Have a great season Simon.  

This race report is extremely late being posted, because immediately after the completion of Saturday racing, I had to rush to DISC to sell programs for the Melbourne Cup on Wheels / Australian Madison Championships.

Scratch races.

Sam Bascombe clearly won the D grade scratch race, ahead of Andrew Helding and Nic Thomopoulos – so Sam was bumped up to C grade.  B and C grade were combined (but separate results recorded).  Maddy Currie somehow missed her D grade scratch, so was allowed to race in the B / C grade scratch instead … only to be lapped by Penny (with Jack on her wheel) as they got the bell lap … much to the amusement of the spectactors.  After Penny lead from start to finish, cheeky Jack Throssell (who refused to do a turn) just pipped her at the post!  Angus Mennan was the best of the C graders – he was also moved up to B after the scratch.

In A grade, David Koroknai was clearly the best – with younger brother Ryan right behind!

After some rearrangement of the grading (which made the overall placings difficult), it was on to the elimination races.

In D grade, Mitchell Lyall rode a smart race (on his new track/road bike) to be 3^rd eliminated.  Andrew Helding and Nic Thomopoulos battled it for 1^st and 2^nd in that order.  Cam Helding gave the officials a scare when he crossed the track while the racing was continuing – all riders are reminded to stop on the grass after being eliminated, and then exit the track at the completion of the race.

In the combined B/C grade, the numbers gradually dwindled until it was the Penny vs Jack battle for 1^st and 2^nd again – and Jack triumphed again!

And in A grade, the placings were very similar to the scratch race – with David and Ryan battling it out for 1^st/2^nd ahead of David Currie with Thomas Stevenson, Bryce and Tom Lucas behind.

Then it was time for the motorpace for all grades.  Penny rode with the D grade bunch, to demonstrate that its OK to ride right behind the motorbike, and even touch the roller.  All riders, except Mitchell, got a turn behind the motorbike before it pulled off and the sprint started.  This time Cam Helding got the better of older brother Andrew!

In the C grade motorpace, the results were exactly the same as the elimination – Bill Simpson won ahead of Sam Tickner, Sam Bascombe and Riley Nichols.

In the B grade motorpace, Jack Throssell was finally forced to do a turn!  Once the motorbike pulled off with 2 laps to go, the pace slowed right down and the sprint tactics started with Penny, Jack and Angus all eying each other off.  Penny launched her attack with one-and-a-bit laps to go – when Jack was behind Angus – but to no avail.  For the third time, 9 year-old Jack beat 29 year-old Penny!  (To his credit, Jack did say that Penny was much faster than usual – on her new red track bike.)

In the A grade motorpace, the first three placings were the same as the scratch and elimination – David and Ryan Koroknai, followed by David Currie.  This time Tom Stevenson was 4^th, Tom Lucas 5^th and Bryce Marquardt 6^th.  (Tom Lucas got a 4^th, 6^th and 5^th!)

Finally it was time for the Christmas handicap – with extra prizemoney on the line for the feature handicap of the first half of the season.

After riding tentatively in bunches all afternoon (after her recent clipped wheel crash on her new track bike at JDP training), Maddy Currie rode off the front and lead basically from start-to-finish off a mark of 330 m.  Mitchell Lyall (360 m) almost managed to hold the rest of the bunch off – David Currie (30 m) was second ahead of Mitchell (360m) and Ryan Koroknai (20 m) in fourth.

Thank you to everyone who helped – from Mick Hollingworth, Rob Koroknai (motorbike rider), Sonia Throssell (results), Penny Robinson (results).

We farewelled Riley Nichols, who is off to Bendigo, too.  (His parents are opening up a new café in the main street of Bendigo, Zeste).  He helped with lap counter and bell duty when he wasn’t racing himself.

And congratulations to Mitchell Lyall for learning how to start from the fence after the completion of racing.

Rob Koroknai was the first other helper to arrive, and found a novel way to transport the registration tent down to the velodrome … strapped to the postie bike!

There were 34 riders in all – 10 in A grade, 7 in B grade, 9 in C grade and 8 in D grade, after the slight rearrangement of grades after the scratch race.  There was a brief shower during the B grade scratch race, but by the time the A grade scratch race started, the rain was gone – and the track was already dry again!  There was no more rain until we were packing up.

