Velodrome 19th December 2018

The Cycling club decided to turn the Wednesday night training session into a race night and Xmas break up as well as a training session. The club had 2 new riders for the night – Bastian Jefferies who had spent 2 weeks coming to training and Jada Simpson who turned up for her first night. Along with some seniors training and racing, there was a good group who were still there for the BBQ after the racing and thanks to the cook Peter Fitzgerald. After the normal training session warm up the riders were given a 1 lap time trial and with a cool and gusty wind, it was not a great night for racing against the clock. However, Andrew Geary was trying to turn back the clock and posted a 35.33sec time although we were not sure to call for medics after the effort. Emiley Hardicke who has been training really well and putting in behind the motor bike took 1.5sec of for a new PB at 48.62 sec. Best for the night was Thomas Fitzgerald at 33.90sec. Kevin Feely was his usual solid ride at 37.73 sec and Zoe Reiter was at 42.20sec. In the junior groups, the times were pretty close. Renee Hardacre at 46.00sec, Kate Geary at 48.55sec and Bastian at 56.18 sec. Jada was restricted to doing races by herself and had 3 goes at the time trial and took her time from 53.20sec down to 48.25 sec by the end of the night.

After a short rest, they were back in action for a 3 lap scratch race. Zoe pleaded to ride with the younger riders and duly won the race ahead of Renee and Kate. However, she was quickly rewarded with a race against the seniors and stayed with them until the bell in their 6 lap scratch race. Thomas Fitzgerald flew home for a clear win ahead of Kevin Feely and Andrew Geary.

Next up in the short program was a 1 lap handicap. Bastian Jefferies (100m) made full use of his handicap to score a clear win ahead of Kate Geary (35m) and Emiley Hardicke (50) in 3rd. The seniors had a 1 lap handicap and Andrew Geary (60) bridged the gap to Zoe Reiter(75) and took the sit behind until the finish straight where he easily powered past for the win. Zoe finished well to claim 2nd whilst Thomas Fitzgerald (scr) grabbed 3rd. The handicapper re-arranged marks for the juniors and sent them back out and this time Renee Hardacre(scr) chased down the handicaps to take the win from Bastian(50) and Kate Geary (5) in 3rd.

By this stage of the night, the sausages were ready so there is now a break until Wed 16 Jan for track action. The club advises that they will be happy to help any riders come and try out on that night. The club can help with putting riders on track bikes.

Lindsay