Brunswick Cycling Club

Generously sponsored by Little Creatures Fitzroy Dining Hall, boogiboy designer clothing, a’qto streetwear for cyclists and Melbourne UCI Track World Cup.

The crowd began dribbling in to the Brunswick CC clubrooms at around 6:00pm and by 6:30pm there was a decent crowd of onlookers and 12 riders had registered. Philthy sensed a hunger in the crowd - not for racing but for BBQ Sausage, so the BBQ was fired up and it didn’t take long before the sizzling mystery-bags had drawn a small but enthusiastic following and soon, the circling BBQ vultures had fed and dispersed.

Nathan had spent so much time and energy organising the night that he must have been too tired to ride so instead concentrated on commentating. The timing duties were ably handled by Carrie de Haan whose concentration and skill with the stopwatch ensured that there were no controversial timing errors like last time! Club stalwarts Alf Walker and Dave Morgan were also spotted in the crowd enjoying the entertainment on the night.

First up for the qualifying round was Josh "Baby" Vicino with a respectable 10.38s The other 10 riders made their way through qualifying with varying degrees of enthusiasm and in some cases mild terror. A number of riders made their debut at Roller Derby #8 including, Thomas "Slats" Slattery, Claire Campbell (who’s recently been achieving some success at Tuesday night racing), the youngest of the night’s athletes Vanessa Beattie, Daniel McDonald and another father and daughter combination Vanessa and Paul Bof - who’s certainly no stranger to cycle racing but who’s known better these days for turning a motorbike throttle than a pair of cranks.

Recent winners Damien "Damoh" Hodges and Madeline Cardillo were both back to grab the trophy a second time and dual Derby winners Russell "Rusty" Collins and Phil "Philthy" Bushell had also thrown their hats into the ring.

Three riders broke the magic 10s flying 200m time and surprisingly Rusty, who has taken out the fastest qualifying time on a number of occasions relinquished the night’s qualifying honours to Philthy who narrowly nudged out Damoh by just 0.1s with a fine time of 8.7s.

Qualifying completed, the Round I match racing got underway with Philthy riding off scratch giving away a whopping 320m (that’s just over 3/4 of a lap folks!) to Claire in a two lap face off. With her nerves settled well after the qualifier, Claire relaxed and smashed Philthy by a very healthy margin. He smiled graciously, shook her hand and was later heard muttering rude things about two lap races and the handicapper’s parentage. The remainder of Round I saw the younger and better looking riders being victorious over the more seasoned campaigners. Paul was the only exception, being not only both older and uglier than most of the other riders but also by being the only one to win from behind overcoming a 70m deficit against Daniel McD.

Round II was a "Slow off" in which the riders "race" to be slower than their opponent over 50m without falling off or putting a foot on the ground. Stuart Grimsey and Oliver Phillips provided the slowest and most exciting spectacle with Stuart edging out Olly to take line honours in more than 29s. Who knew that two of Brunswick’s fastest seniors could ride so slowly!

Round III brought everyone back to familiar territory with some exciting 1 lap handicaps. Ian B rode from behind in the closest finish of the night to edge out Vanessa Bof in the last 25m while youngsters Vanessa Beattie and Madeline C battled well - Vanessa just ahead at the finish. Birthday boy Ben Ladner appeared as a wildcard entry and was surprisingly beaten by Damoh both riding off 5m (sorry Damoh, but we suspect that Ben may have been thinking about birthday celebrations and his very cute new Staffordshire bull terrier puppy birthday present)

The pairs relay was a torrid and hilarious affair full of tactics, confusion and mayhem. Philthy and Claire pulled the best time of the night although some less kind souls in the crowd suggested that her use of a road bike may have provided an unfair stopping advantage. The most successful dismount tactic of the competition was pioneered by Ian and Vanessa Beattie and then used to great effect by the pairing of schoolboy rider Slats and speed skater Rusty - simply lifting both bike and rider off the coasting rollers in one swift movement.

The finals consisted of 200m minibike madness. Slats’ shorter legs made short work of Claire (pun intended) and he cruised into 3rd place easily, even riding the last 50m with a two hand salute. The father and daughter Gold and Silver medal final of Paul and Vanessa was a one sided affair with Vanessa riding strongly against her rapidly tiring dad.

Alex and Damoh completed the night by staging a minibike timetrial around the clubrooms. No rider was hurt during this heroic racing - but it was a very close thing!

Generous sponsorship for the night included beer from Little Creatures Fitzroy Dining Hall, clothing from boogiboy designer clothing and a’qto streetwear for cyclists and tickets for the upcoming UCI track world cup from Cotter Pin. All donations provided raffle and rider prizes for the night.

Full results »

See you for more fun and prizes at Roller Derby #9, Friday 31 October 2008

This entry was posted by P. Bushell on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Reports, Social.