• From the Desk of the President
  • Handicapper’s Updates
  • A message from the Secretary
  • A Call for Potential Traffic Controllers
  • Crit Reminder – Membership and Regrading
  • International Women’s Day
  • Next Race – Stromlo Crits
  • NARRABUNDAH TRACK RACING
  • Race Report – Crits
  • Upcoming races requiring volunteers – race calendar can be found here

From the Desk of the President

It was great to see so many members out at the Club Championships last week. Congratulations to all of our Winners and placegetters! Please see Ben’s race report a little further below in the Bleat. A big get well soon to Mark Jensen who was involved in an accident in M5. Thanks to Matt Sainsbury for being on hand as First Aid.

Thank you to Andy, Polly, Darren, Terry, Neil and Andree for giving up their time and getting involved in Traffic Controller training recently. The Club really appreciates it. From all reports the training went very well. This is part of our push to get back racing on roads in NSW. There will more ETC training coming soon, so get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.

Speaking of road racing in general, we are waiting on road approvals to come through before we can confirm our upcoming Road Racing calendar for 2026. Keep an eye out for updates to the RMS calendar, hopefully coming soon!

David Parker

President

Handicapper’s Updates

Here are a few adjustments following the regrading in January. The theory is to reduce the number of promotions to maintain the overall strength of the grade. If you’ve been struggling in your current grade, requesting a grade change can be easily accommodated.

Wayne Spratford C to B

David Parker C to B

Rodney Welch D to C

David Witham C to D

Rob Langridge 

Handicapper 

A Message from the Secretary

Hello fellow racers.  Just wanting to clarify some AVCC racing rules for everyone.

–  “A lap board presenting 2 laps to go shall be shown to all competitors, and a bell shall be rung to

signify the final lap of the race.”

– “Any rider who has been lapped by his/her own grade shall withdraw from the race at the showing of the two laps to go board, or at the discretion of the referee unless they are riding for a placing, and will then be allowed to continue.”

So if the bell has been rung, that means it’s for YOU.  Don’t go doing extra laps after you cross the line.  Otherwise, we might start pulling you with Two To Go.

Michael Fawke

Secretary

A Call for Potential Traffic Controllers

Are you interested in helping the Club run Road Races? We are looking for people who are interested in becoming qualified Traffic Controllers. This would involve completing a course of up to 3 days, depending on prior experience. If you are interested and would like to know more, please email committee@crmcc.org.au

Crit Reminder – Membership and Regrading

If you are planning on racing Crits in 2026, please note the following updates on membership and grading:

Membership renewal

This is a reminder that you will need to renew your club membership before you will be able to race.

To renew membership online, please go to https://capitalregionmasterscyclingclub.org.au/membership/ and follow the instructions under: “Steps for renewing your annual membership”.

Once you have renewed, a member of the committee must manually update the RMS to make you active, so please note the following time cut-offs to allow this to happen:

  • If you are a Crit Season Pass holder, please ensure that you renew your membership before 12:40 tomorrow. You will not immediately be shown as an entrant, but this will be updated by us before the race.
  • If you enter races individually, please ensure that you renew your membership before 10am tomorrow. This is to allow us to update you in the system and get back to you in time to be able to enter before the normal 12:40 cut-off.

Criterium Regrading

As previously communicated in the Bleat (https://capitalregionmasterscyclingclub.org.au/2025/12/crmcc-weekly-bleat-08-december-2025/), we have completed a regrading exercise that is intended to improve the spread of racers across the grades.

Before racing, please check to see if your grade has changed and if so ensure that you attend the correct race.

New grades can be found at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Phf94jPvGo7OA_4nG71MfhY8oj5ePTz4/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102624606282391619796&rtpof=true&sd=true

Note: We will not be able to make any changes to individual grades on the day. Going forward, grades can be discussed with Rob our handicapper at: handicapper@crmcc.org.au

International Women’s Day – 8th March 2026

International Women’s Day is fast approaching! Shirley-Anne Taylor has put her hand up to be the contact person for planning and getting involved in the event. Speak to her on Tuesday evenings or email the committee and we will put you in touch.

