One at a time on Chapel Hill Road
By David Jagger
With no Dirt Crits or Dirt Critters due to a holiday for a horse race, all the emphasis this week turned to the Individual Time Trial on Thursday.
The day was overcast and a bit gloomy but all the competitors were thankful that the rain had finally taken a break. The 14km time trial along Chapel Hill road was nice and clean from all the rain and there was only a slight breeze.
Micala Jacobs was supposed to be the first down the road but due to navigational difficulties (going to the wrong starting location) she and her son Ryder had to wait until the end of the start list. Steve Curnow was the first out of the blocks and was never seriously challenged from the next two riders of David Jagger and John Eisner. Craig Wilson came fitted out in his time trial gear and was out to make an impression. Ian Conrick lost sight of Craig but was able to hold off Allan Gerrans as he dropped a chain searching for an elusive easier gear. Janine Appleton tried to catch Allan but after twenty seven minutes of racing was a few seconds off. Darren Bakker, Steve Duke and Dave Moore all came in breathless having given it their all and proving that the handicapper doesn’t have any favourites.
Ruby Dobson was out to have a crack at her first road race in years and due to last week’s cancellation, her first outing was a short race (for her) and the third fastest time with Steve Brown just a few seconds quicker. The race belonged to Andrew Garrett comfortably keeping the local riders in check taking out fastest time.
The overall handicap placings went to Craig Wilson, David Jagger and Ryder Chadd, proving that each week you never know who will have a good day and it’s always worth racing.
Thanks to the officials, helpers and commissaire for making the race possible.
Next Thursday is the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap, starting at the Botanic Park. This is one of the club’s highlights of the summer; hopefully the weather will play nicely this time.
Here are the results. And many thanks to Tony Copland for the pics.
Next week’s road race
As Dave mentioned above, next week is the Alain Guerin Memorial Handicap.
For those of you who never met Alain, he was an always-cheerful and optimistic Frenchman who met a beautiful Australian and followed her home to start a family on the other side of the world. And in recent years, he and Coral retired to Goughs Bay and he become regular MMBCC racer. He was one of the fittest 72 year olds you’d ever meet; a keen skier and cyclist.
Late in 2014 after visiting a friend who worked at Timbertop, he was riding home to Mansfield along the Buller Road when a van driver’s inattentiveness killed our friend.
About a week or so later, the whole town (or so it seemed) turned out on bikes for a Ride of Solidarity, along with Alain’s family. (Here is a link to some of the photos taken that night.) The ‘ghost bike’ out on the Buller Road was also erected in Alain’s honour.
It’s an unfortunate but timely reminder about how important road safety is for all road users. After Thursday’s race, if it’s light and safe enough, we’ll ride out to pay our respects. It’s not compulsory but if you feel safe enough, we’d love you to join us before we head back to the Mansfield Hotel for presentations.
Talia joins Team BridgeLane
Congratulations to Talia Appleton who has signed to ride with Team BridgeLane for 2023. The team has consistently been the most successful Men’s NRS team for a long time but 2023 will be the first year of a Women’s team.
“Super excited and grateful to be joining Team BridgeLane next year! I’m looking forward to getting more racing experience in a team environment and learning from other riders” Talia said.
Warburton trails
160km of mountain bike trails have finally been given the go-ahead at Warburton. Hopefully, World Trail will be able to start work soon and some of the trails will be rideable next summer.
However, if World Trail’s original advice had been heeded, some of them could have been built years ago. The contentious trails that World Trail had recommended against were the same ones which have been refused in this decision.
So it’s good but it could have been better.