Seasons Greetings The ACT Veterans Cycling Club President, Secretary and Committee sends all members and their families the best wishes of the season. We look forward to a relaxing break with a return, in 2015, to more exciting and safe criterium, road and track racing. We also look forward to you, our members, volunteering to marshal and assist at our 2015 events. 2015 Calendar The first Crit Race of 2015 will be 6th January, the first Track Race 7th January and the Road Racing Season will resume on the 15th February. The penultimate draft of the 2015 road and criterium race calendar can be found at DOWNLOAD HERE and will be posted on the website shortly. Those weekends where no races have been scheduled coincide with long weekends, holidays and clashes with major regional cycling events. If we have missed any clashes, please get in touch with race.committee@actvets.cc to let us know, otherwise we will look to 'lock this in' for 2015. Change to Constitution We, like many clubs in the ACT, need to bring our club constitution kicking and screaming into the 21st century, such as, for example: the ability to notify of the AGM by e-mail rather than by stamped envelopes. Another need is to remove the limit of one committee position per committee member and to add a new committee position of 'Membership Secretary'. 2015 financial members will soon receive a stamped envelope communication asking them to, ironically, approve such minor changes by return post so that we can get on with being able to run things more smoothly. These simple changes are designed to reflect the current version of the ACT government’s model rules, which are at http://ors.act.gov.au/publication/view/1292/title/model-rules. Our current constitution is on the website under “Member Files”. Thanks Together with Club Secretary Phill Coulton, I would personally like to thank the hard working Vets Club committee members and all our volunteer marshals, in particular our cohort of trained traffic controllers for their fantastic service to the club in 2014. A special thanks also goes to Graham Hendrie and Henry Beaverstock as well as James Meredith and Barb Bayliss who seem to be 'fixtures' at each and every event we run. Thanks also to the behind-the- scenes members like Ian Morton for putting out the Bleat every week, our handicapper Robert Langridge for his close attention to this important and not always popular function as well as all other committee members for their help and wise counsel during 2014.   Safe Riding! Alex O'Shea Club President

Christmas Wheel Race – 16th December

On a sunny but somewhat windy afternoon the crit got started. Due to the low number in G and F grade, all managed to be qualified for the wheel race handicap.

E grade was more representative with ten riders, Phil Anderson won a hard contested sprint followed by Baden White, Ian Morton, an “In form” Don Desmet, and Frank O’Sullivan

C with six riders were started with D grade (19 riders) the largest number of competitor, a hard fought race saw Wayne Shippley in C and Warwick Wilson in D taking the win in their grades.

A and B were well represented. In A grade Mark Harris was determined to inflict pain on his competitors and tried many time an “echapee” to no avail as every time the gap was closed, the final sprint fearlessly fought and won by Marc Vroomans followed closely by Ed Pellegrino and Paul Scherl.

B grade saw a fast race with few surges quickly closed by the bunch , with few laps to go Andrew Chamberlain , Marcus O’Toole and Paul Ledbrook went away and stayed there to the finish, the final sprint was a bit messy as some A grader were in the mix.

Having the lucky five riders from each grade the Handicap got organized and under way quickly thanks to Henry and Graham

G and F got started together as G has three riders in F grade only Sue Frost was at the line . Followed by E to the A grader.

All the bunches got well organized, A caught B after two laps, C was doing their best to close on D, D was chasing hard E grade and of course E grade who were working well together , were chasing G/F.

In the last lap Pauline Thorn and Sue Frost having lost their two team mate, were still well ahead and did appear to have the win in the “bag” but the strong wind must have taken its toll .The result was determined in the last 100metre E grade having closed on G/F and D was closing very fast on them, this is from where is the winner, Warwick Wilson who did a dash to the line to beat Phil Anderson (with some not fast enough new wheels?), then Ian Morton, Sue frost and Don Desmet.

1st Warwick Wilson

2nd Phil Anderson

3rd Ian Morton

4th Sue Frost

5th Don de Smet

Well done to every one there. Special mention to the handicapper who got it pretty right as there is only 14 seconds between the winner and the first A grade rider to the line.

Thanks to the guys from Onya Bike for the prizes of tyres and chain lube to the top 5 winners.