If you’re interested in getting involved or would like to know more, we’d love to hear from you. Just speak to one of the committee members or mail us at: committee@crmcc.org.au

Next Race – Crits at Stromlo Forest Park – Tuesday 24 February 2026

Please note, the D/E/F/G timeslot 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.

Please remember to check the RMS Calendar for race times each week now that we are back to rotating all 3 time slots.

NARRABUNDAH TRACK RACING – THURSDAY 26 February, 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: 200 m fly (Omnium event 3).
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. Note that 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.

NARRABUNDAH TRACK RACING RESULTS – THURSDAY 19 FEBRUARY
The session races and place getters were as follows:
8-Lap Scratch: (A1 Grade) John Paul De Sousa. (A2 Grade) Sarah Stephens, Chris Chant, Ben Davis.
(B Grade) Frank O’Sullivan, Phil Coulton, Ken Birch.
2-Lap match races (Omnium Event 2) – winners: John Paul De Sousa, Ben Davis, Ken Birch.
2-Lap Handicap: John Paul De Sousa, Sarah Stephens, Frank O’Sullivan, Chris Chant, Phil Coulton.
Italian Pursuit: Winner Team 2 (Chris Chant, Ben Davis, Sarah Stephens).
Season Point Score:
John Paul De Sousa (233), Alison Hale (216), Phil Coulton (192), Ben Davis (184), Ken Birch (183), Chris
Chant (160), Graeme O’Neill (134), Sarah Stephens (90), Jess Laws (85), Dave Buckley (75), Craig
Kentwell (69), Ian Drayton (63), Frank O’Sullivan (37), Paul Angelatos (18), Conan Liu (15).
Omnium Point Score
Ben Davis (10), John Paul De Sousa (10), Ken Birch (10), Phil Coulton (7), Chris Chant (7), Frank
O’Sullivan (6), Alison Hale (3), Sarah Stephens (3).

Ben Davis takes win in A2 match race despite altercation with guard rail.

Race Report – SFP Crit Championships 17 February 2026

Glorious weather greeted us at Stromlo Forest Park for the running of the 2026 CRMCC Criterium Age Championships. This is an event where we often end up with a varied mix of riders from their usual grades all racing against each other in their own age groupings. It is not uncommon to see A graders racing against D graders in an age group and often the rule is to expect the unexpected…More on that later in the report.

First up for the night was the age groups M7(60-64), M8(65-69), M9(70-74) & M10 (75-79)

M7- 11 riders were to start but Tony Rowley was out before the starters pistol due to a flat tyre. By lap 2, there was a split in the group with 4 riders in a break with Chris Short chasing the breakaway. The 4 riders were working well and in the late afternoon sun were working up a sweat. It took Chris Short a few laps to be able to get onto the back of the break which was a top effort considering the pace that the break was setting. With 8 mins remaining you could see the foxing had begun with a noticeable slowing of the pace with each rider watching for moves. They stayed together until it was a 5-way sprint showdown for the final lap. Simon Junakovic took out the win in a hard fought sprint, edging out Darren Blackhurst with Charles Black in 3rd.

M8- Never an easy race for this age group! However for the start of the race, they stayed together and it wasn’t until the 14th minute that Mark Harris decided that he wanted to put some pain into the legs and hit the turbo button. Latching onto him was Norris Robertson who was able to hold onto the Harris train for quite a while. Chasing the two out in front was the group of Kleeman and Preston. Mark Harris then found an extra gear (maybe an experimental 5 tooth rear sprocket) and surged again to drop Norris and go past the M7 riders like they had stopped. He carried to the finish line like a man possessed to take out first with Norris finishing a fine 2nd place and Dale Kleemen outlasting Ian Preston for 3rd place.

M9- It was Rico Fitch Vs Eoin Rothery. For much of the race they stayed together with Eoin edging out Rico at the finish.

M10- Phillip Martin our lone competitor in this age group demonstrated that he can still match it with the young pups by racing with M9 for most of the race and let M9 fight it out on the final lap to coast over the finish line

Women- 5 Women across various age divisions which is down on previous years. As a club, we must encourage women to get involved in cycling!