In A grade, there was a new record for the number of Davids entered – Koroknai, Randall, Currie and Prior!  It was great to have three seniors (John Throssell, David Prior and Brendan Rowbotham (Cycling Inform)) competing against the Wednesday DISC and Thursday JDP kids.  The racing, especially for the top few places, were very hotly contested between David Koroknai (CCCC Elite/De Ver) and Randall (Bicycle Superstore) and James Tickner (Bikes De Ver).  (Although David Randall got caught out in the elimination.)  James was desparate for a keirin (having done some at the National Junior Track Series) – but the officials decided for a straight out motorpace, rather than 2-heats-and-a-final keirin.

The final placings were: David Koroknai, James Tickner and David Randall.

In B grade, there was a mixture of Wednesday and Thursday JDP kids.  Freya Wickenden managed to do what race reporter Penny Robinson failed to do at the previous race meet – and hold off a fast finishing Jack Throssell (age 9) in both the scratch and motorpace!

Newbie Woody Shmith had Brendan Rowbotham riding with him as mentor – which confused everyone in the elimination (cos Brendan was at the back!)  No such confusion after we eliminated both Woody and Brendan.  Jack Throssell won ahead of Thomas Jones (who was put up after winning the C grade scratch.)

With A grade about to have a motorbike event, we gave the B graders the same choice – points or motorpace?  Motorpace was definitely the winner!  Everyone rode nice and close to the motorbike roller, which was great to see.

The final placings were: Jack Throssell (will we put him up?), Freya Wickenden and Thomas Jones.

In C grade, the riders mustn’t have heard the whistle to indicate the start of racing – cos they were still going extremely slowly a lap later.  This resulted in a slow speed wheel clip (onto the grass).  James was on his feet in time for “bell duty” 4 laps later.  Bill Simpson was caught up in no mans land behind the crash.  Thomas Jones was promoted to B grade, and Nic Thomopoulos and Michael Doyle were put in D grade after the scratch.

Bill Simpson definitely made amends for being caught behind the scratch crash – winning the elimination and the points races.  Sam Bascombe and Andrew Helding rode well in the elimination race, and Frank Hutton and Shanelle rode well in the points race.

The final results were: Bill Simpson, Joshua Heather and Andrew Helding.

D grade was a mixture of Wednesday JDP kids, and Tyler Bloomfield and Jack Hutton who were giving it a go for the first time.  After starting racing BMX at the age of 4, MacKenzie Rowbotham (Brendan’s son) finally got to make his track racing debut!

Cameron Helding made it two-from-two in the scratch and elimination races, before Jack Hutton surprised everyone in the points race – winning the first sprint, and coming second in the 2^nd sprint to finish on 8 points.  Maddy Currie also rode well – often coming from the back, and passing riders as the race went on.

Maddy Currie and Ryan Wilson both finished on 4 points in the points race – but Ryan was awarded 3^rd place, because he finished ahead of Maddy in the final sprint.

As a result, three riders were tied for 2^nd place behind Cameron Helding who clearly won – Maddy Currie, Ryan Wilson and Jack Hutton!

With so many riders, we decided to run two handicaps: a C/D grade handicap, followed by a A/B grade handicap.

In the C/D grade handicap, Joshua Heather (120 m) won ahead of Maddy Currie (160 m), Shanelle Freeman (70 m), Ben Jones (140 m), Cameron Helding (90 m) and Sam Bascombe (110 m).  This is after Maddy won the Christmas handicap in the last meet before Christmas.

In the A/B grade handicap, the three scratchman of David Koroknai, Brendan Rowbotham and James Tickner (off 10 m) rode a team pursuit to get around most of the group.  The scratchman didn’t quite get there though – David Randall (50 m) won ahead of David Currie (100 m), Ryan Koroknai (110 m), John Throssell (70 m) and James Tickner (10 m).

Thanks to Andrew Currie (David and Maddy’s dad) for taking photos of the afternoon.  His full album can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10151285241375445

The next Saturday afternoon track racing will be held on Saturday 25^th February.

