Club members enjoyed a beautiful Friday evening for Club racing – warm and no wind. The outcome of the great conditions were new personal best times for most riders. In the senior grade, Oliver Mclean finally broke the 32 sec mark clocking 31.78 sec. Steve Allen managed to turn the clock back with a fine 31.89sec. Next in was Tom Fitzgerald with a new PB at 33.51sec. Not to be outdone on the PB’s Felicity Waddell clocked 38.34 sec. George Bakogiannis having a ride with the club rode a 39.57 sec.
In the junior group, Paris Reynolds clocked a new PB at 41.90 even after doing swim races in Melbourne earlier in the day. Erica Deery also found a little more to clock 42.87 sec. The big mover with a 3 sec change was Renee Hardacre down to a 45.06 lap. Kate Geary was at 48.43 sec and Emily Hadicke was at 56.86.
The senior group raced a 6 lap scratch race which went smoothly until the half way mark before Oliver McLean upped the tempo for 2 laps. As he swung of the front, Steve Allen attacked and gained a break but Oliver chased hard to still come away with the win from Steve and Tom. In the junior 3 lap scratch race, Paris Reynolds pushed hard the first lap and split the field. This allowed her to cruise through for the win from Erica and Renee.
The riders then faced some handicaps. The seniors raced a 1 lap handicap first and Tom Fitzgerald (45) bridged to the leaders and raced home to win from Felicity Waddell(65) and George Bakogiannis(75). In the 2 lap handicap, the limit riders tired over the second lap and Oliver Mclean (scratch) stormed around to take an easy win from Tom Fitzgerald(60) and Steve Allen (25) in 3rd.
For the juniors, it was a tight field at the finish and Erica Deery finished strongly to grab the win in a photo finish from Paris Reynolds(scr) and Emily Hadicke (50) in 3rd. The revised handicaps saw Renee with an extra 10m start to (30) blitz the field to take an easy win from Erica(10) and Kate Geary(20) in 3rd and make it a nightmare for the handicapper.
After a short break the riders were scheduled for some sprint heats. In the first heat Erica Deery had a narrow win over the improving Renee. In the second heat, Kate Geery was busy organising Emily and made sure she was in front at the end for a clear win. In the senior group, Felicity had a narrow win over George whilst Oliver McLean was able to grab the win over Tom. Steve Allen missed out as he was fixing a puncture.
The juniors were given an elimination race and after a close first lap and some misunderstandings it was a win to Erica over Kate and Renee. The seniors finished with another 6 lap scratch race and whilst the others tried to control Oliver it was to no avail as he won the last race from Steve and Tom and Felicity managed to keep ahead of George at 4th.
Next week the Club championships will be held, weather permitting. Wednesday night was a good training night with coach Tony Smith using the motor bike to get extra speed into the legs. This coming Thursday the Club will have contractors working on some repairs at the track which will hopefully take out some of our rough joins.
Lindsay
results
Time trial stats
updated 7am 18th Sept.