Many thanks to Michael McGurgan, Robert Langridge and Alex O’shea to have volunteer on the day and of course to Henry Beaverstock.

Great Christmas to every one

Cheers Alain Arbaut

 

Christmas Track Race – 17th December

After the preceding two track sessions were washed out, it was a relief to have warm sunny weather for the Wednesday 17 December track session. The roll up was 18 riders, attracted by the Christmas Wheel Race and the following drinks and snacks.

The A and B Grade scratch races were each eight laps. The A Grade began at a fast pace with an initial three man break that expanded to five as Steve Jones and Jim Davey hauled it in. The final sprint was keenly contested and the surprise was to see Aaron Sedgmen hold off Steve Jones by a quarter of a wheel. Michael Langdon brought up third. The B Grade scratch held an even pace until one and a half laps from the finish when the hammer dropped along with a struggling Graeme O’Neill. The remaining riders contested a bunch sprint from which Phil Anderson emerged the victor in a close battle with Steve Hirsler and Bruce Griffin.

The Christmas Wheel Race was an all in affair with 17 riders from A and B Grade starting at their various handicaps. It was a little difficult to keep track of developments in this race. Front markers were past their first lap before the back markers took off. The lap-board could not give everyone a clear indication of their lap position. However, the race proceeded in a good spirit. Back marker Steve Jones found his handicap insurmountable. However, a back group with Michael Langdon, Aaron Sedgmen and Ben Robey initially looked a good prospect to catch the front runners. However, they slightly misjudged the required pace and dropped out of contention as the race progressed. Ben Davis realised that he was a good prospect and made a courageous break, with three laps to go. However, Andrew Peel closed to within 10 metres of Ben and eventually chased him down and overtook him for a fine win. Cameron Ermet and John Barlow in the tandem just kept hammering for the whole race and took a well deserved third place.

The track session concluded with A and B Grade Team Pursuits. Good strategy is essential for these races with best results produced by protecting the weaker team riders. In A Grade, Steve Jones marshalled his team well and Team 1 took a good win. Team 2 made a tactical error by allowing Glen Heward to take a turn of pace. This tired Glen just sufficiently to compromise the team effort, despite his huge effort to hang on as the pace quickened.

Major place getters were as follows:
8 Lap Scratch: (A Grade) Aaron Sedgmen, Steve Jones, Michael Langdon; (B Grade) Phil Anderson, Steve Hirsler, Bruce Griffin.
6 Lap Christmas Wheel Race (Trophy Race): Andrew Peel, Ben Davis, Cameron Ermet & John Barlow (Tandem)
6 Lap Team Pursuit : (A Grade Winners) Ben Davis, Aaron Sedgemen, Gary Waldron, Steve Jones, Ben Robey, Cameron Ermet & John Barlow (T); (B Grade Winners) Steve Hirsler, Pat Rooke, Phil Anderson

Merry Christmas,
Graeme O'Neill

Boxing Day Recovery Ride – 26th December

The Boxing Day Recovery Ride starts at 8.00 am sharp outside the Jolimont Centre on Northbourne Av. This year's ride will follow the successful format of last year: two nominated sensible riders will lead ride along Federal and Old Federal highways with slower riders positioned immediately behind the leaders (so they don't get dropped if the bunch is broken up by traffic light changes) and faster riders go to the back.

We all stay together until the top of Washingmachine Hill. There, riders have a choice of going on to Lake George, the gravel pit or where ever. Those who've had too much Christmas cheer can wait in the shade a the top of the hill. Those resting can join one of the bunches on the return leg. All gather at Dobinson's or nominated coffee shop at end of ride.

Please use Google Groups (under Communication & Discussion in the 'About Us' tab) to post details of other rides during January and beyond.

Registration due by the end of the month

And a final reminder that your 2014 Registration will expire at the end of this month and you will not be able to race next year until you have registered for the 2015 season.

Simply go to the IMG site. Logon with the username and password that you used to register last year. The annual subscription for 2015 remains unchanged.

If you have forgotten your password, go to top right hand corner and click on username and password. That will enable IMG to send you another password to your email address. To ensure you transfer the numbers and letters correctly it is advised to cut and paste.

Any queries please direct them to membership@actvets.cc and not the contact on the password retrieval page.