Brunswick Cycling Club

I have had a few people ask me “what’s this club teams thing” and instead of the simple answer I thought I would attempt to give a little history lesson on the event and the involvment that the Brunswick Cycling has with it.

The event goes way back to the 1920′s and quite possibly even earlier, it was known then as the Club Team Premiership.

The Road Premiership was in the form of a Team Time Trial, the Track Premiership a Team Pursuit.

We are unsure of when Brunswick won it’s first premiership but we still have some moth eaten pennants from the 30′s .

The event used to be high, if not the highest priority on every club committees list of things to do.

Win the Premiership.

Up untill around the late 80′s, early 90′s the winning club received a pennant and the riders a team photo.

If you look at the pictures in our club rooms and for that matter any clubs premiership photos  you will be able to identify Club, State, National, World Championship and Olympic level riders standing proudly in their club colours.

Every club has a story about a “club” rider winning a premiership in a team that had a World Champion in it, Brunswick has a few.

Brunswick has a fascinating collection of Premierships that has had Club, State and National Champions in them, as well as International, Commonwealth, Olympic and World Championship team members.

There are some who after their Amateur careers turned Professional and went on to be very successful, even World Champions!

They are there in some of the photos standing next to their club mates who without them would not have been able to achieve what thay have.

At some stage during the “merging” of the Amateur and Professional sides of the sport the Club Premiership, became the Club Teams Championship, the Pennant that was awarded to the winning club was replaced by medals that were presented to the team members, the club received nothing.

It is great to hear that this situation has been addressed by Cycling Victoria and the Pennant has been reintroduced.

Since the 80′s the event has expanded to include all age categories and in recent times the greatest participation has come from the Masters group.

People “shy” away from individual and team time trials when they hear comments like “Time Trialling is Hell”, the reality is that as with any competitive event it will be very demanding, but, with the need to finish with a certain number of memebers of the team those who may be physically stronger or fitter need to use this advantage sensibly so they do not split their team apart.

That right there is the beauty of the Club Teams Championships, riders of varying abilities can work together and with smooth determined riding be in with a chance of State Title.

The Brunswick Club hosted the Club Teams for many years at it’s Harrison St Velodrome before it moved indoors.

We need to have our entry list of teams in by the 15th so if you haven’t let Phil or myself know that you wish to participate then get on it!

onya Cam

This entry was posted by C. McFarlane on Friday, July 6th, 2012 at 8:26 pm and is filed under CSV/CA Open, History, Road.