Sarah Gigante kicked things off with a fine ride in the 4km ITT. Her time of 8.11 saw her average just a smidge below 30km/h on an out-and-back windswept course. Pretty good going. Sarah backed up her ITT result with another third in the first road race and by going one better in the second road race stage. She finished 3rd overall scoring some good points towards the Junior Aggregate Championships.

In the under-15 boys Ryan Schilt, fresh from his successful track season, and Riley Hart flew the Brunswick flag. Both boys featured in the A-grade field and while they didn’t feature on the podium in any races, given Ryan had come off a break (and was just back from a school camp) and Riley’s been off school for the two days since the tour with the return of the blasted Blasto (and a nasty head cold to boot) the boys held their own in what was a crack field. Overall Ryan finished sixth and Riley 10th with both boys being in the mix for much of the weekend.

In the under-15 girls, with Ruby sick, Emily Dunk was the lone Brunswick representative. Having been training hard for cross country and triathlon, she was unsure what sort of form she might possess: she needn’t have worried though with strong performances in both he ITT and the two road races, she locked up second place on GC no problems at all behind the on form Ashleigh Hocking, who was fresh back from her Wagga Junior Tour victory.

The under-17s saw Brunswick juniors feature in both A and B grades. In B grade, Nick Abels and Liam Hood suited up and put together some more than respectable performances given their lead ins to the event. Nick’s best result was in the TT which saw him earn points for 10th place, while Liam got stronger as the event unfolded with a terrific 4th in the final stage road race.

The on form James Pane raced A grade up against a number of the best under-17 boys in the country. James’ 7th and 8th in the two road races saw him finish in the top five Victorians and take out a top-10 GC place overall. James is one of the most improved riders going around this year and I can only bet he’s looking forward to the Eildon Junior Tour with the climb up and over Skyline.

Sorry, no photos or other anecdotes of stories, but it was a good tour with some good Brunswick performances.

By all reports Mitch spent pretty much the whole day in a break and attacked his remaining escapees to win solo just ahead of the chasing pack. In a strong A-grade field, Mitch put his European racing experiences to good use by getting in the break and worked hard all day over the 113km course to give himself the best chance of staying away. His late attack showed he was the strongest and it is a well deserved win.

James Pane continued his stella form to take 3rd in the Junior A race, while Riley Hart managed a good win in Junior B over the tough 53km course.

Other Brunswick riders to race included Stuart Grimsay and Conor Murtagh (A grade), Sean McIver and Anthony Ives (B Grade), Michael Sparke and Jarrod & Geoffrey Peck (C grade) and Emma Pane and Madeleine Cardillo (Women).

Well done to all in trying conditions over tough terrain.

Results here: http://www.vic.cycling.org.au/default.asp?Page=46440
Some Photos here: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/blaze429/
And
here: http://gallery.me.com/mmcritchie#100164&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=98

While I wasn’t there, a number of members also competed in the Donna Buang ITT which bookended Blackburn’s Warburton weekend. Some more great results including a win to Sarah Gigante in JG13 and a strong 5th to Lewis Rattray in Men’s A-grade.

James was just below the top tier of the JM17s on the track this season and anyone who knew anything about how he was training was licking their lips waiting for the track to turn into a road reaching towards the sky.

James is the new Victorian Hill Climb Champion, besting Ballarat rider Josh Liston and CCCC’s David Koroknai to the top of Misery Hill in Outtrim just outside of Leongatha. It’s a nasty 3.5km climb with three sections of around 10%.

Pane also performed well in the handicap road race, scoring second fastest time and he won the straight-line sprint on the first day.

James wasn’t the only BCC rider to perform well on the weekend, with Ruby Roseman Gannon also winning the Victorian Hill Climb Championship crown along with a number of the other combined JW15/17 events; and Riley Terrens won the B-grade race up the climb. Riley’s win was then topped when he took out the JM17 handicap road race winning a four-up sprint from the four-minute markers.

Sarah Gigante managed a number of podiums while Riley Hart finished fourth in the handicap road race taking the prize for fastest time. Ian Herman also continued his improvement looking stronger in every race.

Next up, the Ararat Junior Tour – which is part of the Victorian Aggregate Championships.

