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Hume Veterans Xmas Handicap

8/12/2012

 
It was my turn to be a corner marshall at today's race so it was only natural that I would sneak in a few photos as well.

Race Report courtesy Hume Veterans Website.

The Hume Vets Cycling Club’s race season concluded on the weekend with their “Christmas Handicap”.
In less than ideal conditions with strong winds, over half the Club members rode the 53km race from Benalla to Tatong via Moorngag and back to base via Emu Bridge.
The fairly easy course was marred by the very strong southerly that blew throughout the entire race causing many riders getting caught out in the side winds on the ‘top section’.
Scratch fronted with three riders and where chasing a five man ‘block’ group at 3 minutes and the lone limit rider who had a 50 minute advantage.
‘Block’ caught the 8 min boys at the top of the second and last climb of the day to make an 8 man group.
The 13 min group had broken up and the 16 min boys were in ‘no man’s land’ as the 19 min group had caught the 27, the 40 and limit man with 14 kms to go.
Both Grealy and Thrum (scratch) had bad days and dropped out of contention which left Lyster dangling behind the large group of ‘block’ and 8. With sheer determination and the aid of a very strong tail wind Lyster now the only scratchman crossed to the chasers as they turned onto Kilfeera Road for the final 8 kms to home.
Their sights were set on the 19 min group, still at a distance leading the race and Lyster turned ‘up the wick’ causing damage in the bunch which dwindled to five.
The leaders lost their lead with just 5 kms to the finish line although several attempts were made to join the fast finishing bunch, they were to no avail as the speed home for the new leaders were into the 50’s.
Rounding the final bend and facing a 1 km very strong side wind the five had to plan and wait until the last moment to launch their attack.
It was the older head of Lyster senior (Laurie) to take the honours for the grand prize and son Tully had to settle on third place as he was edged out by Gavin  Frawley making it a Wangaratta 1, 2, 3 finish with Albury’s, Dave Mann stopping it being a clean sweep by the Wang boys as Geoff Morley finished 5th. Even Bernie Grealy, also from Wangaratta returning after almost a year off the bike (due to serious health complications), managed to sprint his way into 6th from the persuing 19 min group.
The younger Lyster also took out the Fastest Time award with a creditable 41.46 kph average and riding almost half the distance alone was a fine performance.

 
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L-R.Bernie Grealy,Greame Neilsen,Kay Huggins,Chris Wilkins
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L-R.Grant Pollard,Graham Davison,Stephen O'Brien
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L-R.John Myles,Ian Strang,Laurie Lyster
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L-R.Mathew Grealy,Tully Lyster
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L-R.Kay Huggins.Greame Neilsen and Chris Wilkins.
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Chasing group 2 mins behind leaders with 12 km to go.
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Gifford Crosthwaite
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Allan Thrum

Brief Roundup and the Hume Veterans Benalla Handicap

16/10/2012

 
Apologies for my lack of blog entries of late but for some reason,there has been other things taking precedence. It's interesting writing a blog and sometimes getting stressed because you've not been posting anything, then wondering does anybody really care anyway?

I could probably write a novel on the last few weeks,but I will spare you from that, which included a trip to the Goulburn area to compete in the Australian Masters Time Trial Championships.Whilst reasonably pleased with my ride from a personal point of view there is plenty of work to be done if I'm going to be competitive at the pointy end of that competition. I placed 15th from the 23 riders who started in my category, Masters 4. Special thanks to Tully Lyster who was my travel companion and competed strongly to finish 6th in Masters 2.We also were given help and support by Shane Miller ,who blitzed Masters 1 and also claimed fastest time of the day,his Fiance Von Micich who finished 3rd in WMasters 1 and Stephen Lane ,2nd in Masters 1.

Returning from the Masters the dust had hardly settled and it was time to line up for the Keith Esson Memorial Road Race.This race is run by Shepparton Cycling Club is 147km long, starting and finishing in Dookie.Riding well in the C Grade bunch I was involved in a crash on the second major climb and came down heavily on my LHS.I was pretty gutted afterwards and without the help of Laurie Lyster, who towed me most of the way back to Dookie I would probably have abandoned the race.

