Capital Region Masters – Weekly Bleat, Monday 3 April, 2023

Masters, In this week’s Bleat;

• Final Season Points score…
• From the Race Committee
• Racing this Week
• Race Reports

“I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together again”. Michelle Pfeiffer – American Actor
Michael Langdon thebleat@actvets.cc

Summers Points…the score

A rainy crit and the end of daylight saving have marked an end to the summer season. Here are the winners and some commentary on how they got there.

Women: Linda Stals 79, Elizabeth Lowe 73, Cat Riley 55

Linda participated in 15 events over the summer including two road races. She amassed most of her points in E grade before being promoted to D. Liz completed 18 races including one road race. She had a few wins in D grade before being promoted to C grade. Third place Cat Riley participated in 13 events including marshalling twice and one road race. She won her first crit and was promoted by request.

Men: Steve Crispin 130, Michael Hanbury 108, Gerard Tiffen 107

Steve amassed his 130 points through winning three crits in A grade a handicap road race and directing a crit for a total of 16 participations. Michael participated in 21 events including race directing twice and two road races. He won one crit and one road race. Gerard participated in 15 events, winning 5 crits and one road race. He also race directed in the rain last week.

Apology

I’d like to apologise to race director Allan Bontjer and rider Gareth Downey for the mix – up with the results in the M4 crit champs a while back. Unbeknownst to everyone watching, Gareth Downey managed to stealthily finish in second and this was not recognised until a new finish order was sorted out on the podium. I didn’t inform Allan of this change so his race report had Gareth finishing in 4th and that’s how it originally appeared in The Bleat. 

Chris Copland–super van driver

Special thanks go to van driver Chris Copeland who when confronted with the van’s first ever flat tyre calmly figured out the peculiarities of spare wheels in a van and using various material available to him to get the wheel changed so he could take the equipment out to yesterday afternoon’s race. Well done Chris.

From the Race Committee

RACING THIS WEEK:

*Saturday* 15 April, 1.30pm – Sutton Driver Training Course – Graded Scratch Race

Directions: Sutton Driver training centre
Approx 0.5 km along Sutton Rd from intersection of Sutton Rd and Pialligo Avenue

Cutoff registration 14/04/2023 9:30 PM
Race Director – needed – Van Driver – needed – Marshal – needed
Please advise the Race Committee (race.committee@actvets.cc) if you can assist.

RACE REPORTS:

CRMCC Criterium 28 March 23

Between holding an umbrella chasing roos and ducks, laughing with Kerrie Muir and discussing Eddies vs Marist with Simon – Our amazing tough racers were on the track in what could only be described as woeful conditions.

In all grades the numbers were pretty low. Riders worked together and held as a pack except in A Grade.
Notable Mentions: A Grade – James The Torpedo Thorpe Road away in an impressive win! A great sprint to finish the race in C Grade that video footage was required for Tony Rowley getting the nod over Rob Langridge. And a big mention to racer 547 showing up 7 weeks post total hip replacement we’ll done to Chris Copeland.  

A Grade – James Thorpe 1st, Nathan Spillane 2nd, Mark Terracini 3rd
B Grade – Tobias McLenaghan 1st, Ben Zeller 2nd, Ed Meeuwissen 3rd
C Grade – Tony Rowley 1st, Rob Langridge 2nd, Michael Hanbury 3rd
D Grade – Ian Morton 1st, Kevin Newhouse 2nd, Tony Sheehan 3rd
E Grade – Robert Solomon 1st, Ross Heazlewood 2nd, Robert Craine 3rd

Gerard Tiffen – Race Director

The Apollo Race – 2^nd April 2023

This was a Sunday afternoon race with overcast skies and the occasional sun peeping through, ideal riding weather.  27 riders were registered to race and 25 showed up on the start line.  Second-hand information is that one of the non-starters had a mishap with a jersey and his wheel.  No injuries but a wrecked tire.

The 8 A-graders were away first. Steve Crispen came home first in 52:60 followed by Kristo McCreath and Bradley Peppinck in second and third respectively.  Daniel Lekhac punctured early on in the race and was a DNF.

Next away was B grade with 7 riders.  Dimitar Dojcinoski was the first B rider home at 1:00:27 followed by Martin Graham and Michael Rowland.  The only tight finish was the sprint to the line between Craig Linenmeter and Jonathon Glover.  Craig just managed to get his wheel in from for the finish but the two were duelling from the last turn to the finish and it could have gone either way with less than 1 second separting the two riders.  Well done guys.

Next away was C grade with 8 riders. Simon Costello was first home with a time of 1:02:00 followed closely by David Buckley and Ed Logue with only a minute separating first and third.