Full results can be found on the Leongatha website www.leongathacycling.com

The 45th running of the CDCCSJT (for short) was run and won on the weekend over the best course I’ve ever seen host a junior tour – and that includes Canberra and Eildon! Set in the picturesque Barossa Valley, the tour even featured an ascent of the feared Mengler’s Hill (3km @ 7.1°) – as seen in the TDU!

But beyond the parcours and the history (the honour role includes names like: Jack Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Rohan Dennis, Brett Aitkin, Pat Jonker and Luke Roberts to name a few) the tour is faultlessly run by a group of dedicated volunteers and with locals who were incredibly welcoming to interstaters like us.

Yep, Riley and I packed the bike in the box and made the trip on Friday arvo, arriving in the stunning town of Tanunda by around 7.30pm. Dinner and bed.

Saturday saw two road stages for all age groups – I’ll tell the tale of the JM15s (as I was lead car), but there was also a combined group of JW15/17s that included fellow Vicco Ashleigh Hocking (who did very well with a number of podiums).

The ten JM15’s first tackled a rolling loop of some 21kms. Local boy James Hugginson was the strong favourite and certainly thought he was ‘patron of the peloton’ – Victorian boys may remember him from Ararat a few years back where he put on a similar display in the under-13s!

Despite the ‘patrons’ demands, Riley refused to work with him and therefore a group of four made it the finish with Riley taking out the sprint.

The afternoon stage was some 28kms and featured the feared Mengler’s Hill. Unfortunately, Riley’s now renowned dodgy stomach was playing up, but he decided to start as he was resplendent in the leaders jersey. This time Riley decided to work a break with Huggo (they were on nickname terms now) and the two of them got away on the approach to Mengler’s.

With Riley setting the pace for most of the climb, the local lad put in a fearsome attack towards the top, with his face turning as red as his hair. Riley, having turned a lighter shade of pale, just couldn’t go with him and watched as the tour rode away. He held on to finish second, but lost a good whack of time.

Day two, and the young fella was feeling a little better… but not well enough to help the new leader get away. Time and again the local lad attacked and time again Riley closed it down but refused to keep it going… infuriating! After hitting 73kmph on one steep descent, Huggo took off again and snapped the elastic… Riley lost 20m, which quickly became 300m; but with still around 12 of the 25kms to go, all wasn’t lost and Riley slowly set about reeling him back in.

He got back on terms with around 4kms to go and despite being stuck on the front for the last 2kms, launched his sprint from a long way out for a second comfortable win. He might not win the tour but two out of three stages wasn’t bad!

After a trip to the old book shop in Tanunda (a must do if ever you go), where we found a 1958 edition of an Australian cycling magazine featuring a story on Russell Mockridge, it was on with stage four – note to Victorian Junior Tour promoters: four stages make a junior tour much more satisfying.

A dreaded 9.3km ITT out-and-backer over 12 hills in 40kmph winds with a bit of rain thrown in for good measure! After being five-seconds down at the turn-around, Riley managed to reduce it on the way back in, but not quite enough finishing second by less than 2-seconds and also picking up second on GC.

Oh well, not a bad result: a fun trip, some wins, some wines for dad, and a magazine that might just start a collection.

I can only encourage all Victorian Juniors to make the trip next year if they possibly can. It’s a heck of a well-run race over what is definitely the most challenging Junior Tour course in the country.

Day 1 the U15W 200m sprint races saw the girls up first with great qualifying times PBs. The girls were placed respectable 5th (Ruby) and Greta 9th. Ryan’s PB time of 12.166 sec was enough for him to take the bronze medal, 0.28sec behind the new Australian record set by Cameron Scott in 1st place.

Day 2 U15W pursuit Ruby qualified 3rd and went on to win a hard fought bronze medal in the finals. Emily also put in a great effort to finish 11th while Ryan raced the 500m TT with a 4th place time of 37.021sec, just 0.11sec away from a bronze medal. Day 3 saw the U15W race the 500m TT with placings of Ruby 7th & Greta 13th. Is there a theme going here with the girls all preferring odd number placings? Ryan, not to feel left out with the odd numbers, achieved a respectable 9th in the 2km Pursuit.

