temperatures and a light breeze. The EFG race got away smoothly with 13 starters. The sprint lap was very amusing as the only person to take it seriously was Penelope Anderson who scooted away as soon as she saw the green flag. The others claimed later that they never saw it, and all looking bewildered let Penny take the cash. David Gunther, Ian Morton and Tony Sheehan all had goes at stretching out the field and gradually the bunch was whittled down to 7 riders. With two laps to go the pace slowed to a dawdle as nobody wanted to commit to the run home. On the last lap near collarbone corner Ross Robinson put a gap into the field and suddenly riders were in single file scrambling for wheels. By the home straight Ross was well ahead with David snatching second from a fast finishing Ian.

• 1st: Ross Robinson
• 2nd: David Gunther
• 3rd: Ian Morton
• 1st F grader: Mike Hayes
• Sprint: Penelope Anderson

13 cash-hungry hopefuls also started in the C/D race. Early on Dan Grillo provided some entertainment with his change of a luckily sourced Campagnolo rear wheel after a puncture. The sprint prime involving Stephen Terracini and Ben Davis was closely fought out but Stephen took the cash. Unfortunately this was the only glory for Quon riders for the entire evening. The bunch continued to concertina after Ben and Stephen’s break was nullified. The tandem of John Barlow and Ben Healy certainly kept the pace up and negated a number of breaks, providing much excitement. Helmut Zeller was also aggressive for a few laps and Stephen and Wayne Benham also paired up for a breakway. All this time the D graders were patiently waiting for the last lap. The tandem made a long run for home and it was only Ben Davis, perhaps using the reflection from his hi-vis frame to dazzle pilot Ben Healy, who could roll them by about a 1/4 of a wheel. Another D grade sly fox, Alex Sommariva, slipped into third having not been visible for the entire race. There were no calls of “we want a rematch” but the C graders must have been cursing themselves for letting the cash slip through their fingers and allowing Ben Davis to nab 65% of the prize money!

• 1st: Ben Davis
• 2nd: John Barlow and Ben Healy
• 3rd: Alex Sommariva
• 1st D grader: Ben Davis
• Sprint: Stephen Terracini

This race was designed to attract the majority of Canberra’s strongest riders, and it certainly didn’t disappoint despite the absence of Rob McLachlan and Mark Harris. Such was the might of Tiffen team members that riders Steve Blackburn, Gerard Tiffen and Jason Chalker, all riders who’ve destroyed A grade races in the past, were relegated to the peanut gallery while Allan Sieper, Jeremy Ross, Jeremy Gillman-Wells wrecked havoc on the AB field. The ferocity of Allan’s start was that by the time he reached collarbone corner for the first time the last rider in the bunch was only just coming out of the top bend! His first attack was nullified by chasing from Matt Corby, Ben Morrison, Mark Terricini and Steve Crispin at various times and a number of breaks had formed and were brought back during the first 10 minutes. But by halfway Allan, the Jeremys and Steve were well away while many of the entrants were already lapped. Whereas Sky rider Ian Stannard got the better of three Quickstep riders in the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, there was no fairytale ending for the rider with no team mates, as Steve found being in the Tiffen sandwich very unpalatable. Straight from the bike tactics textbook, they resorted to attacking individually thereby forcing Steve to chase down each break. Steve survived this flogging for about 10 minutes until the three Tiffen riders had relegated Steve to fourth and were heading for the trifecta. Meanwhile Jason pedalled around solo in fifth, and with a lap to go Steve Blackburn attacked the remains of the bunch to claim sixth place.

• 1st: Allan Sieper
• 2nd: Jeremy Gillman-Wells
• 3rd: Jeremy Ross
• 1st B grade: Simon Junakovic
• Sprint: Jeremy Gillman-Wells

Rob Langridge

Track Racing – 13th March

Wednesday 13 March reminded trackies that Autumn has arrived. The weather was quite cool with rain threatening. Fortunately, there was no precipitation throughout the evening. There was a strong headwind against riders coming out of Turn 1 and this persisted for most of the evening. The turn-out was fair, with thirteen riders, 8 in A grade and 5 in B grade.

The initial events were graded scratch races over eight laps. Michael Langdon led out A Grade. However, Dougal Torrance immediately rolled around Michael and set off with Michael and Craig Kentwell in pursuit. The pace was now solid and putting the pack under pressure. By lap 3, Michael and Craig had blunted the attack by Dougal and by lap 4, normal pacing resumed with rapid turns by Ben Davis, Alec Millett and Tony Beasley. On lap 5, the pace slowed and the bunch spread up the banking. Michael Langdon felt the urge to do something at this point. However, it was too early. A half-hearted attack was soon shutdown by Craig Kentwell and Dougal Torrance. Oddly, the identical scenario arose again on lap 7 with the bunch again slowing and spreading up the track. This time Alec Millett attacked, knowing the time was right. Hamish Anderson quickly latched on to Alec. A few moments later Michael Langdon and Ben Davis saw the danger and set off in a slightly belated pursuit. Fortunately, Michael is in top form, at present. He quick hauled level with Alec and Hamish, then surged forward towards a comfortable win. Hamish and Alec competed in a close sprint for second place with Hamish just pipping Alec.

The B grade scratch race was led out by Phil Anderson. The pace gradually increased each lap until Ross Scutts rotated to the front on lap 5 and really put the hammer down. Graeme O’Neill clung to Ross’s wheel for a lap and eventually took over at the front, slowing the pace considerably. As Graeme rotated to the back, the bunch accelerated for three-quarters of a lap before tactics clicked in and the bunch began spreading over the banking. The bunch remained compact going into the bell lap when several riders took the initiative to attack. With half a lap to go, Ross Scutts burst from the bunch and held a solid pace to win by 4 – 5 metres. Phil Anderson and Ken Birch competed for second place with Phil just nosing out Ken on the line.

