4.4 April 25 Bleat

Post date: Apr 25, 2016 12:42:1 PM

Hello Vets,

In this week's Bleat;

• From the Desk of the President

• Gunning Peter McLennan Memorial 2 Day Event

• Warning - Another Car Incident on Cotter Road

• Interstate Events

• Racing this Week

• Race Reports

Please send me your contributions at: TheBleat@actvets.cc

Ian Morton

From the Desk of the President

Racing

Excitement for our winter road series and the ‘Gunning’ must be building! We had 70 Vets members competing out at Old Federal Highway (Hadlow Drive) on Saturday. . . . or maybe it is the late Sunday nights watching Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallone and Leige-Bastogne-Liege firing us all up.

Regardless, we have our own ‘Hell of the North’ coming up with Gunning (7 & 8 May). Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration - provided the weather stays fine and the wind does not blow too hard, it can be a very beautiful, non-hellish race of three stages:

- 1st stage - a prologue time trial or 6 or so kilometre - mostly down-hill, followed by,

- 2nd stage - a 50km graded scratch road race between Gunning and Bredalbane and back along the gently undulating Old Hume Hwy - both on Saturday. Seconds lost in the TT can be regained as bonus seconds for the first three places in the sprint primes out and back at roughly the half -way point, not to mention on the finish line itself.

Then on Sunday, after you work out how many seconds you have to make up, and over whom,

- 3rd stage - which presents more chances with four sprint primes, plus the finish for A-D grade over two laps of the course (100 kms) and two sprint primes plus the finish for D-G grades (50kms) to make up time.

Be sure to drink plenty of fluid to keep those cramps away, or if you do get a cramp, keep it quiet and hope it goes away. Now who was that racer, a few years ago, who upon crying out in anguish at his cramp - found the whole bunch suddenly out of the saddle and sprinting up the road. It was the stuff of Gunning legends and well discussed at the concluding lunch put on by the CWA at the Show-grounds - itself a legend of this bush town!

Be sure to register - just follow the IMG instructions - by the 5th May - the week leading up to Gunning.

Alex O'Shea

Gunning Peter McLennan Memorial 2 Day Event

Marshals

Ben Davis will be the Race referee for the two days. In order to run the event, he still requires 3 or 4 Marshals to assist.

Payment of $25 per day is available to offset petrol costs and other expenses. As it may be difficult to purchase lunch from the café’s in between the events it may be prudent for marshals to bring their own lunch and water.

If you are willing to help, please contact Ben at: bdavis@internode.on.net

Portaloo

A Portaloo has been booked. We are looking for a volunteer to help with towing duties. If someone is staying in Gunning on Saturday evening and would be able to tow it back to their accommodation overnight, that would save having to tow it back to Canberra.

Please contact Kim Malcolm d.kimmalcolm@icloud.com if you can assist.

Requirements

The cost will be $30 for the race and you must be a current member of the club within the AVCC. Please note that we do not have day licences available.

Riders will need to bring their helmet to the registration desk for inspection. Please note that it is an AVCC requirement that all riders must wear a helmet which meets Australian Standards.

Riders must have started the previous stage to compete in the next stage. (i.e. if you don’t ride Saturday then you cannot start on Sunday)

Registration

ALL REGISTRATIONS MUST BE COMPLETED ON THE IMG WEBSITE BY 5:00PM THURSDAY 5th MAY. NO REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED ON THE DAY.

To register go to;

https://eventdesq.imgstg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main&EventDesqID=18967&OrgID=10345

Click on;

Click Here To Register

Select either;

Individual

Tandem

Select the $30 entry fee then click;

Next

Enter your username and password and click.

Login

Note that this is the username and password that you received when you first registered for the IMG system. If you cannot find your site login, go to the site login page; https://memberdesq.imgstg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=login&OrgID=10244 and click the 'Forgot your Password?' Button. Enter your Email address (the one you used to register) and a new password will be sent to you.

One you have logged in, the system will show your membership details. Click;

Next

Confirm that you are entering as an Individual or Tandem then click;

Next

Click on;

Submit Now & Pay Online

Enter your credit card details and press;

Next

To confirm your payment, click;

Submit Payment

Your transaction will be confirmed and an email sent to your registered email address.

Once you have finished, click;

Logoff

If you have any problems, contact: Ian Morton

DAY 1: Saturday 7th May 2016

Prologue

All grades will complete the same 4km course – this is the traditional course starting from the top of the hill and heading northeast along the Old Hume Hwy towards Breadalbane.

Prologue will start at 10:00am and riders will be sent off at 30 second intervals.

Note if you miss your allocated time you will be sent off at the discretion of the Race Referee.

The following limitation applies to the Prologue

• No Disc Wheels or wheel covers

• No Time Trial specific helmets

• No Time Trial bars either specific or clip on

Tri Spoke or other deep dish wheels are allowed as long as the rim does not exceed 10cm.

Stage 1

Stage 1 will start at 1:30pm and riders will be sent off by grade.

Stage 1 is 50km for all grades.

