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How to herd (old) cats – AKA The Vic Club Team Track Champs 2010 Seniors

Rider selections were carefully considered and after some intense people juggling by selection committee: Alf Walker, Walter Dapcich and Philthy Bushell; the teams were formed and the emails sent out. Then the fun began. A few days and a lot of frantic phone calls later the entries were settled and the final teams list was set.

Saturday morning saw Alf and Dave bright and early at DISC checking off riders’ names as they arrived. Cries of “Hey Phil, so and so isn’t here yet – what are we going to do if they don’t turn up?” and so forth echoed across the infield until finally just about all the names had been checked off. Some final decisions were made regarding gearing, starting order and tactics before the first event kicked off just after 10:00am.

The MMAS 135+ team sprint was up first and Philthy, Greg Brunt and Walter Dapcich got off to a good start despite Philthy’s memories of the previous week’s crash while practicing a start. They qualified second fastest less than a second behind the first placed CCCC team. The other 135+ Brunswick team of Alan Comte, Tim Feltham and Rob De Bernardi qualified in fifth place but the fourth placed team were disqualified for riding in the wrong category and so the Brunswick #2s were put into the Bronze ride off. In the finals Bruns #1 scored a creditable silver narrowly defeated by CCCC#1 with Bruns#2 taking the Bronze by only one one hundredth avenging the #1 team by beating the CCCC#2s!

The MMAS open team of Ian Nolan, and Chrises Hickey and Ray bolted to the Gold ride off with a blistering qualifier of 52.1s (not bad for a hand held start) The other two Brunswick MMAS open teams gave it their all but in a class field finished out of the medals in 6th and 7th. The Brunswick #1 boys went on to take Gold in a sub 52s time (51.995) from CCCC by less than 0.5s

Next came the M19s but Fast Eddie Barrett hadn’t arrived. A quick subsititution of Matt Lees (still not 100% after is broken arm) to ride alongside Thomas Dapcich and Ben Abels meant that Conor Murtagh and Brendan Hood had to scratch. An offer to assist them to take Eddie (when he eventually turned up) for a quick beating in the cage, was gracefully declined by the two disappointed riders. Matt, Ben and Thomas qualified 3rd fastest and eventually were victorious against Blackburn to take out Bronze in the final.

In the Women’s ELITE, Jess Morgan and Emma Pane had left everything on the track but were outclassed in a very strong field and finished in 6th place.

The Elite Men’s event was a heavily contested affair and the team of Sam McGregor, Brendan Bailey and Ben Ladner qualified in 2nd against the classy Northcote trio who eventually went on to win, Brunswick picking up the silver. The other three BCC teams of which included big Mark (Major) Payne, David West, Lucas Turner and a host of others were not so fortunate qualifying in 7th, 8th and 9th spots.

In the Pursuits, Brunswick was again flying the club colours in most categories.

In the MMAS 180+ you could have thrown a blanket over the three fastest qualifiers with less than 2.0s between them. Brunswick’s talented team of Tim Feltham, Alan Comte, Walter Dapcich and Rob DeBernardi eventually taking bronze in the final with a convincing catch of their opponents with three laps to go.

In the MMAS open category, Greg Brunt, Ian Nolan, Chris Hickey and Peter O’Callaghan qualified in 4th place but despite a mighty effort in the final, couldn’t hold off the strong Hawthorn#2 team in the bronze medal final. The Bruns #2 team was depleted by the sudden withdrawal of Rob Novella who had to rush home as his  pregnant wife had come down with a sudden illness (we all wish her the best). A substitute team was cobbled together consisting of Philthy Bushell, Benedict Hughes, road ace Andrew Gannon and Duncan Aitken-Bain.  They tried hard but could only manage 5th place a fair way off the pace.

The M19 Pursuit had Conor, Brendan, Thomas and Ben qualifying in 3rd fastest and then (with Brendan dropping out due to work committments and Eddie riding in his place in the final), going on to catch their opposition to take the Bronze medal in convincing fashion.

Emma Pane, Tilley Wilson and Jess Morgan rode a strong heat to qualify straight into the Bronze medal position in the Elite Women’s division.

The Elite men had only four entries two from Brunswick and two from Blackburn but the racing was torrid nonetheless. Brunswick’s #1 team of Jake Sutherland, Sam McGregor, PB Ladner and Luca Giacomin qualified in 2nd and took out the Silver in the final with all four finishing across the line together. The #2 team of Michael Azoury, Mark Gilligan, Ben Toovey and Romain Mathis put up a good fight but were caught by the talented Blackburn#2 in the final.

Congratulations to all teams who represented the club regardless of your final placings.  A great day was had by all and the camaraderie and team spirit of the Brunswick riders was plain for all to see.

Also thanks to Alf, Dave and Nathan who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all happen and to the parents and friends who came along to cheer and help.

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This entry was posted by P. Bushell on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 12:24 am and is filed under CSV/CA Open, Reports.