There were only 1 D grade and E grade riders and they rode in a single group with Brian Boyd getting home first in 1:13:26.

A big thanks to the support crew, and Paul Robey for providing first aid.  The three ETCs,  Darren Blackhurst, Sue Powell and Howard Moffat, lastly Jan Koehler for providing me with invaluable support at the start and finish and providing transport from the Honeysuckle creek campground to the start and back. 

Finally, the van had a flat so it was touch and go getting it to the race venue on time, and many thanks to my wife Wendy for her assistance to me in getting the flat tired changed.

Chris Copeland – Race Director

Track Racing Season 2022-23

The 2022-23 Track Racing Season concluded on Thursday 30 March with a team race, trophy presentation and drinks to celebrate another successful season.  The 2022-23 track season was a welcome change from recent seasons which were heavily disrupted by the combination of rain and Covid-19.  The weather was great this season, with only a single session disrupted by rain.

A total of 37 riders participated in one or more of the 22-23 track racing sessions.  Since the transfer of our track program to the Bundadome venue in 2014, a total of 79 riders from the club have participated in Track racing.  This season’s attendance was down on last year, with around 9 – 16 riders being the norm.  However, the enjoyment level from racing was as high as ever.

There were 21 evening track sessions with around 75 races over the season.  The season provided a variety of race formats including scratch races, handicaps, pursuits, match races, points races, sprints and time trials.  All races contributed points to an overall Track Championship.  This year Tim Jolly took out the Track Championship.  Tim is a most deserving winner as he attended every track session this year and has matured into an exceptionally strong track rider over two seasons.  It was good to see B grade riders well up in the Championship point scores.  James Newhouse (B grade) took out second place in the Track Championship with Conan Liu (A grade) taking third place.  Both riders had strong seasons and provided some exciting moments in their respective grades.  James is a track stalwart and regular podium finisher in B grade.  He also has amazing success in the short handicaps.  If there was a prize for most enterprising rider, Conan would take it.  He can be counted on to generate excitement in his races.

The track season was almost injury free. Gavin Stephens had a fall when his pedal clipped the high banking at slow speed.  However, this accident was relatively minor and Gavin was back racing in two weeks.  In the last eight years, we have had only seven relatively minor accidents at track.  Despite the speed, close quarters racing and lack of brakes, track racing is consistently the safest race discipline offered by the club.

The standard of riding was high and most of the regular riders improved considerably over the season.  As usual, it was difficult to select the most improved rider because most riders improved their performance markedly over the season.  However, this season’s award for most improved rider went to Sarah Stephens from B grade.  After entering track mid-season Sarah was soon giving Alison Hale a run for her money at dominating B grade.  Sarah also had great success in the recent NSW Masters Track Championship (WMAS3 – Gold in the Individual Pursuit, Silver in the Time Trial and Keirin).

The track season included a handicap Wheel Race just prior to Christmas, with the trophy taken by Tim Jolly.  Towards the end of the season, we ran a four-event Omnium Championship. The results for this event are decided by “the algorithm” which attempts to equalise the chances of all track participants, regardless of grading.  This year James Newhouse took out the Omnium Championship, capping off a very successful season for James.

This summary would not be complete without acknowledging and thanking all the parties who contributed to the track season.  This year, I would like to thank Michael Langdon, in particular.  Michael collaborated with me in running and reporting on the track events and considerably eased the burden of running the track racing.  Other contributors to the track season include the club committee who book the venue, support the track racing discipline and prepare the medals, Simon Whitehead from Sports Medicine, all those who assisted in myriad ways over the season and, finally, the riders who invariably displayed the best competitive spirit and camaraderie.

Graeme O’Neill – Race Director & keeper of “the algorithm”

Track Season Results
Christmas Wheel Race Results (1^st – 5^th):
Tim Jolly, Conan Liu, Steve Jones, Wayne Benham, Ben Davis.

Most Improved Track Rider
Sarah Stephens

Final Omnium Championship Points
James Newhouse (18), Conan Liu (15), Tim Jolly, Phil Coulton (13), Graeme O’Neill (11), Gavin Stephens (10), Craig Kentwell, John Paul De Sousa, Wayne Benham, Martin Graham, Sarah Stephens (8).

Final 22/23 Track Championship Point Scores
Tim Jolly (391), James Newhouse (342), Conan Liu (290), Alison Hale (274), Craig Kentwell (242), John Paul De Sousa (224), Wayne Benham (178), Steve Jones (148), Graeme O’Neill (139), Ed Garnett (134), Gavin Stephens (128), Warwick Wilson (127), Ian Drayton (126), Hamish Anderson (120), Martin Graham (119), Phil Coulton (115).