Bonus time will be allocated to each grade on both primes for the first three sprint positions (1st – 3 seconds, 2nd – 2 seconds and 3rd - 1 second) and for the first five finish positions (1st – 5 seconds, 2nd – 4 seconds, 3rd - 3 seconds, 4th – 2 seconds and 5th – 1 second).

DAY 2: Sunday 8th May 2016

Yes, we know it's Mother's Day... so why not bring ya Mum along. I'm sure she'd enjoy watching a day's racing.

Stage 2

Stage 2 will start at 10:00am for all grades with 2 min between grades.

The course length will depend on grade:

• A, B, C, D will complete 100km (Note: A Water Bottle will be provided for riders on the Second Lap)

• E, F, G, Tandem will complete 50km

Presentation

Presentations will be held in the Hall in the Gunning Showground at 2:00 pm. Lunch will be provided for all riders and officials.

Warning - Another Car Incident on Cotter Road

"Last Tuesday (19 April), at approximately 7:20am, my partner Viv had just descended Mount Stromlo and had turned left onto Cotter road. Viv had travelled approximately 50 metres when a car passed extremely close to her at speed. At the moment of passing Viv was aware of a loud slap and then became aware of pain in her upper right thigh. On arriving at work she discovered significant bruising to her thigh. It appears that the wing mirror of the car may have hit Viv, or a passenger in the car has held out an object that has hit her.

Obviously this is a very dangerous experience for any cyclist, any error on the part of the motorist, or reaction by the cyclist, could see catastrophic or fatal injuries to the cyclist.

Viv thinks it was a maroon coloured sedan (possibly a Ford Falcon) and has reported the incident to the Woden Police.

I'm bringing Viv's experience to your attention as yet another warning of the lunatics who drive on our roads and also to ask if anyone else has been the subject of intimidation by a maroon coloured car on the Uriarra Cotter loop. If you have can you email me the details at owaintilley@hotmail.com.

Owain Tilley

Interstate Events

• 2016 BATTLE ON THE BORDER

- 3-5 June

Now in its 8th year, the Battle of the Border cycling festival has grown to a notable multi-stage tour offering challenging racing in juniors, elite, masters and NRS divisions. The festival courses range from 50km to 150km, crossing challenging terrain and highlighting the beautifully unique volcanic caldera environment. Details at http://www.battleontheborder.com.au/.

RACING THIS WEEK:

Saturday, 30th April: Dairy Road Criterium - Points Race

Where: Dairy Road, Fyshwick.

When: From 1:30 pm.

Sign on: 15 mins before scheduled start time wearing your registered number.

Race Description:

Start times for the Dairy Flat Rd Criterium on Saturday (30th April);

- 13:30 AB 50 minutes plus 1 lap
- 14:30 CD 40 minutes plus 1 lap
- 15:20 EFG 30 minutes plus 1 lap

Points will be every second lap 3,2,1 for first second third and the finish will be 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for first thru to fifth.

Race Director: Nick Boylan

Contact: Email paddlepower@grapevine.com.au Ph 0417873032

RACE REPORTS:

Old Federal Highway Graded Scratch – 23rd April

My first go at being race director was made interesting with the one of the largest turnouts at a normal club road race for some time, with 70 participants. Once we got registration open, the queues quickly formed and snaked back into the gravel pit carpark, which was a little more restricted than usual with some new piles of gravel and mulch.

First up I should thank a few key people, including our club president, Alex, who sorted out marshals, drivers and ATCs well in advance; Graham Hendrie who always seems to do exceptionally well with the van and its organisation; and Ian Morton who set up all the signs on the day. Also a big thank you to those who helped on the day, thus ensuring everything ran very smoothly. We had Warwick Wilson and Paul Robey in the cars, Tony Weir as the ATC at the Lake George turn and Owain Tilley as the ATC at the start/finish turn, and Tim Minehan as the general marshal assisted by one or two of the DNFs in the chute. I am also happy to say that Simon, the first aider had a very boring day.

The weather looked after us despite reports earlier in the week of possible rain, and even the stiff southerly that had been blowing for most of the morning eased up a fair bit by the time we got started. Most of the grades maintained reasonably good sized bunches apart from F and G grades which seemed to have blown apart by the time they got back to the start/finish, with only 3 of the 8 riders hanging together in F grade and the G graders on their own. By the end of the second lap, the B graders were down to 4 of their 10 riders.

C grade had the biggest bunch on the day with 17 riders and they mostly hung together, with one of them even going for a sprint after the third lap, only to be disappointed he had to go out for another lap – he must have wondered at the time why it was a fairly easy sprint! After the 4th lap the sprint was much more tightly contested and he only managed 5th.

I won’t list all the placings as the results are already up on the RMS and I am sure you would have already checked them out. There were 3 repeat winners from the previous week and plenty of others high up in the placings who had also featured last week, so it is good to see some have some early season form, but perhaps they may be peaking a little early with possibly handicapper interest prior to the Gunning event – though I am not sure where the handicapper can go with Matt McAuliffe who has won A grade twice in a row. ;)

Anyway, thanks again for all of those involved and it was certainly an eye opener as to how much work is needed to put on our regular club events.

Dale Kleeman

Tim Minehan has p