All 5 started together with Kim Pedersen (F3), Claire Aubrey (F4), Peta Brill (F5), Alison Hale (F6) & Shirley-Anne Taylor (F6). With 10 mins to go, Kim put down some serious watts and took off up the home straight. Within the blink of an eye she had put a few hundred metres into the rest. One thing that is impressive with Kim is her continued high speed. She was racing against herself and rode solo at a high speed all the way to the finish. Claire and Peta worked well together for most of the race. However it was the match-up between Alison and Shirley-Anne that was the focal point. They raced together all race and it came down to the final lap. Alison has her sprint tradecraft well honed from her track racing and was able to overcome Shirley-Anne in the final sprint to the line. Just goes to show that track racing certainly helps you at Crits (shameless plug to get more riders to the velodrome)

M5(50-54) & M6(55-59)

The calm of the previous racing was to be turned on it’s head in this race.

M6- A group armed with speed and tactics. They stayed together initially before Stephen Blackburn made a break. 5 other riders chased and caught him. This attack splintered the rest of the group and we had riders all over the course. Matt Rizzuto then made another attack which proved to be too much for everyone else and he rode away solo to a great win ahead of Stephen Blackburn chasing solo in 2nd and Ed Pellegrino taking 3rd place.

M5- There is some serious firepower in this group and it didn’t take long before there was an attack with Mark Jensen taking off only to be dragged back to the group. It was at this point the first drama for the night appeared with a big, fat healthy Red Belly Black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) deciding that collarbone corner would be a nice place to keep warm on the track. Off went several volunteers armed with bravado and a broom to help it on it’s way. No sooner had the snake slithered back to safety that a mob of roos appeared at the top of the course, off went another volunteer to herd them away. It wouldn’t be racing in Australia if we didn’t have roos and snakes to contend with!. Back to the racing with 12 mins to go, we had a group of 12 riders in M5. All of a sudden Vroomans and Tolhurst got away with a 100mtr gap. Carnage appeared on the final lap down at collarbone corner with Mark Jensen having a serious accident. Initial reports were that his pedal clipped the corner which threw him off. Michael Tolhurst won the race with Mark Vroomans a gallant second and Jeremy Gillman-Wells in 3rd place.

It was at this point that racing had to be paused whilst Mark Jensen was being assessed by our ever present first aider in Matt Sainsbury. The injuries were serious enough to call an ambulance. I can now report as of Wednesday afternoon mark remains in hospital in a stable condition and is undergoing surgery on Wednesday afternoon. As a club it is never easy to see serious accidents occur within our racing and on this occasion, it appears to be no-ones fault. We wish him a speedy recovery.

With fading light it was decided to race M1(30-34), M2(35-39), M3(40-44) & M4(45-49) on a shortened version of the course due to the crash down at collarbone. This course involved using the turn point at the southern end. Due to the fading light we also reduced the race duration from 35mins down to 30 mins.

We combined M1, M2 riders with M3 due to lower than usual numbers in M1 & M2. Glen Goggin as the lone rider in M1 only had to finish to take out the age group along with Adam Rohweder in M2. Mayhem is the word that would best describe racing in fading light on a shortened course with a turn point that will test every rider’s legs. We had riders all over the course from the get-go and having the marshals try to keep track of it all was super helpful. Adding into the racing then was the arrival of the ambulance that had to come onto the course to get down to collarbone corner. This involved yellow flag conditions which is akin to a pace car effect where riders that had established a lead were now bought back together again. Under green flag conditions, the race took off again with Jason Irwin winning M3 ahead of Daniel Lekhac in 2nd and Luke Phillips in 3rd place

M4 was of similar format as M1,M2,M3 and again from the start we had riders spread all over the course. Those with corner skills and power really used the short turn to their advantage to build leads over the others. Ben Morrison was the winner of M4 with Andrew Foster in 2nd and Matt Corby in 3rd place. We got there in the end albeit with a lot of drama!

I’d like to thank Matt Sainsbery as our first aider on the night attending to Mark as soon as the accident happened. It’s times like this that we really see the value in having a first aider at all of our events.

Assisting me in helping to manage the mayhem on the night was Nick Boylan and David Gunther. Thankyou!

Ian Hutchings also making the setup and pack-up process ever so easy.

Lastly everyone else on the night who helped to shoo away roos, wrangle snakes and attend to help out at the crash you’re champions!

Ben Davis

Race Director

Photos thanks to Ian Hutchings

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Upcoming races needing volunteers

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.