The final day of the Nationals saw Ruby & Ryan riding in the 5km Scratch races as preludes to the 114th Austral. DISC was packed and while most people were there to see the seniors ride, the Junior races certainly provided excitement for the crowd. The U15M’s races was fast paced from the start. Ryan was well positioned for most of the race staying close to Cameron Scott as he was the one to beat. Four laps to go Ryan was boxed in as they came around to the back straight and Tom McFarlane made a move over the top taking everyone by surprise. Cam gave chase and the race was on. Ryan finally managed to get out but there was not enough time to make up the ground and came across the line 6th.

U15W Scratch started a slower affair with the girls happy to just ride around. Also with 4 laps to go, Ruby decided she was a bit tired of this slow pace and took off taking the race to the WA girls who had been strong throughout the competition. The reaction was as expected and the pace was certainly picked up and we had a race on our hands. Ruby held on for a couple of laps but in the end the WA girls again proved too strong with Ruby finishing a great 4th.

All of the Juniors were fantastic in not only representing Victoria but also Brunswick. They have all grown enormously from the experiences. As one boy said, “bring on next year!” so great was the experience and friendships made during the 4 days. Congratulations to all the Juniors.

– Soulla Schilt & Andrew Gannon

So much so that there will be some big reforms needed so next year we avoid the sudden death style of racing we had to adopt due to time issues.

The great thing was that everyone was happy to enjoy the night and rip out a couple of sprints.

Congratulations to our out of towners who made allowances due to the time constraints, we hope there will be a better opportunity next year for all of you.

The juniors were on first and as they warmed up they noticed two extra lines on the track in bend 2 and down the back straight, these were chalk lines that showed the 2 preffered lines for the Flying 200 on the Brunswick Track.

With 15 minutes remaining in the warm up Cam called all the juniors to the fence and explained to them what the lines meant and advised them all to roll through each one to see which suited them best.

Qualifying went without a hitch and quite a few used the “Beasley” line, staying high as they passed the 200 and using all the downhill of the back straight and banking before entering turn 3.

Fastest of them all was Liam Hood with a 12.60, it’s great to see Liam on the bike in form again.

So here’s the results of the Juniors.

M17 Qualifying
Liam Hood 12.60
Riley Terrans 13.35
James Butler 13.47
James pane 13.59
Andre Arkritidis 13.81
Ian Herman 14.97
Warn Helan Chaplin 15.35

M17 1st Round

Riley def Warn
Ian def James B
James P def Andre

M17 Semi Final winners to gold final losers to bronze
Liam def Ian
James P def Riley

M17 Bronze final (best of 3)

Riley def Ian

Gold Final (best of 3)

Liam def James P

W17 Qualifying

Georgia Mylonas 14.34

Gold Final (best of 3)

Yes you are reading it correctly the W17 Gold final went to 3 heats because Georgia is our only W17 at Brunswick, However!! as the heading mentioned sportsmanship the evening had bucket loads!! as Apryl “you are a gun” Eppinger accepted the offer to race with Georgia and give her some lessons on Sprint racing and boy did Georgia learn quickly! The first heat had elbows, shoulders, knees and the traditional “lift” in turn 4.

The second had more of the same plus some crowding in the final half lap.

The decider had Georgia on the front working all the track as Apryl barked instructions at her, by the bell both were in a sweat with dummies and blocks aplenty.

For those who are regular Tuesday competitors you would have become used to Apryl racing at DISC, however, she has an impressive palmares that few would be aware of.

Started racing in 1999, Won the W19 Sprint Title in 2003 and Represented Australia at the Junior World Track Championships that year, recieved the 2003 / 04 Victorian Female Track Cyclist of the Year Award and after a short break she has set her sights on the Sprint disipline, she now represents the Philippines and competed at the Melbourne round of the World Cup and has enjoyed success at the Asian and SEA games in recent times.

W15 Sprint Qualifying

Grace Mazzarella 16.78

Gold Final (best of 3)

again we didn’t have anyone to race with Grace, however, Jordyn hessett from Blackburn had a time of 16.06 and was happy to have a best of 3 with Grace, did I mention the night was awesome with sportsmen & women?

M15 Qualifying

Issac Gibbs 14.59

Pat Butler 15.03

Will Maughan 17.03

Gold Silver Bronze Final (best of 3)

Pat Gold, Isaac Silver, Will Bronze

W13 Qualifying

Sarah Gigante 15.96

Alanah Humphries – Grey 17.09

Emily Hughes 17.66

Once again we invited Alanah to have a best of 3 with Sarah and Emily and they all gave it 110% with the result being

Sarah Gold, Emily Silver Alanah Bronze

M13 Qualifying

Nathan Bof 15.41

Pat Fowler 16.56

Timmy Butler 17.13

Andrew Rigoni 18.47

Evan Humphries – Grey 17.37

The Gold final saw nathan get the better of pat while for the Bronze…you guessed it, we had a 3 up final  with Timmy edging out Evan and Andrew.

