Talia on podium in Glenrowan last week, after winning the Victorian Junior Road Championships for Under 17 Women.
First Dirt Crits of the season
By Dave Empey
It was a welcome return to racing with the inaugural Covid Kilos Cup being held and 23 starters taking to the track. The course was brutal as many needed to work off their excess covid weight. It claimed quite a few riders through crashes, mechanicals and withdrawals.
It was Ruby Dobson who ended up out front with a blistering 26.57 for the three-lap course.
There was a tight tussle for places 2, 3 and 4, with Mark Raymond just securing second one second ahead of Ant Bateup closely followed by Bruce Halket another 1 second back.
It was great to see Damian Grundy back in the saddle and taking 5th place.
Crash of the night goes to Zac Empey with his over-the-bar’s effort.
Effort of the night goes to Alex Green for both racing and performing sweep duties.
Here are the results. See you next week.
First road race that wasn’t
By Bruce Halket
Our first road race was meant to be the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap last Thursday. But due to the incompetence of Regional Roads Victoria, we didn’t receive our permit in time.
That’s two years in a row we haven’t been able to race in honour of Alain.
But just so you know, the original permit application went it to both Victoria Police and RRV in July. Local traffic police refused to give us a permit for our first few races because we were 5 days short of being 3 months in advance of the first race. We found this extremely disappointing… but those are the rules, so we had to suck it up.
However, that same timeline shows that RRV had the application over 4 months ahead of last week’s race. And they still couldn’t get it done!
Thankfully, the RRV permit for next week has now arrived.
During last week’s Exec Meeting, we discussed the alternatives should the permit not arrive in time, including a social ride out to Alain’s bike. This wasn’t communicated very well on the day and we apologise to all members for not making this clearer, earlier. Especially to those that don’t live or work close to town and had to travel. Sometimes the silly little things like life and work get in the way of the really important things… like bike racing.
Many thanks to Tony Copland for taking a few pics of the ride out to the bike, to Wil Wilson for saying a few words and to Coral and her family for coming along.
The Team App entries all seemed to work well and the trial will continue. If you didn’t enter via Team App, we ask that you do so for next week.
If you DID enter last week via Team App, your entry (and $5 entry fee) will automatically go towards next week’s race. If you can’t make next week, make sure you let Dave know on 0459 020 966 and your $5 credit will carry forward to the following week.