ACT Veterans Weekly Bleat, Monday 29th April, 2019

Hello Vets,

In the Bleat this week;

• Gunning Two Day Event
• Everesting or Racing for Ryan
• From the Desk of the Handicapper
• Fitability Fundraising Trivia Night
• Racing this Week
• From the Race Committee
• Race Report

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

Ian Morton

Gunning Two Day Event

Following the change in date for the Gunning two day event to the weekend of 25-26 May, Ben Davis is no longer available to direct the race. The race committee is therefore seeking an experienced race director to take on this role. Please contact the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) if you are able to assist. Reimbursement of $100 is available.

In addition, could all those who had volunteered to assist over the original weekend of 18-19 March, re-confirm their availability to assist on 25-26 March 2019, to the race committee.

Kirsti McVay
(On behalf of the Race Committee)

Everesting or Racing for Ryan

Facebook watchers may know the story of year 8 student Ryan Fawke, son of club member Michael Fawke. Ryan crashed at the velodrome in February resulting in multiple injuries including a traumatic brain injury. He spent three weeks in intensive care and his full recovery may take between two and five years. He will be spending the majority of year undergoing rehabilitation in Sydney. His school, Canberra High School, is raising funds to help the Fawke family cover the ongoing accommodation and travel costs while Ryan is in Sydney. On Saturday, the students will be Everesting Mt Stromlo on the dirt, while club hard-arse nutters Steve Crispin and Rowan McMurray will be attempting 39 climbs of Black Mountain! Club members can contribute by:

• racing at Dog Trap road and paying $10 or more for race entry
• transferring funds to;
  BSB: 062 907
  Acc no: 1022 6555 (Canberra High School P&C)
  Reference ‘Ride for Ryan’
• calling the school directly on 6205 7000 and paying by credit card or
• donating cash at races later in the year (please bring in a separate envelope marked “Ryan’s Fund”)

Michael has been a club member since 2009 and during periods of illness and injury has marshalled and race directed many times. One of his most memorable performances was when he rode the entire B grade bunch off his wheel to win a windy criterium back in February 2017. Please donate what you can to support the Fawke family in their time of need.

Rob Langridge
Club Welfare Officer

Update from Michael

Ryan appears to have pulled a shoe off the pedal during warmup at just over 33kph and flipped over the bars onto the left side of his head and shoulder. He has a “very severe” (highest category) Traumatic Brain Injury (Diffuse Axonal and numerous bleeds), as he didn’t start being able to lay down memories until 33 days after the crash. Recovery for the brain injuries will take 2+ years before improvements stop… It’s basically the “Richard Hammond Jet Dragster” with extras.

Currently, his personality has mostly come back, he’s a bit slower at most mental activities – but he injured the brain stem and has no movement in the left eye and eyelid and has lost some movement in his left arm and hand. He’s also lost a lot of his vision – he’s currently unable to see anything to his right and classed as “legally blind” – this might improve a bit with time.

Occupational Therapy have assessed the house, bathroom and toilet need a makeover, all flooring needs to be redone (trip/slip hazards), rails & grip strips on steps etc. etc.

Our outcome for the crash has been described as “super lucky” – ICU staff are amazed at how well this has turned out, it could have been so much worse.

We are back in Sydney now, after a brief escape to Canberra, and hoping to be home at the end of May before transitioning back to school.

From the Desk of the Handicapper

Changes this week;

Simon Costello B to A
Rob Langridge C to B (has been sandbagging for months!)
Darren Blackhurst C to B
Stuart Roesler C to B
Ian McVey D to C
Ross Robinson D to E

Rob Langridge
Handicapper

Fitability Fundraising Trivia Night

Many of the ACT Vet members know that tandem cycling had given the opportunity for vision impaired members to ride and race on the bike. This fundraising will help Fitability keeps the bikes in good working order. So that many vision impaired people ant those with other disabilities can have the opportunity to experience the joys of cycling.

Friday 31st May, 6:30 to 9:30 at Canberra Labor Club, Belconnen. Cost: $20 plus booking fee. Don’t miss out – it should be a fantastic fun night! Bring your partners, friends and family. A great opportunity to mix socially with other Vet members and to raise money for a wonderful program.

Buy your tickets here https://eventplus.net/TN19.

Lindy Hou
Mobile: 0402 113 836
Email: lindy@lindyhou.com

RACING THIS WEEK:

Saturday, 4th May: Dog Trap Rd Murrumbateman – Secret Handicap

Where: Turn off Barton Highway at Long Rail Gully Road, or sealed access from Yass River Road.
When: 1:30 pm.
Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number
Race Description:
Dog Trap Rd – 2 laps.

Race Director: Andrew Peel Contact: Email: apeel@grapevine.com.au    Ph  0414564700

Marshals: Paul H Smith, Chris Copeland, Helmut Zeller, Neil Skipper, Paul McKay

From the Race Committee

Race Directing and Marshalling Records in RMS

The requests for members to help as race directors and marshals at races is based on race records held in the rider management system (RMS). So if you have helped at a race, please check that your name is listed as director or marshal in the race results. If you are not listed, please contact the race committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) so that the results can be amended. These records reflect rostered helpers who have agreed to help in advance and have given up the opportunity to ride on the day, rather than ‘casual’ helpers, for example, a rider who pulls out early and helps at the end of the race.

Event Traffic Controller course for 1 June 2019

The next ETC Training course is on Saturday 1st June.

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.

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:

Uriarra Road Race – 27th April

On a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon, 54 riders turned out for a ride in the ACT countryside, across 6 grades of graded scratch. The course was 2 laps of (Uriarra homestead -> turn above Uriarra crossing -> homestead -> Conder Creek -> homestead), making a total of 47 km. To riders in the lower grades, this sounded a bit tough this early in the season, so only one turned up in F-grade, (who started with E) , and 2 in G-Grade; only one of these riders completed the course. Overall there were 6 DNF’s.

With one notable exception, each grade had a leading bunch who stuck together until the finish.

The tightest of these bunches was in A-grade, where at most 3 bike lengths covered the first five at the finish. The judges awarded first place to Rainer Wilton, by a half-wheel, very closely followed by Mark Vroomans and Brad Peppinck.

In B-grade, the front bunch had spread out a bit more thus making it easier for the judges. The winner was Simon Costello, followed by Gerard Tiffen and Michael Foulds.

In C-grade, Darren Blackhurst had burst away to a 100m lead after 10km, and riding solo from there on, steadily increased his lead to win by 2 minutes. As the club handicapper personally saw this finish, one suspects that today may be Darren’s last ride in C-grade for a while. Daylight was second, followed by a loose bunch, led by Stu Roesler and Adam Potts.

D-grade featured another bunch sprint. The winner was Ian McVay, notwithstanding his selfless work before the race, in bringing the van and helping the officials to set up – not least the novice race director. Second was Bryan Holloway, with Alain Arbaut third.

E-grade likewise featured a leading bunch , who pace was too much for several riders – there were no fewer than 4 DNF’s in this grade. The winner was Tony Sheehan, with Don deSmet second and Jan Koehler third.

No-one started in F-grade. But in G-grade Polly Templeton rode gamely all the way to the finish, in the process recording her fastest ever time for 40km.

Thanks to Ian McVay for all his help on the day and beforehand, to the 4 designated officials: Howard Moffatt, Robert Brunato, Mick Donaldson, and Annie Broadbent, and also to Simon our first-aider and to Alex Sommariva who helped judge the finishes.

Tony Weir