So last week I couldn't get interested in riding and decided, with the advice of others, to have a few days off the bike.
Coming into the weekend I could feel the urge to jump back into it and with the Tour of Bright on the horizon,I didn't want to miss a weekends racing. On Saturday. the Wangaratta Cycling Club's Spring series continued and was a great hit out with 2 climbs over Taminick Gap.I was unable to sprint past Dr. Gav on the line and had to be content with second place in B Grade.


   
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The back of my Hilux loaded with lots of gear for our Goulburn Trip.
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(L-R) John Kent (A), Dave Webb (C), Seamus Lane (D), Gav Frawley (B)

Hume Veterans Handicap

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This race was held over a course I'd never ridden and was basically 1 lap of a 44km circuit and then 1 lap of a 22 km circuit.Pretty much flat as a tack with the only incline the freeway overpass.Not my preferred terrain but you have to work with what your given.My bunch contained 3 other riders I'd ridden with before in handicaps and I knew we would have a good group.My group,Block,were given 5 minutes start on a well credentialled four man scratch group with 15 minutes to the middle markers and the two out marker groups, 20 and 27 minutes.
Before the completion of the large loop scratch has lost Grealy due to a mechanical which reduced their fire power but the group had reduced the 5 minutes deficit to just over 2.
My Block group managed to catch the 15 min group just nearing the end of the first lap, which increased our strength, but were still 8 minutes behind the leaders with just 22 kms to go.
Next to be caught, the 20 minutes group as they turned into Emu Bridge road, but scratch were making no impression on us now, with our reinforced strong, 11 man/woman bunch.
Turning back onto Kilfeera Road with 8 kms to the finish we were still 4 minutes down from the limit group and the race was really on, trying to hold scratch at bay and also catching the limit pair who were travelling strongly.
I put my head down and pulled some really solid turns along Kilfeera Road nearly popping  myself in the process.I knew the pace had to be lifted if there was any chance of catching limit.We could see them in the distance but were starting to run out of road.
The freeway overpass is about 600 metres from the finish and it was just after this when limit succumbed and had to watch the race lead get snatched from them.I'd found myself on the front with around 300 metres left in the race with no other choice than to lead out the sprint.At around 150m to go I hit out for the line with every ounce of energy that was left in my body, expecting to be swamped on the line by the following riders.It seemed to take an eternity to ride that last 50 metres and Dr Gav came through right on the line.Neither of us could be sure of the verdict, with the line judges initially giving Dr Gav the victory.However the camera revealed that it was 15 cms that separated us and getting the judges verdict was me with Morley a bike length back for 3rd in one the most trilling sprint finishes the Club has seen for a while. Strang sprinted in well for 4th just ahead of Davison with limit man Lea home in 6th place and the other limit rider Cathie held on for 8th spot.

Scratch, who’s firepower was reduced still did exceptionally well but didn’t make any more ground on the eventual winning group in the last 12 kms finishing just on 2 minutes down with visiting Northern Vets rider Simon Welsh (Team Kosdown) taking out the Fastest Time honours at an average speed just under 40kph.
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A photo of the photo finish.
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L-R.Ian Strang 4th.Gavin Frawley 2nd,Geoff Morley 3rd,Myself,Graham Davison 5th and Simon Welsh Fastest Time

Return to Racing

25/2/2012

 
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The Main street of Dookie,The pub looks inviting.
Today was the first race of 2012 for me and there had not been a number pinned on my jersey since Tour of Bright 2011. I hadn't considered entering the race today but on some gentle coaxing from some of the Wangaratta mob I thought, ok, and managed to enter about 2 hours before cut off. As the race was to be held by The Goulburn Valley Veterans Cycling Club it was lucky I had renewed my VVCC racing licence with Hume Veterans Cycling Club  just last week. The race was a 52km Handicap held at Dookie and was also an Open race,which means a large number entries and very good competition. 
  