Registration at 1:30 pm, Racing starts at 2:00 pm.

Next Saturday is the Club team track championships at DISC – so good luck to all of the juniors representing the club and competing in that.

He told me to tell you all he will be back so don’t think the old bloke is going soft. None tougher than Hilton on the bike and always makes you do correct drills etc in training. His great results come from the fact that the old bloke knows his stuff and makes each athlete work to hers/his full potential.

I know you all wish him well and speedy recovery.

Anyway all the youngsters raced very well swapping off turns under Rob’s instructions for the first three laps and then it was on and to their credit they all raced really well.

Am enjoying my small contribution to the young E grade riders and watching them race it will not be too many years and they will be pushing up to higher grades.

A good night and congratulations to all and in particular Harry Hanley coming third in A grade after Danny Kah took off down the S bends with Harry in tow. Brenton Jones and Alex Smyth just ran Harry down at the finish.

Thank you Mal and all officials for another great night of racing.  

With a light breeze blowing from the south, conditions proved a little too benign for the hardmen to really take advantage, and for the first time in a while all races were decided with bunch sprints.

There were still plenty of attacks in A Grade, and the final tag team by Cycling-Inform’s Danny Kah and Harry Hanley nearly paid off. The pair shot away on the descent off the final climb, and held a narrow lead round the final corner. Kah gave everything he had to maintain the narrow lead, leaving Hanley to desperately charge along the right hand barriers as the sprint wound up behind him.

Hanley finally succumbed with just 20 metres to go, as Brenton Jones (Torq) flashed past, just ahead of Alex Smyth (Plan B Racing). Luke Parker (Jayco VIS) finished just behind Hanley, with Dale Woonton (CCCC) and Vaughan Bowman next best.

Alex Woff (Kaos Custom Bikes) kept the B Grade field at bay alone for most of the final four laps, and started the final lap 10 seconds clear. It wasn’t enough to hold off the charge from the bunch on the final climb however, and the field reformed for the final kilometre. Peter English (Soul Devotion) led the sprint out strongly, but faded in the final metres to allow Sean McIver (Kelly Cycle Coaching) to blast past for his second win in three days. Third went to Laiam Dove (Look), ahead of Cameron Nicholls and James Gray (Giant). Carley McKay (Kelly Coaching) survived a tangle on the final lap to lead the women home, with Carly Williams (Total Rush) next best.

Regular fast men Gregor Hunter, Brenton McRae and Paul Aulakh took full advantage of their finishing speed in the C Grade bunch kick, with Gareth Heitmann (Trailmix) rounding out the top four. Ruby Greig-Hurtig (Look) had another aggressive race capped off with a solid sprint to take the women’s top prize ahead of Suzie Molloy.

The D Grade bunch sprint was dominated by Daniel Pendlebury, whose win capped off a consistent few weeks to earn promotion to C Grade. Joining him there next week will be David Gotts and Mark Zervaas who finished in second and third place. Fourth went to William Troung, just ahead of Dylan Thompson. The women’s victory went to Samantha Ritter (Giant) who had impressed with a long solo break earlier in the evening. Filling the women’s podium were Jessica Cox and Anna Collins.

CCCC crits continue on Sunday morning at Glenvale Crescent, Mulgrave. The Novice Clinic starts at 8.30am, followed by B and D Grades at 10am. Racing concludes with A and C Grades, starting at 10.15am.

Photos provided tonight by Gavin Sittampalan, Jim Morey and Levant Efe. Gavin’s album can be seen in full at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150700587393140.458033.658518139&type=1

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Thanks to the Giant Celtic boys for this great article on Steggles’ determination to bring home a silver spoon from the Port Fairy Cycling Club’s weekly handicap. If you’re planning a trip way out west and are keen to have a race, get in contact with Jeff McLean at Port Fairy CC. Jeff can be contacted on 0427 681 744.

In all the excitement that was TDU we missed giving kudos to a momentous achievement that occurred in January.

The sleepy seaside town of Port Fairy is great cycling country and breeds some very tough local riders. David “stig” Sturt worked this out years ago and has been taking his family down there every Christmas & Easter for a family holiday.

