Racing for a Good Reason
by Tom MacMunn
Race entry and prize money this week was donated to Lacey Reeve, who is shaving her head next month, on her 10th birthday, to raise money for Leukemia research. There were also a couple of blokes sporting 22 day old moustaches and raising awareness of men’s health for Movember.
A Grade
Only four riders in A Grade lent weight to the theory that these blokes fancy themselves as elite athletes but they are a bit precious when the weather turns.
Bruce Halket was strong and confident on the way out to Hearn’s Lane, his turn up the hill put everyone under the pump. Darren Bakker almost kept in touch until the top of the hill but popped by the top.
Steve Duke turned up the pace after the turn around leaving Bruce and Tom MacMunn to chase him down. They timed their catch and blew straight past on a small rise, and so there were two.
Bruce, still strong and still very confident, backed himself to lead out the sprint and win from the front… but he didn’t.
Great pic taken on Thursday night by Dave Moore, showing Steve being chased by Tom and Bruce.
B Grade
Seven starters in B Grade and the selection was made on the hill up to Hearn’s Lane and the turn. John Lazarov, Allan Gerrans and Ian Conrick couldn’t stay in contact.
After the turn Rob Skinner, Cam Lachal and AJ Stephenson couldn’t shake Matilda Reeve even with her restricted gearing. The four of them all came to the line together.
Rob started his sprint early and held off everyone – the second win of the evening to a moustachioed man. Cam finished in second, AJ third and Matilda fourth.
C Grade
Hearn’s Lane Hill also shook up the C Grade race with Bella Green and Dave Bock dropped and facing the long lonely ride home.
There was lots of action on the way back in to town with Jason Parker trying over and over to get away from his three rivals. Craig Wilson and Judi Duke covered his moves and tried some of their own, but it was all to no avail and the race ended with a four person sprint to the finish.
The first time John Eisner put his nose in the wind (which is why this is the first mention of him) was with 50m to go. A clever strategy and a good win, but sadly no moustache.
Jason finished second and Judi third.
Many thanks to both Dave Moore and Tony Copland for the pics and here are the results.
Enduro at Buller looking for marshals
Round three of the Shimano Asia-Pacific Continental Enduro Series will be held this coming weekend at Mt Buller. And the management team in charge are looking for some volunteer marshals.
They’ll make a $500 donation to any community groups that want to get involved if they can provide ten or more vollies. They’ll need you onsite from 7am on the Sunday morning to ensure that they can get you into locations.
All vollies get lunch, a drink and an event shirt.
Individuals can sign up via this link.
Speaking of volunteers…
We’ve got a couple of our own events coming up and we’ll be after volunteers and marshals for both.
The MMBCC round of the Victorian DownHill Series up at Mt Buller on the weekend of 19-20 January 2019. If you already know you’re available and would like to be involved, please contact Bruce.
A couple of months after that, on the weekend of 23-24 March, it’ll be the Mansfield Tour. Craig Wilson will be contacting you about this. If you’d like to put your name down for this now, please let Wil know.
Missing numbers
We’re missing some road race numbers. Do you have one at home? Keep forgetting to bring it back to the next race?
We’re missing the following black All Terrain Cycles race numbers: 4, 13, 14 and 15.
We’re missing the following maroon Delatite Hotel race numbers: 20, 24, 25 and 27.
And we’re missing the following blue Eisner’s Pharmacy race numbers: 33, 44 and 45.
We can look up the entry sheets and find out who it’s likely to be but we’d rather you just bring them back on your own.
We were also thinking about something punitive and silly, like banning you from entering the next race if you don’t return your number on the night… or taking a cash deposit when you collect a number.
Instead, we’re leaning towards something sensible like making you shout drinks to the top ten of the next race. Or making you write the article for the paper each week till you return it!
Club kit
If you want to update your club kit, it’s now open through Seight Sportswear.
Here’s the link for the My Team Shop page but you’ll also need to email Bruce for the password.
It’s only open till the end of the month.
Amy’s Gran Fondo is back in 2019
Rumours of the demise of the best recreational ride going have been greatly exaggerated! Make a note in your diary - 14 & 15 September 2019.