Harcourt is at the base of Mt Alexander and is Victorias Apple Capital and conditions were very chilly with a slight breeze.

The Castlemaine Club  puts on a great show with solid courses and a great selection of home cooked meals to provide those important carbs for the race.

It’s a big weekend with the metropolitan clubs racing on Saturday followed by the country clubs on Sunday and being 9 weeks into the Winter season affords the smart competitor an insight into how their season is going., being a third of the way in you certainly don’t want to have peaked too early that’s for sure!

Youngest Brunswickian there was Timmy Butler and was the first to taste success with a Gold medal in the M13 category. I believe this is Timmys second open event so a big congratulations to him.

The W15 is a hotly contested category and this time it was Georgia Cummings, younger sister of World, and multiple National and State Champion Jack who greeted the judges first from Brunswicks always smiling Sarah Gigante and Alana Field, yes she is the younger sister of multiple Champion Courtney so sarah is amongst some talented athletes right there!

Riley Hart showed off his new bike and his sprint to flash accross the line first from a fast finishing Godfrey Slattery (Blackburn) the Brunswick duo of paddy Butler and Liam Pino 3rd & 4th and not far away in 8th Luke Plapp.

W17 was pretty evenly represented with Brunswick (3 riders) Blackburn (3) and carnegie (4) they completed 3 laps of the “small” circuit with another ever smiling brunswick lass Ruby Roseman-Gannon taking the chocolates from a Blackburn double of Jordyn Hassett and Jamie Gooding. Next brunswick in was Greta Curran 6th and Grace Mazzarella right behind her in 7th. I didn’t look but I wonder if Grace “loaned” dad Peter’s bike for the day as she has been known to sneak his track bike out at times. That’s the great thing when your dad races as well, he’s got all the good stuff!!

M17 and it was a strong field that set off on one lap of the “big” circuit, the cloud had rolled in and the tempreture dropped noticably making it difficult to choose the right clothing with many returning with numb fingers and toes!

A very happy James Tickner (Carnegie) had time for a victory salute with Brunswicks “flyin” Ryan Schilt 6th and the fast improving Isaac Gibbs 15th.

M19 saw a big field set off on 2 laps of the small and 1 of the big circuit and given the nature of the terrain it must have been “on” the moment the flag came in from the lead car because young Matt Ross (Carnegie) covered the 80km in 2 hours flat. 4th in the sprint was Brunswicks James Pane…who I might add has grown a lot since I last saw him!!

Riley Terrens was next Brunswick rider in at 8th, another “growing” young gun Tyson Breen was 11th followed by lachlan brown right behind and Sean McIver 15th.

Talking of growing kids, the Elite men had me shaking my head in disbelief with 4 of the 6 Brunswick riders being recorded in my memory as little tackers at the Sunday clinic and now they are driving themselves to races!!! (how time flies)

The finish at Harcourt can best be described as fast as riders wind it up on the long downhill before the bridge with a slight uphill drag to the line, Matt Boys managed to dodge the carnage before the bridge to finish in 6th place behind the winner Luke Parker (Carnegie) with Nick Katsonis 18th, Mitch Cooper 21st and Anthony Frewster 34th.

Unfortunately for Luca Giacomin, he got taken out in the fall and by all reports made a spectacular entry into the culvert which was luckily well grassed but he still suffered a broken collarbone along with the usual scratches, scrapes and bruises.

We wish you a speedy recovery Luca and also to Cam Parlevliet (Blackburn torn calf) and Callan Douglas (Carnegie broken collarbone) who also went down.

In the battle of the “old” boys Oscar Garrido De La Rosa came up against the in form Shane Millar (coburg) and hung on to finish in 14th in Masters 2.

Masters 4 saw Shane Grigg come home 9th and in the Masters 5 there were Gold celebrations all round in the Roseman – Gannon camp with Rubys dad Andrew enjoying the win with Tim Feltham in 5th.

It was a big day and again credit to the hard working Castlemaine Club for another great event and if anything was learned from both days it was that the place getters in the junior categories were well within their roll out limits

In fact most were at least 4cm (100mm) or 4 inches in old terms under so take notice kids and parents it’s all about leg speed!!!. or as Ed Osborne says you gotta spin to win!!!

Cam

Results can be found here

More images here

Once again I’d like to apologise for the multiple change in dates and also thank everyone for their understanding.  We will definitely be looking to run smoother event next season and one that is earlier in the season.  If you do have any feedback/thoughts on how we can run it next season feel free to send Cam McFarlane an email (camngeorge@hotmail.com).