Every Saturday the Port Fairy CC stages it’s weekly handicap race, a race that normally draws a good crowd of locals and visitors of all levels. The race is unique, not so much for the fact that it is a 30 odd klm absolute smash fest but more for the fact that first prize is a spoon. I understand that many locals have been able to win a stack of these things but for visitors they are a very rare prize indeed.

Stig has been trying to win one of these suckers for 8, yes 8 years, has been close but has never triumphed. Brother Neale has also been close on a number of occasions, again, no spoon. A year or so ago Gerry & I (& families) were invited down to PF to holiday with the Stig. Little did we know that we were all part of his plan to help him win the spoon we raced but nope, no spoon. Stig’s quest for the spoon has become well known to many people and we often give him a bit of stick about the fact he has never been able to win one. On Saturday January 14th that all changed.

Details are still sketchy but apparently the course has been changed, lengthened to 40 km. The conditions were very windy (more than normal), just perfect for a tough nut like Stig. Word has it that Stig’s scratch bunch caught the front runners with about 2k from the finish. Just as they were being caught Stig launched his attack and went solo for the final 2k. On the rivet, 500 from the line he glanced around to see how far away the chasing bunch was. Guess who was on the front of the chasing bunch??? Brother Neale. Those that know these two know that, for 2 close brothers there is absolutely no love lost when it comes to racing.

Anyway Stig managed to stay away and FINALLY win a trophy that I am sure he ranks up there with his National titles and Tour of Bright wins. Well done Stiggy!

“STOP PRESS”

It never rains but it pours. Not satisfied with one spoon Stig now has two of these babies. This time he didn’t beat Neale for the glory – no he wouldn’t do that twice to a family member. This time he beat his devoted wife Sharon for the glory. True story!

Visit the Giant Celtic website at http://giantceltic.com.au/

CCCC Results summary:

Gold: Elite Women Team Sprint (Adele Sylvester & Ziggy Callan)

Gold: Elite Women Team Pursuit (Alice Cardwell, Kerry Fitzgerald & Penny Robinson)

Gold: Under 19 Team Sprint (Evan Hull, Jacob Schmid & Jack Cummings)

Silver: Elite Men Team Pursuit (Luke Parker, Stuart Proposch, Callan Douglas & Chris Broeren)

Silver: Under 19 Team Pursuit (Jack Cummings, Evan Hull, Jacob Schmid & Kyle Thompson)

Bronze: Elite Women Team Sprint (Alice Cardwell & Kerry Fitzgerald)

Bronze: Masters 180+ Teams Pursuit (Frank Cipriano, Chris Halley, Martin Peeters & Daniel Guerin)

Thanks to Jarrod Partridge from Jxpphotography for sending these great photos through. To view the full album and buy copies visit http://jxpphotography.com/2012/02/19/2012-victorian-club-teams-premiershi%e2%80%8bp/

Entries are still open through the Cycling Victoria online system at http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/default.asp?id=16045, and close on February 26.

This year’s field promises to be a cracker, with four of the star international riders  who will line up on March 3 for the 2012 Melbourne Madison confirmed as starters, as well as a host of local and interstate champions who view the event as critical preparation as they stake their claims for a spot in the World Track Championships or Olympic teams.

$1000 is on offer, with prizemoney paid to the top 10 finishers.

More details: http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/?ID=45489

In the event of inclement weather, any decision on whether to move the race to DISC will be made by 11am on race day.

Whilst the CCCC news is reporting results it is a real credit to the club officials and parents who put so much time into looking after the young riders.

While on support last Wednesday night Luke Parker and Jack Cummings gave their time to come along to the CCCC training session. They instructed the young riders before and after their training efforts on the right way to do turns etcf and get back on. I know from the email by Georgina Benton that all the young riders were very appreciative, Hilton told me the instruction coming from Jack and Luke really assisted as the kids listen to young champion riders really well.

Today I again attended and good racing by U19′s, Elite and Masters men and women. Was good  close racing and CCCC did well and I know Penny will report on today’s outcomes. Overall there were good numbers some grades light on but that did not detrack from the quality of racing.

CV puts good events on and it’s up to club’s and individuals to support same and you can’t worry about those who don’t take part.

Enjioyed the day.