Girl power was the predominant theme at track cycling on Friday night. The club was pleased to see that they had a group of young girls move from Wednesday night training to racing. In addition there are further girls at training who were not able to race on Friday night. The challenge is now there for the boys. The weather conditions were great and the track was fast as the riders fronted up for the 1 lap against the clock.
In the seniors Ollie McLean recorded the best time at 32.41 sec, just ahead of Steve Allen 33.02sec. Tom Fitzgerald clocked 35.66 sec whilst Jack Allen recorded a new PB at 36.08 sec. For the girls Erica Deery, racing for the first time put in a slick 44.84sec. Also having a first night was Kate Geary riding 51.02 sec. They were followed by Emilie Hadicke with anew PB at 55.60 sec and a new PB for Willow Bakogiannis at 56.86. All these great times mean plenty of thoughts for the handicapper – Steve Wilson.
The seniors followed up with a 10 lap scratch race and this was run without any attacks and left to the sprint to decide the results. Ollie McLean took the honours from Steve Allen and Jack Allen. The girls rode a 1 lap handicap and in a close result Erica Deery (Scr) flashed down the outside to grab a photo finish win from Kate Geary (30) and Willow Bakogiannis (45). In the revised handicap run, Kate Geary (35) took a narrow win from Willow (45) and Erica (scr) finishing fast grabbing 3rd.
In the senior 1 lap handicap it was another good result for the handicapper. The first event saw Tom Fitzgerald (30) take the win from Jack Allen (60) and Ollie McLean (scr) taking third. In the revised event, the lack of fitness for some riders saw then unable to back up the effort with limited recovery. Steve Allen (15) took the win from Ollie (scr) and Tom (25) found the reduced handicap have an impact.
The girls were give a straight line sprint on the grass and Erica Deery prevailed ahead of Willow, Kate and Emilie. This was followed by some balance efforts where the riders have to ride slowly in a decreasing area and in this event, Willow showed the most skill, winning both events.
The girls were split into 2 sprint heats. In the first Willow just managed to edge out Emilie. In the second race, Erica was not waiting for Kate to get the jump so went hard right from the start and held the lead for a clear win over Kate.
The senior sprint heats saw Tom take a narrow win over Jack whilst Ollie managed to make the flying start deception over Steve to record and easy win. Just to see the impact of the racing the girls were given another 1 lap time trial. Whilst most suffered around a 2 sec slip in performance, Kate Geary showed great stamina to pull out a half sec improvement to record a new PB at 50.65 sec.
The seniors finished with a 6 lap scratch race. Steve Allen decided he had suffered enough so sat out the event. Tom and Ollie had Jack do most of the work and when they started to fox moves with each other at bell lap, Jack Allen was able to head for the finish with a good break. At the finish it was a well earned win for Jack ahead of Ollie and Tom.
Training is on again at 6.00pm Wednesday night. The club still has bikes available for more girls or boys who want to have a try at track racing – join the fun crowd and test yourself.
Lindsay
results
updated 7am 18th Sept.
