Wheelrace Worries

Photo courtesy of Fame and Spear

The Austral Wheelrace. This weekend. The seating in the back straight certainly won't be looking like this.

Sold out and ready to go. Some big names among the local entries, let alone the national and international track stars signed up. Going to be a ripper.

The best bit: being wired after racing will be appreciated as we can stay up to watch Milan-San Remo.

Brikos

Kent has been doing the business all over Melbourne during crit season. He's in striking distance of some cash at the Drapac Crit series, and we'll be there to help out in the final race this coming Wednesday. He also looks the most PRO out of any of us*.

March is going to be a big month with Duggan in the Austral and the other lads possibly getting up to the Mt Buller festival. Stay tuned.

*Sorry D'alfonso.

Race Report Update - Wired Wednesdays

Words by Duggan

Right. After eating my bar tape all night during an especially quick night in A at Brunswick Track Tuesday's at DISC, I thought I'd put up a bit of an update as to what we've been up to in the last week.

Kent rode a marvelous 3 laps of the HCC crit last week before 4 drops of rain fell and they cancelled the race. Poor bugger. He'd tapered perfectly for that.

Kent, D'alfonso and Duggan raced the Coburg crit on Saturday morning in very still conditions. This made for very fast racing, with the boys in B-grade averaging about 45 km/h for the 50 mins plus 3 laps. 

Nothing overly exciting to report. Duggan boxed in too far back in the pack with 500 m to go was never in contention. D'alfonso drove the pack into the final corner to release the sprint, and Kent finished 6th or so after competing in a fairly wild sprint. Props to Tate for rolling up with us in support and snapping a few pics.

Some quality Kent pain face here...

Duggan took it pretty easy during the race as he was competing in the Victorian Team Track Championships at DISC the following day. Full report to come, but they lads had a pretty successful day out, picking up a bronze medal in the team sprint and narrowly missing out on another bronze in the pursuit.

Race Report - SKCC Crits 12th Feb

Words by Dingus Dave

After Coburg was washed out on Saturday, TDR split up on Sunday with Duggan heading to the track to do some fine tuning for the upcoming Victorian Club Teams Track Championships, whilst Hogan and Kent ventured south of the river once again to have a crack at St. Kilda crits. Team time trials for A & B Grade meant a long wait before the C Grade race fired up at close to 11.30am.

Before rolling out the boys were given a rundown of St.Kilda’s new handicapping system. Good to see a local club doing something to formalise grading. Here’s hoping it’s the start of something that can be extended across all clubs (it should also be noted that Hawthorn do a pretty good job at their crits as well). However, by essentially locking the grades in their current form, the C Grade group included Ned “Strava King” Powell. That’s not his nickname, I just made that up. Dude’s a diesel, and Hogan and Kent knew they were going to be in for some pain trying to hold that wheel.

Sure enough, three laps in and Powell was driving a three man breakaway off the front. The chase couldn’t get organised, so Kent jumped out of the saddle to bridge across, and managed to drag the rest of the bunch with him.

Sharing the track with an A Grade field that was ridiculously large didn’t help the chances for a breakaway , as long stretches of neutralised racing were the norm. After 20 minutes, Hogan nearly lost his shit (literally), as a slowly deflating rear tire led to a few nervous corners. Nothing like your rear wheel sliding out round a corner at 45km/hr. He managed to stay upright, and rolled back to the start line happy to still be on two wheels. Race over.

Kent stayed in decent position for the remainder of the race, mostly in the front third of the bunch which stayed together for the rest of the race, albeit typically strung out in single file. Kent was sitting around 7th-8th wheel going into the final lap. Powell made a decisive kick up the back straight to lead out one of his teammates. Kent jumped across to his wheel (no easy task!), and rounded the final bend perfectly placed in third position. He couldn’t quite get around for first, but got up for a closely-fought second place. A mighty fine effort.

Time Apart - Recapping

Words by Dingus Dave

 She’s been a busy time at TDR headquarters lately. We finally got the kit sorted, and D’Alfonso showed it off in fine style by getting a win in B Grade at Hawthorn. A breakaway of 3 held off the pack, and D’Alfonso and his giant calves were too strong for the other breakaway lads. 

Hogan stepped up to C Grade at Hawthorn, and has shown the effects of time off after the Tour of Bright by being consistent pack fodder. Joining him in C Grade has been new TDR recruit, the former Fitzroy Rev man Kent. Having raced C Grade there all season, Kent has managed to podium about 72 times without quite having enough luck to take the win. Hogan tried desperately to lead him out for glory last week, with a burst down the back straight that was intended to put distance in to their rivals. But Hogan was gone by the corner, leaving Kent on his own for the final uphill sprint. Judging from the video, it looked to be about 10m too far (watch for Hogan in the red and white kit, crawling home at the end).

