Brunswick Cycling Club

Last saturday saw the 2012 Brunswick Junior road championships held at Lancefield out and back along the brutal Pyalong Rd.

The weather held true for a Championship race, cold, windy and the occasional sprinkle of rain.

For those late to the sport, Road Season is during Winter because it’s ….wet obviously.

Clubs can’t ride their outdoor velodromes in the wet, that’s why Track is during Summer, get it.

In recent times, well probably since we lost the Amateur and Professional ranks in the 90′s, Summer has been over run with Criteriums which has  seen the near death of club track cycling and since the indoor  track at darebin has opened it’s fair to say that the majority of DISC users don’t venture out from under it’s leaking roof for fear of the unknown.

That is why old scratchmen have a smile on their face when the weather is foul!

We know the fair weather riders are shot before the starter says go.

There were no fair weather riders at Lancefield Saturday, those who threw their hat in the ring for the Championship knew it was going to be a tough race and that the winner would be worthy of the title.

This year the M17 were also racing for the King of the Mountain Trophy, the first one to the top of the Wall of Ghent was Liam Hood, who went on with the aggressive moves to claim the 2012 M17 Championship from Nathan Northby and the never say die Andre Arkitidis.

Salute’ to Stefan Northby and Ian Herman for finishing the course, showing that they too are shaping up to be hardened competitors in the years ahead.

The M15 was a fast and furious affair with our newest member in the ranks Sam Brown powering his way through the kilometers to take the Title from Paddy Butler

W15 saw the distinctive green kit of Cycles Dever worn by Ruby Rosemann Gannon greet the judges in good time from Grace Mazzarella.

M13 was neck and neck between Luke Plapp and Rob Northby, with Luke having the speed in the end to win.

W13 In her last event as a J13, the smiling Sarah Gigante has another sash to add to her impressive collection.

But there was more to come!!

The club was running senior racing as well due to there being no combine racing on and for those who didn’t come out you missed out on the first distance handicap, instead of every rider covering the same distance but receiving a head start by the time keeper, riders started together, but their distances were different, the scratchmen given 43km with limit having to cover 38km.

It worked pretty darn well with the 1st to last being less than a minute! and the distances were calculated on an honour system where we asked each rider how far they thought they would go in an hour and a quarter…see there is such a thing as honest bike riders!!

This saturday is the race you, as a Brunswick member, wants to win after the Club Championship.

The Pop Stewart Memorial, “Pop” was there when I dreamed of Olympic Gold as a kid, and although I came last and fell off a lot I always received a nod and “good effort” every week from him, as did everyone else who pinned a number on for that day.

Pop Stewart is a Legend of the Brunswick Amateur Cycling Club.

Don’t feel up to racing? Come out and celebrate at Balliang this Saturday, there is always something we could use a helping hand with, if you can burn snags there’s the BBQ!!!

onya Cam

 

This entry was posted by C. McFarlane on Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 at 9:19 am and is filed under Road.