Brunswick Cycling Club

10 brave riders signed up for the experiment that was to become round 7 of the Brunswick CC roller derby: Roller omnium - or rollermnium (say that three times fast with a mouthful of chocolate brownie).

The first and second rounds were no surprise for the riders, qualifying over a flying 200m and a handicap match race. Russell Collins set the fastest 200 at 8.22s, but Damian Hodges and Ian Beattie rode very fast handicaps to put them at the top of the leader board for round 3 - that’s when everything got really confusing. Riders were paired up according to their qualifying times for a roller “madison”. Each rider would do approximately half a lap until the needles crossed, then they would stop and their partner would continue - swapping each time the needles crossed to complete 3 laps.

That was the theory. In practice - the timekeepers, riders and otherwise infallible judge* all struggled to figure out what was going on. Nonie and Charles suffered the most, being called to stop half a lap early and so their time was estimated by way of crowd feedback.

In round 4 the riders’ skills were put to the test as they were challenged to ride 20m as slowly as possible, without holders and without stopping. Damian Hodges set a blindingly slow 16.0s which looked unbeatable until Joshua Vicino (in the comfortable shoe/jeans combo) smashed his time - almost hanging in slow motion… Unfortunately he stumbled with just 1m to go. The clock read 18.9s, but rules are rules and he was mercilessly relegated.

In the final round, Nonie had some gender re-assignment and almost destroyed Damian Hodges’ run into the finals, but luckily for Damoh (s)he had to ride very fast to do it…

Following round 5, Russell Collins stepped up to have a go at the mighty Chooka Challenge: 4 laps of the dial. He set a new record (for this series) of 1:20.5, demonstrating once again that 4 laps in one minute is no laughing matter.

The finals were held over 200m on minibikes - testing both the riders patience and their knees. Damian Hodges rode away from past roller champion Phil Bushell for the gold position and Ian Beattie stole third from an exhausted Russell Collins.

Other winners on the night were Super Secretary Sheryl Vicino, who picked up a digital camera in the first raffle, and Nonie Carr who won the Track World Cup tickets. The next roller derby will be held at the Clubrooms on Friday 26th September - be there, or don’t be there :)

Full Round 7 Results »

* Our official Canadian roller judge was unable to attend and consequently the quality of judging suffered considerably.

This entry was posted by N. Fraser on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Reports, Social, Track.