Results and Reports for March 24-25, 2001AustraliaPromoters wishing to submit results should send them to cyclingnews VVCC Aggregate Points Series #2 VVCC Aggregate Points Series #2Learmonth, Vic, March 25, 2001 By Steven di Tulio The second round of the VVCC aggregate series took place on Sunday 25th March 2001. The race was conducted by the Ballarat Veterans Cycling Club. Like all aggregate races it was a handicap race consisting of 3 laps, of a 17.6km circuit, near Learmonth. 77 riders turned up to face a circuit that had a bit of everything in it. A tailwind start for about 1km. A left hand turn into a crosswind from the left. Another left into a headwind for a long uphill drag, another left turn into a crosswind from the right this time and lastly a slight uphill then a 1km decline, with tailwind, into a fast finish. The first lap had a sprint and this was taken out by Peter Gilbert (24 mins) from the home club of Ballarat The 10 minute bunch were working reasonably well together in the first lap with Joseph Gulino (Geelong) screaming off at the start putting a few of us in trouble immediately. Gail Cashin (Ballarat) was in this group doing her fair share of the work early. I departed the group at the start of the second lap just as we were captured by the 8 minutes bunch. Let me tell you there were some boys in that group pushing hard on the pedals to get the group going. The riders started to get spat in quick succession with the uphill drag, headwind and quick pace taking its toll. The second lap also had a sprint in it and this was collected by Ted Kearney (24 mins) from the Geelong club. The six minute bunch came through and I leapt onto the back of them for a short time and they were rolling along quite smoothly, but didn't look to have the speed that would allow them close the gap on the fast moving bunch ahead. Not to sure what happened to the four minutes bunch, but chopping block and scratch caught me along the road into the finishing straight and again were moving along smoothly. From the finish line the lead car came screaming down the road and we were informed that there was about twenty riders in the lead group and they were from the eight minutes group forward. The tailwind and slight decline had the speeds high. 350m to go and disaster struck a number of riders. With a bit of argy bargy going on and riders trying to improve position, a touch of wheels or loss of balance saw three come down in spectacular fashion. Two bikes were seen cartwheeling though the air, about 8-10 feet up. Reminded me of a photo from a finishing fall in Europe a while ago. This fall sorted out the positioning a bit with three riders having a small lead, 2-3m on the next group. The three riders John Long (Woodstock winner and Northern club), Robert Phillips (Ballarat) and Roger Mileti (Geelong) tussled it out all the way to the line and you could have thrown a blanket over them at the finish with John Long winning, Robert Philip 2nd and Roger 3rd. John has done it again in the second race of the series going back four minutes in time, but is obviously going better than the handicapper thinks, it will be interesting to see his mark next races - scratch might be stronger by one. The scratch bunch was screaming down the road for fastest time and had to be flagged down to slow with bikes, bits, riders and ambulance all over the road. In the end fastest time went to Gary Gullock (Ballarat). Back to the fall and the three riders down were all OK but spent a bit of time on the ground, a bit dazed and shaken. As per normal there was a few anguished cries of, "how's my bike". I described the fall as spectacular but I am sure not fun to participate in. I wish, and I am sure your fellow competitors do to, the riders a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you in the next race. The post race feed was once again a grand affair put on by the host club and is something to look forward to at the end of a hard slog and almost worth entering the race just for the feed. Thank you goes out to the Ballarat club, the corner stewards, lead and tail car drivers, the finishing judges and anyone else who assisted in puttting on the race or cooking/supplying the feed at the end. Results1 John Long (Northern) 8 mins 2 Robert Phillips (Ballarat) 8 mins 3 Roger Mileti (Geelong) 16 mins 4 Leon Gibson (Grampians) 8 mins 5 Phil Morris (Warnambool) 8 mins 6 Richard Buckwell (Geelong) 16 mins 7 Mal Taylor (?) 10 mins 8 Peter Fry (Ballarat) 16 mins 9 Mike Montague (Geelong) 19 mins 10 Noel Symons (Colac) 12 mins. Fastest time: Gary Gullock (Ballarat) 1.18.29 SKCC Summer Weekly Criterium SeriesSt Kilda, Vic, March 25, 2001 ResultsA Grade 1 Cameron Streistermanis 2 Kon Kakris 3 Tommy McDonough B Grade 1 Nathan Darcy 2 Daniel Watson 3 Michael Kennedy C Grade 1 Leon Melven 2 Martin Bole 3 Rod Brandenberg 4 Chris O'Connor Gold Coast CATS CC CriteriumNerang, Qld, March 25, 2001 ReportIt was back to Nerang for some hills on Sunday, and riders described it as like racing in a sauna. They knew they were in for a torrid morning when they saw the sweat dripping from the officials - and they were just sitting down taking the registrations! Boy, it was hot and humid! There was quite an influx of riders from Brisbane this week, including last week's A Grade winner Ben Day, so that virtually guaranteed there would be no easy ride in that division. And so it turned out, although none of the aggressors could gain more than 10 or 15 seconds before being hauled back by the bunch again. It was left to one of the Coast's most aggressive riders, Jayson Austin, to finally grab a lead of 30 seconds with only 10 minutes remaining, and at that stage he looked the likely winner. Day however had other ideas, and with one and a half laps to go he used the hill to launch a ferocious attack, caught Austin within a lap, went straight past next time up the hill and rode away to an impressive win. Austin was a clear second and Troy Stacey used his superior speed to lead home the bunch. With five minutes remaining of the B Grade raced it looked as though the first three placings could be taken by Under 17 riders, as Gold Coasters Ben Mockridge and Brad Payne, and Miles Olman from Rocky, along with senior rider Craig Reston, had a 25 second gap to the bunch. They were working well together and looked in no danger of being caught. But fortunes can change quickly in a bike race, and they learnt a valuable lesson that it doesn't pay to back off and start looking at each other too soon before the finish. They were caught with less than half a lap to go, the bunch sprint was won by Stephen Storer from Kym McDowell, and the hard working breakaway foursome were unplaced. C Grade was won by Wilf Hubac, with a dead heat for second between David Sheppard and Karl Rameau, and the D grade race was taken out by Tom Wright. Congratulations to CATS Under 17 rider Brad Payne, who won a bronze medal on the weekend as a member of the Queensland Teams Pursuit Team, at the Australian Junior Track Championships at Chandler Velodrome. For information on CATS racing on the Gold Coast, check out www.geocities.com/goldcoastcats/ ResultsA Grade - 60 minutes + 3 laps 1 Ben Day 2 Jayson Austin 3 Troy Stacey 4 Greg Pooley B Grade - 50 minutes + 3 laps 1 Stephen Storer 2 Kym McDowell 3 John Schaab 4 Ian Walker C Grade - 40 minutes + 3 laps 1 Wilf Hubac =2 Karl Rameau =2 David Sheppard 4 Spencer Stacey 1st Lady Diane Van Stiphout D Grade - 30 minutes + 3 laps 1 Tom Wright 2 Matt Wood 3 Greg Aroney 4 Corey Turnbull |