The Ballarat Sebastapol Cycling Club did a fantastic job at staging round one of the interwinter series and now it is our turn. Full details on our Interwinter 2012 page.
Click on the picture to find out more.
Sunday 6 May we’re heading to Lake Mountain and Buxton to check out trail networks that have appeared in the last couple of years.
The day is planned to start early – that’s 6:30am meeting at Castlemaine Cycle Concepts! We will pack cars and hit the road at 7am. We’ll be on the trails at Lake Mountain (the main track is used for the Granite Grind race) by 10:30am. If you’re coming from Melbourne we’ll meet you in the carpark at Lake Mountain. Riders from Melbourne who need a lift can emails us at info@rockyriders.com and we’ll try and put you in contact with others.
We’ll break for lunch before hitting up the Buxton trails in the afternoon.
For those that want another challenge, the famed Buxton burger from the Igloo Roadhouse is well worth a try! That should fuel us up for the trek back to Castlemaine. We should arrive back around 8pm, after taking in about 4 hours of riding. Of course, if you aren’t feeling quite up to that much riding, you could either just ride in the morning or afternoon.
It will be good to coordinate cars to save on petrol costs, so let Grant know in advance if you can make it (grant.schuster@gmail.com or 0418 627 731). Also, let Grant know if you have a car and how many bikes it can carry.
Cost
Please come self-sufficient and equipped with water, snacks and spare tubes.
Members and non-members are all welcome. Hope to see you there.
By Louis McKenna
Five days, 40 countries, over 250 athletes, and they all want gold.
Two weeks ago the 2012 UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS were held in Melbourne at the HISENSE ARENA. Rocky Rider’s very own Paula Ewing is one of the organisers, and one of her many jobs was helping to arrange people for the medal ceremonies. She had asked some university students if they could help but they couldn’t make it so she asked us (Jasper, Dylan, Piper and me) if we were able to help, and luckily we were.
There was an estimated 100 million people watching us on TV. WOW!!!
Our job was to do the flower bearing, which was presenting flowers to the riders who came first, second and third.
The highlight for me was talking to Sir Chris Hoy, who was really friendly. He asked me whether I was a cyclist, and I said I do mountain biking, he told me that he started riding BMX and then did mountain biking, and when he was 15 he started track. I told him I wanted to do track, and he said that I’ve still got plenty of time.
Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy and Philip Hindes met Piper, Dylan, Louis and Jasper.
When we weren’t involved in the ceremonies we were allowed go up to the arena and watch a few races.
Glen O’Shea an Australian rider won the Omnium. The Omnium is made up of six events and is contested over two days. The final classification is established by adding up the finishing places in each event. The winner is the rider with the lowest total.
The Aussie fans went mad when Glen O’Shea won the final kilometre time trial.
The very last race on Sunday was the Madison and that was very exciting.
The Madison or “Americaine” is derived from six-day-races. Teams compromising two riders work together to amass sprint points or try to take a lap.
Sprints are held every 20 laps, and points awarded for sprints are
First: 5pts, second: 3pts, third: 2pts, and fourth: 1pt.
Only one member of the team is racing at any one time while his teammate rides around the top of the track banking until it is his time to race. The race is conducted as a ‘tag team’ format where the racing rider must touch his incoming teammate to effect the changeover. This is usually done by way of a ‘hand sling’ where the racing cyclist grabs his teammate’s hand and slings him into the race.
The finish was very close between first, second and third. It was very exciting to see how close together they finished. Sometimes there was only one hundredth of a second separating them.
In third place and winners of the bronze medal representing Australia were Lee Howard and Cameron Meyer.
In second place and winners of the silver medal representing Great Brittan were Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas.
And in first place and winners of the gold medal representing Belgium were Kenny De Ketele and Gijs Van hoecke.
Club members and other riders of all levels of fitness and ability are invited to join this gentle social ride. We’ll be riding the trails used for the Garmin 24 Hour last December. These trails are rocky in sections, but not too technical.
This ride coincides with a training session for The Kristy Cup – an annual mountain bike race held to raise money for breast cancer research. We encourage you to make a donation on the day to a Kristy Cup representative (perhaps something gold or foldable) to help the good work.
Where
Mt Lofty Reserve, Summerhill Rd, Redesdale.
When
10am
If you are leaving from:
Cost
Please RSVP to info@rockyriders.com and let us know:
Please come self-sufficient and equipped with water, snacks and spare tubes.
Hope to see you there.
Other Rocky Rider social rides for your diary
For the sixth year running, the Rocky Riders delivered a ripper of a day for the Cycle Concepts Castlemaine 6-Hour Enduro.
A slighty more subdued Saturday night still saw around 80 or so campers enjoying the bush surrounds and Big Ted’s bonfire work. The 16-inches were out again, with lazarus Al Farley taking the coin for the second time in his 16-inch career.
Greeted by perfect conditions Sunday, around 300 riders took to the track. A huge pack of dirtmasters assembled under the Scott/Avanti arch for the 20 minute crit around the paddock. Some short cutting was observed, but no protests lodged, and all went home with some loot.
In the big peoples race, there were some dinky die battles between riders and the rocks, as well as between competing riders. Both the male and female solo winners, Adrian Jackson and Peta Mullens, had their opposition under control all day. AJ even pulled into transition to fix a puncture on lap two and didn’t loose his lead. David Rusden rode a calculated race to take the lead about 5 hours in to take the 40+ male solo category. Great to see Troy Bailey back with a race number on taking 3rd in the 40+ behind Tim Jamieson. Search2Retain smashed the opposition in the Male Pairs, even with Jack rolling into transition ready to hit the trail until his teammate Luke Fetch (who dominated the fastest lap leaderboard) pointed out Jack was sans helmet!
There was some hot to trot racing in the other teams categories. Melissa Anset and Erica Gurner closely chased KingFisher all day, while FitzMix’s Duncan & Amity took the mixed pairs by going out for an extra lap just before the 6 hour mark. The Men’s triples was a top battle between two local teams. The rocky rider team of Al “Lazarus” Farley, Darren “Boxer” Kruger and Jack “really, i’m only 15″ Nettleton held off Marty “Jubber” Dzioba and his woodend mates.
The fully riged 29er types slogged away all day, but will likely leave them at home and utilise the great advancement of gears and suspension next time round. Cam Winn may have no choice after his downtube sheared in half.
A huge thank-you to our sponsors, Cycle Concepts Castlemaine, Theatre Royal, Goldfields Track, Vaughan Springs Vineyard, Plaistow Homestead B&B, Henry of Harcourt, Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa and Scott/Avanti/Kenda.
Also a big thank-you to all the volunteers who gave up their weekend to make it happen, including MC Tim Sheedy who made the trek up from Northcote High t “Northcote North” for the sixth consecutive year.
Results are here.
Some photos from our marshalls can be found here and here.
Next round of the Goldcross Victorian Enduro Series is being hosted by the Dirtriders at Beaconsfield on Sunday 25th of September. Details available on the VES page.
