On Saturday it was the 30th Clarence St Cyclery (it’s a bike shop) Cup, an all-day track fiesta at the Dunc Grey indoor velodrome in Sydney.
Full results — http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/default.asp?Page=44828
There were various races throughout the day and night. The NSW State Keirin Championship took place too.My races started about 6pm with the ‘Warm Up Scratch Race for Mature Ladies’. It was 8 laps, so 2km. Well out of the six of us I knew one of the women, Joanne Troutman, a sprinter, so I decided to blast off fairly immediately. I held about 1/3rd to 1/2 a lap on them. As my lungs started to give out I kept having a look behind to see if they had given up. I blew with about 3 to go and was overhauled on the last lap. I was even beaten by the woman with one leg. Trouty won it. But we like her, so we didn’t mind…too much.
So that was my lungs buggered for the rest of the weekend’s racing.
The rest of my races were handicapped – they were qualifiers for the main event of the day, the Wheel Race.
I was handicapped in to group 1. All of the people in group 1 deserved to be there, except me. As I’d had some success here last year, and because I’m an ‘International Rider’ I think I was ranked a bit hard.
I didn’t qualify in the Group 1 scratch and went through to the repêchage which was group 1 and 2 . It was only 5 laps which doesn’t suit me at all. I was desperate to qualify and had to pull a bit of a stunt in the final sprint; I was a bit blocked in and had to nip underneath. I may have wandered inadvertently on to the Cote d’Azur and fully expected to be hauled in front of the rozzers, but one of the girls managed to create a bit of a diversion by screaming, so it was all OK.
The Wheel Race: the riders start at various points around the track according to their handicap. The person considered the best will start off ‘on scratch’ ie on the start line, and the least strong rider might well be almost a lap up from the start, and these races aren’t that long – 8 laps ours was.
I was on 40m with only 3 riders behind me. One of those was my old mate (I think she’s 15) Holly Heffernan, a multiple junior champion.
When the whistle went it wasn’t long before the girls behind me came whipping over me. I got on Holly’s tail for a millisecond before she managed to wriggle through a cozy bit of bunching. I went the scenic route and took in the view from the top.
Holly came 2nd and I came 9th, which I wasn’t displeased with.
The next day, Sunday, it was a straight back to the Dunc Grey for the Elite NSW State Omnium Championships. I was both nervous and knackered – good for weight loss, not for much else.
There were 6 races-
Flying 250m ——————–4th
Points – 40 laps——————5th
Elimination————————2nd
Pursuit – 2km———————4th
Scratch -5km (20 laps)———3rd
500m TT————————–4th
Full results – http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/default.asp?Page=44832
Fortunately a few people didn’t show up. Unfortunately, the ones that did were shit hot.
There were 7 of us, 4 of whom were our equivalent of ODP. It was a bugger because they all had the same kit on.
I wasn’t doing too well until the Devil, despite doing some pretty random things in the points race when, much to my surprise I managed to get 2nd which shot me up the points tally in to 3rd place. After the scratch race there were three of us all lying joint 2nd with only the 500m TT to go. I did 41s something or other, which was a bit disappointing because I felt like I’d done the ride of my life .Probably the drag caused by my left eye dangling from its optic nerve. One of my rivals had an absolutely rotten start and posted an even worse time than me so I managed to get my little green Willesden arse on the podium, just.
Anyway, we all had a great day and I got a bronze medal and a reputation of being a bit dangerous. Grrrr!!!!
Jayne
Terry Deere has drawn my attention to an Eddy Merckx film programme on Sunday 29 January:
The riders covered over 750 miles. Must be all that turbo training that Kel gives them on a Tuesday night at the clubroom.
