Friday night cycling was held in cold and breezy conditions and with the Xmas season impacting attendances as well it was a quiet night at racing. Grace Peterson however was keen to try her new cycling shoes and clip in pedals and she not only looked the part but moved pretty well. The first event for the night was the 1 lap dash against the stop watch and best effort went to Oscar Davis with a time of 39.98sec. This was a good time for the poor conditions but he showed improved technique. For the coach and the senior members it is great to see the work at training starting to impact the output. Grace was next with a new PB at 42.15sec so the 40sec mark is her target. Emiley Hadicke also put in a new PB for the season at 46.18 sec whilst Stephen Spencer clocked in at 54.55sec.
The 4 lap scratch race saw Oscar move to the front after the first lap and the others left him doing all the work. At the bell he kicked way and looked to have the race all sorted but Grace worked away at closing the gap and whizzed past Oscar just before the line to claim a great win. Emiley came home in 3rd place.
After a short rest the riders were on the track again for a 1 lap handicap. Stephen Spencer was given 85m start with Emiley at 40, Grace at 10 and Oscar on scratch. After some blistering runs in past weeks Oscar seemed to have lost his mojo and soon lost ground to Grace. However out front Stephen could not believe his luck and headed over the line a clear winner from Grace and Emiley. The revised handicap re-run saw Grace on Scratch and Oscar on 15m with Stephen back to 65m and this time it was a 4 rider dash to the line with Oscar taking the win ahead of Grace and Emiley.
The riders were given a team sprint – boys vs girls. The girls were quick of the mark and worked well whilst the boys were slow to move when the whistle blew and the changeover at the halfway mark was a bit ragged so the end result was the girls winning by about 20m. To round out the night Oscar had a match race against Grace and the tactics probably played into Oscar’s hands as they left it to a short 180m blast and this saw Oscar wind up quicker than Grace and record the win. In the other heat Emiley was too quick for Stephen.
The riders are all looking forward to meeting Tour de France rider Simon Clark on Dec 18. Simon raced at Leongatha as a junior rider so is familiar with the surrounds. He managed to switch from being an Australian rep on the track to a professional career on the road scene. Training is on Wednesday night from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and the junior riders are helped to develop their track craft and riding skills.
Lindsay
updated 8am 2nd June