M11 Qualifying

Sam Armarego 21.65

Calvin Lloyd 23.85

Gold Final (best of 3)

Sam Gold Calvin Silver

We ran over time and the seniors didn’t get on the track till 20 past seven, but I think the standard of competition set by the future stars had inspired them to have a red hot go!

That report will follow.

Cam

Unfortunately, the weather waits for no man. Towards the end of the U17 sprint qualifying, despite a clear radar, the heavens opened. Everybody squeezed in and got comfy underneath the tent, waiting in hope of a blue sky. And funnily enough, we got one – just as the raincoats began to come out of the woodwork, the clouds parted and the sun began to beat down upon us. Before long, the track was dry and the racing was once again on in earnest.
The next race was a scratch race, once again being the Victorian Championships for the U11/13s. Both Sarah and Nathan placed second in their respective age groups in two gutsy chases to the line, while Ruby and Georgia took home the gold and silver for Brunswick in the U15/17 women’s. This was followed by the last championship race of the day, with Nathan coming in third and Sarah first in the 500m time trial.
The next event was the Darbys Derby – or was that Derbys Darby? – Sprint Final. Georgia Mylonas won her sprint in a record time of 0.00 seconds, with some spectators saying, “She went round so fast, I didn’t even see her!” Rumour has it that Ruby actually had to leave before the sprint took place. Liam Hood also put in a strong effort to win the bronze final.
The progressive points was next, with Nathan Bof and Sarah Gigante both taking second place, while Georgia Mylonas almost lapped the field to take home the gold, and Liam Hood snagged the win on the same number of points as Steven Carroll, who spent most of the race out front.
During the lunch break – which had been cut as it was already 3pm – Lorelai Hazelden, of the Preston Cycling Club, set a track record for Under 5 girls on the Anna Meares signed sprint bike, a gift from the Brunswick Clinic. This was followed by the final event of the day – the handicap. Sarah Gigante pulled off second place from the mark of 10 metres in her U13 handicap, and Liam Hood, from the mark of 50 metres, found that extra little bit of determination to win the handicap sponsored by his own sponsor, Bike ‘n’ Bean. That’ll surely extend his contract!
And while that brings me to the end of the day’s racing, a little bit of magic was yet to happen. Bike ‘n’ Bean handed out a Specialized helmet to the riders named ‘Best Boy and Girl Cyclist of the Carnival’. These were presented to Alana Field and Luca Tarticchio. Luca, on receiving his prize, shocked the crowd. “Actually, I don’t really need a helmet.” he said, “But I know someone who does. So I’d like to donate this helmet to my friend Lewis Slingsby, who fell off his bike last week.” I don’t know about everyone else, but as Thomas, all bandaged up from his recent fall, got up to accept this charitable gift, I certainly had a tear in my eye.
Many thanks to the Commissaires, sponsors, parents and the Preston Cycling Club for a great day out.

–Scott Gigante

Well those who have got to understand the saturday track sessions at Brunswick came down to the soggy outdoor track with rollers in hand and had an awesome hour and a half indoor session of fun, sweat, laughter and learning. (along with the occasional crash)

That’s right an hour and a half of roller action! Spread over 2 and a bit hours and included lessons on strategies for planning what to do when a carnival has a rain delay, hydration choices of water verses sports drinks verses soft drinks, gym exercises, pilates exercises, plyometric exercises, bike computers, cadence targets, rating your perceived level of effort, bike fit essentials and how to understand and check them yourself.

We even discussed the various studies that have investigated the causes of cramp.

The best thing was that although we started at 2 some were still happy to be “rolling” at 6!!!

That’s right, we don’t mind if you come late, if you want to ride your bike be it for 2 laps or 200, for 2 minutes or 2 hours then Saturday at the Brunswick Velodrome in Harrison St is where you are welcome to be.

So see you next Saturday, rain, hail or shine, we will be turning the cranks one way or another.

onya cam