Schools back and so are the junior cyclists. The club had 3 new riders front up for the Wednesday night training session so it was all hands on deck to get them on bikes and some instructions from the Club Coach – Tony Smith. It was great to see some keen girls and boys trying out on the velodrome.
Friday night racing also saw a good attendance with an even spread of boys and girls. After a school holiday break some of the skills are a bit rusty and lots of the riders had grown over the break so their position on the bike needed to be adjusted. To help the handicapper the first event was the 1 lap dash against the clock. This is also a good record for the riders to check and see the improvement over the season. Best time went to Oscar Davis at 37.49sec. Perhaps this PB was helped by training on Saturday and Sunday morning road ride. Next best was Erica Deery with anew PB at 39.64 secs so the Bali holiday did not impede her progress. Ethan Davis on his first ride clocked a 41.82 sec just ahead of Thomas Geary 42.60sec and Grace Petersen at 42.80 sec. It was Graces first ride and her start was a little rusty so she can improve on that time. They were followed by Kate Geary 46.02 sec and Renee Hardacre 47.05 sec whilst Stephen Spencer was at 54.37 sec. He has grown and we need to get him on a bigger bike as well.
After a short rest the riders were back out for an A grade 5 lap scratch race. This was a quiet affair until just before the bell lap when Oscar Davis skipped away getting a break on the field and heading home for the win. Grace Peterson finished strongly to take 2nd and in a close battle for 3rd Erica Deery just edged out Tom Geary. In the B grade 3 lap race, Ethan Davis was too strong for Kate Geary and Stephen Spencer.
The handicapper did a good job of sorting out marks for the 8 riders over the 1 lap dash. The riders were all at their limit and whilst the handicaps closed right up so that it was a photo finish and with all riders within 5m at the finish, Stephen Spencer from limit on 90m just held on for the win from Renee Hardacre (55m) and Kate Geary (50m) into 3rd place
The extreme efforts had Oscar suffering with a churning stomach but after a short rest he was ready to go again. This time it was in 2 rider teams for an Olympic Sprint over the 1 lap with teams starting either side of the track. The first heat saw Kate and Renee with a time of 47.34 sec just stay ahead from Ethan and Stephen in a time of 48.66sec. In the second heat it was a close affair needing the stop watch to separate the finishing order. Oscar and Grace 41.16 sec just did the job ahead of Erica and Tom in 41.53 sec.
The riders had a few novelty events such as a slow race and balance test in a shrinking square space to recover before the final races. Grace managed to win the slow race whilst Oscar grabbed the balance test.
The A grade field raced over 4 laps and again Oscar took the honours but Grace pushed hard all the way. Ethan Davis, who lead all the way still finished well to grab 3rd. The other riders raced a 1 lap sprint and Kate Geary had the win ahead of Renee and Stephen.
Training will be on again on Wednesday night – weather permitting, but there will be no racing next Friday night.
Lindsay
updated 9am 25th Sept.
