Brunswick Cycling Club

DISC-O, DISC-O Track… all I want to ride is DISC-O Track!

Round #1 of DISC-O track kicked off on Saturday with the juniors first to lay down their moves on the dance floor… ah, velodrome… Around 45 under-15 and under-17 riders were part of this bold pre-season track initiative. With approval from CV’s technical commission, those juniors moving up an age-group could get a feel for their bigger gears by riding up for these events, and from all the feedback this was well received. The other strong positive was that there was a number of riders who had only raced Tuesday night graded racing, competing in an ‘open’ style event for the first time. As well as riding to score points for their club, riders were also able to form teams of two to contest the overall teams category prizes across the series.

The program was designed to help the kids find their track legs. Most kids had seven races over the three-hours and left well and truly feeling their track legs! The program kicked off with a ‘Points Accumlator’, with the first three across the line every lap earning 5, 3 and 2-points. It made for a real leg-burner and called on riders to use tactics as to when to use their effort. This was quickly followed up by the season opening Flying 200, which acted as qualifying for a series of short-sharp keirin rounds with winners promoted and last across the line relegated to a lower grade each time. These 3-lap keirins saw the motobike come off with 1.5 laps to go leaving the riders to contest the finish.

Straight out of the keirins and into the BONT Wheelraces – the first two events acting as qualifying for the final on October 20 where winners receive a new pair of BONT shoes! It was great to see some blanket finishes with early season handicapping holding up well. A much needed 15-minute break allowed the kids time to recover a little for Henry and Lorna Hill Memorial Motorpace. 10-laps for the JW15/17′s combined (by this stage we’d lost quite a few riders to exhaustion), 15-laps for JM15′s and a lactic inducing 20-lapper for the JM17s.

Some standout Brunswick performances included: Paddy Butler and Riley Hart in the JM15s; Sarah Gigante in the JW15s; Ruby Roseman Gannon, Greta Curran and Emily Dunk in the JM17s; and Ryan Schilt and Nick Abels in the JM17s.

Stay tuned for a report on the senior event and for official results and make sure you put round two in your diary for Saturday 15th September.

See a selection of photos below courtesy Brian Mangano. Images from both junior and senior events are now available to purchase via this link <http://brianmangano.com/disc-o-track-round-1/>.