Return to Racing

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. 
  

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.

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. 

My hard working bunch. L-R Wendy Bennett,myself,Evelyn Keetelaar,John Tielen,Kay Huggins and Colin Stokes. Photograph by Richard Bailey

This one is taken on the steep short climb on Duggans Rd I think. Photograph by Richard Bailey

On the last climb going full gas. Photograph by Richard Bailey

Finnishing sprint. Photograph by Richard Bailey

Very happy at the presentations,thanks to John(The Missile) Myles for his photography skills.

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