The second event was a 10-lap Snowball race with A & B grade competing together. To even out the prospects, B grade were given a three-quarter lap start. The Snowball had five sprints at two-lap intervals with allocated points increasing as each sprint was ticked off. With a good start, B grade had an opportunity to garner some early points. Ross Scutts took advantage of this by taking the first second and third sprint wins. By the fourth sprint, A grade had caught the leading B graders, allowing Michael Langdon, Dougal Torrance and Hamish Anderson to take the first three places in that order. Ross Scutts held on for fourth. The fifth sprint saw a finish order of Dougal Torrance, Hamish Anderson, Michael Langdon, Ross Scutts and Tony Beasley. The final points for the event were interesting. Ross Scutts took out the win on 9 points. After that Michael Langdon, Hamish Anderson and Dougal Torrance each had 8 points for equal second place. Tony Beasley and Phil Anderson garnered a single point each, for equal third place.

Third event of the evening was a 4-lap Win & Out. Again, this was all-in with B grade having a quarter lap start. Ross Scutts was keen to take the win in this event, as he was close to the lead in the season points score. Despite Ross’s motivation, Phil Anderson had the form, just pipping Ross for the initial sprint win. Michael Langdon took the next sprint for second place and Ross Scutts took the final sprint for third place.

The track session closed with an all-in, Italian pursuit. This event had 5 riders per team and was, as usual, closely contested. Both teams made good starts, but team 1 managed to gain a small advantage which they built-on marginally lap by lap. However, Alec Millett took a blistering turn for Team 2 late in the pursuit and completely reversed the Team 1 advantage. Team 2’s Dougal Torrance had a small lead on Michael Langdon as the final lap commenced. The small lead and a great ride by Dougal were enough to give Team 2 the win by a few metres.

Place getters for this session were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A Grade) Michael Langdon, Hamish Anderson, Alec Millett. (B Grade) Ross Scutts, Phil Anderson, Ken Birch.
10-Lap Snowball: (A&B grade) Ross Scutts (9 points), Hamish Anderson, Michael Langdon, Dougal Torrance (each 8 points), Tony Beasley, Phil Anderson (each 1 point).
4-Lap Win & Out: (A&B grade) Phil Anderson, Michael Langdon, Ross Scutts.
Combined Italian Pursuit: Winner Team 2 (Hamish Anderson, Alec Millett, Dougal Torrance, Ken Birch, Phil Anderson).

Season Point Score Update:
Michael Langdon (284), Ross Scutts (276), Dougal Torrance (254), Phil Anderson (227), Steve Hirsler (210), Tony Beasley (176), Bruce Griffin (172), Craig Kentwell (171), Hamish Anderson (151).

Final Omnium Points:
Ken Birch (13), Craig Kentwell (12), Tony Beasley (12), Phil Anderson (12), Michael Langdon (11), Steve Hirsler (10), Ben Davis (10), Hamish Anderson (9), Bruce Griffin (6).

Graeme O’Neill

Old Federal Highway Graded Scratch – 17th March

A cool and cloudy morning welcomed riders to the Gravel Pit for the 0900 start of the OFH-Tulip farm loop. A reasonable total of 43 riders signed on across all grades with E grade being the most popular with 11 riders.

A Grade: 5 Riders

Four riders rolled off the start line just after 0900 with Steve Crispin a late starter to the grade some 3 minutes in arears (approximately a minute after B Grade). With riders completing 3 laps the 1st lap saw the first 4 starters together with Steve Crispin having made up considerable ground and just 1:20 behind at the turn. The next two laps saw the grade spread out with Steve catching and passing the field to run out the winner by approximately 3 minutes over Rainer Wilson in second and Paul Scherl rounding out the top three.

B Grade: 7 Riders

7 B Grade riders toed the line for the slight uphill start to their 3 lap event. Riders appeared to stay together at the turn of the first & second lap with the eventual group spreading out over a 4 minute gap across the grade at the finish. First place in a time of 1.20:51 went to Neil Skipper followed by Simon Costello and Paul Welsh rounding out the minor placings.

C Grade: 9 Riders

Comparative to other grades, C Grades spread of times at the finish after 3 laps was relatively small with only 1:30 the difference between first and last and the first three riders sprinting to the line within 7 seconds of each other. The tandem duo of Hou & Carruthers (1:23.51) overtook Damian Copeland in the final rise to the finish winning by just 2 seconds and third place being awarded to Darren Blackhurst a further 5 seconds back finishing in 1:23.58.

D Grade: 6 Riders

A small group of 6 riders rolled away from the start line for their 3 laps of the loop circuit. The group welcomed a visiting rider Peter Gargano to the grade. Four riders completed the 3 laps, having lost 2 riders during race to DNF. Another close sprint finish ensued with Bryan Holloway coming out on top in a time of 1:31.04 just clear of Ian McVay by 2 seconds and Ross Robinson taking third position.

E Grade: 11 Riders

The largest bunch of the day rolled out from the start line including the tandem of Barlow and Beasley. 10 riders completed 2 laps of the course from the 11 starters with the first 5 riders coming in within 20 seconds of each other. Kirsti McVay took out the win over Kerrie Muir and Donald de Smet.

F/G Grade: 5 Riders

A small bunch of 4 F Grade and 1 G Grade completed their required race of 2 loops. A clear winner in F Grade was Garry Moffitt (1:10.43) followed a couple of minutes behind by Dennis Puniard and Lindsay Graham taking third. Polly Templeton (G Grade) rounded out the race finishing in a time of 1.16.22.

Ian Drayton