  

Mills’ crit season has been kept quiet due to a cracked frame (damn you second-hand carbon), but he’s been showing some fantastic form on the boards. Never afraid to attack too early, he’s had the crowd at DISC on his side as he launches for home 3, 4, hell even 5 laps out. A couple of stirring wins, particularly in sprints during the points races, have been well impressive. Duggan’s track momentum has been somewhat stalled by work commitments however has managed a couple of placings in A grade, while Hogan is getting his legs ripped off by 40 year olds in B Grade.

Duggan made a rare appearance at St Kilda crits a few Sundays ago, and was joined by Hogan and Kent in C Grade. D’Alfonso was spectating only, courtesy of a bucks night hangover. The race wasn’t too fast, but a crash on the back straight of the last lap put paid to any dreams of a win. Hogan used the crash as an excuse to sit up, Duggan did the same closer to the finish, while Kent pushed on for a hotly contested third place. The finish of A Grade a few minutes later was also marred by a pretty nasty crash on the final corner.

Gerro!

Great day out on the hill. Snuck a few laps of the circuit before the race.

Followed by a cracking race.

Green Edge well represented in the break... well... everywhere actually.

Pescott rode well before suffering a puncture

Phillips completed a number of laps with the main bunch before retiring

Mcfarlane causing chaos as usual. Peter English from sD also in the bunch

Lloyd, Gerro and Porte all rode a great race. 

Too exciting to sit

Christmas Track Carnivals - Bendigo

Country Track Carnivals

Bendigo

Beautiful sunny weather predeeded the seniors racing at the Tom Flood Sporting Complex in Bendigo. The wind was brisk and blustery on track and made for some unpredictable bunch dynamics at times. It was certainly going to be an eye-opener for Duggan who had missed the previous days racing at Horsham due to illness.

Mills - D grade

Duggan - C grade

Scratch races and wheel races (handicaps) were the order of the day, with C grade finishing with a miss-n-out scratch.

The Bendigo track was great. Nice smooth surface. A bit of wind to make it interesting. And HUGE. At 400+ metres if you were on the front when the bell went, you were done for.

Mills rode well in all his races, doing quite a bit of work on the front before finishing mid pack in most sprints. This included an effort in chasing down BWK's own Sean 'The Man' Hurley who had jumped from the pack.

His effort ended as Brendan Bailey outlined in an animated fashion from the sideline what he would do to Mills if he continued the chase...

Duggan, along with BWK compatriot Jared Otto, went into their first scratch a bundle of nerves. Fortunately Chris Pescott, a Tuesday night A grade regular, was also in the C-grade bunch which made for a familiar wheel.

The racing was hard and noticably more dicey than the typical Tuesday night, with lots of close quarters riding and manouvreing making wheel overlaps virtually suicidal. With two to go Duggan was on the front only to have a CCCC rider attack. Duggan jumped to the wheel, bringing Pescott along for the ride. The three had a small gap on the hard chasing field until the back straight of the final lap when they were enveloped back into a raging bunch.

Significantly outgunned but survived...

Next up was the 1000 m handicap heats. Otto and Duggan started off 95 and 100 respectively. Otto took off very quickly and Duggan quickly jumped on the passing wheel.

Otto rode very hard over the first 500 m, not looking to anyone for help and just as Duggan jumped for the final 250 m, the scratch pack game past at a blistering pace, ripping the ears off the packfill in front.

Outgunned and poor timing but survived again ...

The 2000 m memorial wheel race was a different story. Duggan was off 140 m in his heat with Neil Robinson backmarker off 60 m.

A long race, Duggan quickly rounded up the front markers and the pack slowly built. Heading into the last lap, Duggan jumped on Robinson's wheel as he moved around the back markers, hoping to at least stay in the big fella's draft for some of the sprint.

Halfway through the final turn, a Bike Gallery rider collided with Robinson's hip. What looked like a fairly innocuous contact quickly escalated as the BG rider stiffened, bars snapping hard up track, then went down about 2 m in front of Duggan. Luckily close enough to have the BG rider continue up the track for a metre or two before sliding down, Duggan slipped underneath and attempted to contest the remaining sprint with about 4 riders ahead of him.

Rolling around on a warm down the carnage became evident. 3 - 4 riders down, 3 hurtly badly. Two ambulances and 30 minutes later, racing resumed.

The final race saw Otto and Duggan once again in the bunch of a 8 lap miss-n-out scratch race. With 18 riders in the pack, 10 would remain to contest the final lap sprint. After stupidly deciding to hang around the back of the pack and contest every elimination sprint, the 6th sprint destroyed Duggan's legs. Otto rode well to make it through and contested the sprint to come home mid pack.

Excellent day out. Intense racing with skilled riders. We'll be back next year for sure.

Shouts of thanks for FOA crew who travelled up to heckle and give ace pushes in the wheel races. Thanks also to Dingus Dave and the indefatigable Cam McFarlane for the photography. More pics here at Leanne Cole Photography