The cycling club made use of another great Friday evening to run the Club Track Championships for the current season. Fortunately the trial track repair undertaken on Thursday, thanks to a grant from Council was complete and the track was again ready for action. It should be noted that more than just the cycling club take the opportunity to ride around the track in safety. The repair undertaken was aimed at levelling out a sunken joint, of which we have many.
The Club championships are run over 3 events – a 500m time trial, a sprint event and a scratch race. The riders ride in their age groups and accrue points for placings in each event. The overall points tally decides the placings in the club titles.
In the under 13 division, Erica Deery was the outstanding rider winning all events and establish herself as a rider of the future. Her time of 53.74sec for the 500m time trial was the only time under the 60 sec for this group. Hopefully she can continue through to a senior rider and perhaps we can see her take the 20sec of her time over the next 12 years and get down to the world mark of around 33sec. Kate Geary was next at 62.86sec, Emiley Hadicke at 66.6 sec and Jake Johnston at 86.16 sec which was good for a 7 year old on a mountain bike In the sprint it was Erice, Kate , Emiley and Jake however in the scratch race Erica rode hard early and Kate tried to go with the pace. However by the last lap Emiley chased Kate down and took the second place. However, the title result was Erice1st, Kate 2nd and Emiley 3rd.
In the Under 15 group we only had 2 starters – Paris Reynolds and Renee Hardacre. There is a distinct difference in riders – Paris is quite a bit taller than Renee but size is not that influential for bike riders. However, Paris managed to win each event and become the Club under 15 champion.
The most competitive group was the Under 17 age group. Following a really good Wednesday night training behind the motor bike riders were ready for the contest. Oliver McLean clocked a great 500m time trial time of 38.72 sec. Next in was Tom Fitzgerald at 43.22 sec just ahead of Jack Allen at 44.38sec and Caleb Murphy at 48.62sec. Jack was probably not quite explosive enough at the start. The results for the sprint and scratch race events followed a similar pattern. Club Under 17 champion is Oliver McLean, from Tom Fitzgerald and Jack Allen.
In the senior division we were again down to 3 competitors. Steve Allen clocked 40.94 sec for the 500m time trial with George Bakogiannis at 48.18 sec just ahead of Felicity Waddell at 49.47 sec. In the sprint, Steve Allen comfortably controlled affairs at the front but Felicity managed to sprint home for second. This set up the scratch race as a decider for the minor places. At the end of the scratch race it was a third win for Steve and a further second for George. This then gave the results as Steve the senior club champion from George and Felicity.
The club had a number of riders racing at Metung for the East Gippsland tour over the weekend. In addition senior members have been racing at Sandown on Tuesday twilight events. Hence the months club meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night at 8pm after track training. Lots to organise for the road season so come along to the meeting at Leongatha RSL.
Lindsay
results n/a
updated 9am 25th Sept.