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Colin Stokes preparing his bike.
In a handicap race a few things have to go your way to be successful. Hopefully you'll get put into a group of riders that are at a similar level to yourself, and who are prepared to work well together to keep the pace high. You also have to hope you can ride fast enough so that the groups of riders behind you don't catch up .Everbody is always very keen to get the start list and find out what mark you've been given. There were seven in my bunch,3 women and 4 men some of whom I knew and others I didn't.
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My group turned out to be a fantastic bunch of riders with everybody prepared to do their share of the work on the front. It was pretty windy on the course and I found the strong cross winds to be the most difficult to contend with. As the race wore on and we gathered up the riders whom had started ahead of us, it was looking very positive for our bunch. About half way through the last lap we caught the last of these riders, which meant our group was now the front of the race and if we didn't get caught, somebody from our group would win the race. The women in our group rode very strongly especially on the flat crosswind sections but they struggled a little on the hills. I felt pretty good the further the race went and had the idea to attack on the last climb near the cemetery. 
By the time we got to the bottom of that hill there were 4 of us left in the bunch, we had lost a couple of our women on the nasty little hill around the back of the course. I knew Colin Stokes in the bunch as we often ride together for training and he rides strongly. The other guy,John Tielen,I didn't know but I had thought for most of the race he was probably the rider in our bunch who would be the biggest threat. I wasn't certain about the remaining women,Wendy Bennett,as she'd pulled back the gap we put on her on the previous hill so was a very capable rider. 
I accelerated as hard as I could up the hill and didn't look back. When I reached the top I still had the strong rider(John) with me. But we had gapped the others by quite a bit so it was time to put the hammer down for the last couple of kilometers. We worked really well together, retaining the gap we had opened up on the climb. As we got closer to the finnish and were not going to be caught,I asked the other rider,"do you want to go side by side and sprint it out?" to which he replied in a thick European accent ,"I don't care", which was said in a friendly tone. With the last little bend then about 150 metre to the finnish I pretty much just rode as hard as I could and managed enough of a sprint to win. 
It is a wonderful feeling to win a race and  the last time I had a win was nearly a year ago . John, who came second was very happy too and we had a very nice exchange after the race. The other 2 from our group crossed the line in 3rd,Wendy Bennett, and 4th,Colin Stokes, before the scratch bunch came flying through just behind. 
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My hard working bunch. L-R Wendy Bennett,myself,Evelyn Keetelaar,John Tielen,Kay Huggins and Colin Stokes. Photograph by Richard Bailey
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This one is taken on the steep short climb on Duggans Rd I think. Photograph by Richard Bailey
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On the last climb going full gas. Photograph by Richard Bailey
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Finnishing sprint. Photograph by Richard Bailey
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Very happy at the presentations,thanks to John(The Missile) Myles for his photography skills.
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Some cash,a trophy and a medal. You've got to be happy with that.

Thanks to Richard Bailey for kindly supplying the photos of the racing action and to Raymond Jarratt for facilitating the exchange.Many thanks for all the support and congratulations,also for putting up with my self indulgence on the blog this week. And hopefully I've gotten over the phobia of having my new (second hand) Lightweight wheels on my bike. See full results below.

                                                         26/2/2012  G.V. Vets 52km Open.

1st     Anthony  Reeckman     H                   25min
2nd    John  Tielen              G.V                 25min
3rd     Wendy  Bennett        C.V.                25min
4th     Colin  Stokes             H                   25min
5th     Stephen  Fairless      G.V.                 scr
6th     Neville  Laffy            G.V.                2min
7th    Tom  Leaper              E                    scr
8th    Darren  Roberts          N                   2min
9th    Mark  Currie               H                   4min
10th   Peter  McDonough      G                   4min

Fastest  Time  Stephen  Fairless
1st  Unplaced  lady Evelyn  Keetelaar
1st  Unplaced G.V.Vet  rider  Brad  Scott
1st  Unplaced G.V.Vet over 60 rider  David  Schier

    Tony Reeckman

     

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