The points standing at the conclusion of the three events is below.  Further down the page you will also find results for the scratch races and sprints, time trial results can be found here.

Track will be available after 7pm, Carl has his sprint group on before this so please respect this.

Racing will commence at 7.30 with the Scratch Races, the order will be 17, 15, 13, 11, & 19

Following the Scratch races Sprint Qualifying will be run in the same order as indeed will the 1st rounds, semis, etc.

Sprint draw will be announced on the night after entries have been taken.

Cam

Have a look at the start lists, there are quality fields in all categories… deserving Championship status so you will need to be at your best before you even start your warm up so step 1 is avoid late nights from here on which means planning your work, training and HOMEWORK / STUDY to ensure you get the most bed rest you can.

Plan to arrive at least an hour and a half before your start time, the last thing you need is to be burning nervous energy rushing about getting your bike together and registering then panicking through a warm up because you were late.

When you are relaxed and stress free you can think and perform at your best.

A bit of tough love here for anyone who is thinking “an hour and a half before! that means we need to be up at 5am!!”

You should have booked accommodation in Castlemaine for the night before if you are fair dinkum about achieving the best result.

The forecast is for cloudy conditions, however they predict showers falling as snow above 1300m on Saturday which means the wind will be ice!!
So make sure you have adequate gear in your bag.

Eat and drink in the early part of the race, you will not “feel” hungry or thirsty but remember when you do feel hungry or thirsty it’s too late, it takes approximately 15 minutes for whatever you consume to digest and be used as fuel so if you are starting on the small circuit if you eat on the start line then that will be ready to use when you have completed that lap some of you are doing 3 laps so there’s a good start!

M17′s you have approx. 35km before the “hill” which should take less than an hour to cover (I will predict 50mins) so if you haven’t eaten something by the 20km mark you aren’t going to have a full tank for the climb and remember you still have 14km till the finish line!!

M19 you will need a mix of solids and fluids to keep the guts settled, if you haven’t raced the circuit before there isn’t any spot that you can “relax” and take something out of your pockets so prepare yourself to be eating and drinking under pressure.

Elites if you rely on gels you are failing to learn nutrition strategies for longer distances.

I predict that nearly all categories will be “nervous” and you should expect early breakaway attempts, so the pace will be on with attack followed by counter attack.

Go back through your race diary (hahahaha that’s funny) and see what foods / gels worked best for you in previous events.

M15′s, you should be able to get away with 1 bottle given that you will forget to drink regularly because of fatigue (perfectly normal) if you use Gatorade it has salt in it which helps you to keep drinking.

A second bottle would just be extra weight given the forecast.

Food
Start line….piece of muesli bar / power bar or cake
2nd lap…….piece of muesli bar / power bar or cake…perhaps a few jelly beans or snakes
3rd lap…….you guessed it, same as above because if you can continually snack each lap you won’t get hungry so you won’t need the big hit of a gel and if you have gone flat at the start of the last lap it’s too late to smash a gel into you.

You may prefer gels but for 17 & 15′s you guys should be using traditional methods as no one follows the correct hydration requirements for gels and YOU don’t need your kidneys blocking up this early in life.

17′s you are on the big circuit so you need to snack to distance or time. I’m predicting the M17 race will be “hot” and average over 35 so the fuel tank is going to be under a lot of stress!!

I’d be thinking about something every 15 mins…anyone used sultanas? they are dry so they don’t clag up the mouth like a banana or cake and the box is easy to open and scrunch up, a couple of them can help.

50k’s will probably take an hour and a half maybe three quarters so a bottle of sports drink and maybe 250 - 500ml of water in another and sip every 5-10mins

19′s 2 bottles perhaps one full strength and one diluted.

Championship days for me looked like this…
80km
2hrs before cereal with canned fruit
30mins before 500ml of lucozde and half a can of creamed rice or a banana
During the race I had fruit cake and jelly beans, 1 bottle of water 1 bottle of Gatorade.

After the race is equally important, I couldn’t usually eat anything straight after a race so I had a choc big M and some sultanas.
My guts usually settled down about half an hour after I finished so then I would have a fruit bun or coffee / apple scroll and another Big M

Important to roll the legs over when you finish or when you get home for 20 mins to help dissipate the toxins and lactic that has accumulated in your system so you will be as fresh as possible for Club Champs on the Sunday night!!

See you there!!
Cam