Friday night Winter racing update!!!

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Simon Llewellyn
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Postby Simon Llewellyn » 14 Jul 2007, 23:41

G'day guys , i've been a bit lazy with my posting lately but there's been some pretty exciting updates on the friday night winter racing scene. Firstly we've seen the debut of Louie & Tim to the friday night winter ranks. They have just come through the division five starting division onto the division four & into the point score. I'll just explain the friday night setup for anyone who may be interested in coming out & giving it a go. There are five divisions, division one is the 'A' grade & it goes down from there to division four & each division has a point score which riders are ranked & prizes given out at the end of the season for the people with the most points in each division. It encourages participation as you get ten points just for showing up each week & from there may earn additional points for placings. So if you want to win you have to enter. Division five is the last division which is purely for beginners. It's the division which doesn't even really encourage drafting but safe riding for people who are new & who have never ridden on a velodrome before. You cannot win this division, all entry points are put towards that person's tally for when they enter division four. But they may ride in div 5 for as long as it takes to get used to the velodrome before entering the competition.

Also each week one grade has a wheel race, except division 5 & prizes are given for this event separately. For example the Div 4 wheel race a couple of weeks ago was sponsored by Terry at Rocky point road cycles & the winner got a spanking new helmet worth a couple hundred & second & third got good prizes too, but i can't remember what they were. Tim nearly took out this event too, he was a couple of bike lengths off the front of the field for four laps & was devastatingly reeled in in the final lap!

Louie too has had a great start too racing picking up a couple of places & showing some strong positioning with a good turn of speed in Div 4. He is showing a lot of promise as a star of the future & i believe he will soon be on the winner's podium on a regular basis. He & Tim are begging to learn that two riders are stronger than one & the team is starting to mold...

I must give a mention to Nick Bregolin who has been a regular on Friday nights also & has provided some great company on nights that there has only been two of us present. Nick has had some solid racing, gaining from the fitness opportunities track racing can offer.

Meanwhile I'm moving up the ranks in Div 1. I had too work friday night so i was only able to fit two of the four regular races in but last week i moved up into the top 10 of Div 1 in the point score, out of 40 & am hoping to crack the top ten by the end of the season. I've had a couple of placings over the last few weeks a second in the non madison keiren & third in the snowball race, but am eager to pick up a win....

& finally i must say a congratulations to the boys as a team standing was up at 15 out of 30 last week, showing we are no longer a one man band as in recent years. We are starting to show that we are a club on the rise & are at the highest our club has been in years which will hopefully be a sign of things to come! Hopefully we'll keep climbing but we need bums on seats!!!

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Simon Llewellyn
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Location: Tempe Velodrome

Postby Simon Llewellyn » 14 Jul 2007, 23:54

Just an update;

-I've held my 10th place in div 1 after 5 rounds & it is now out of 51 riders

-Louie is up to 23rd & Tim 24th in Div 4

-Nick is sitting 30th in Div 3

-& our team is sitting 16th out of 30, Come on Boys the more the merrier!!!!

http://home.vtown.com.au/~pcraft/Point%20score.htm

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 08 Aug 2007, 21:00

See we scored a big fat zero last week and have dropped a place in the teams

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Simon Llewellyn
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Postby Simon Llewellyn » 09 Aug 2007, 08:07

We're not far off passing parramatta, that'll be a big acheivement. They are all big clubs ahead of us so any movement upwards is good movement...

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 09 Aug 2007, 08:23

Well I won't be of much assistance any more

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Simon Llewellyn
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Postby Simon Llewellyn » 18 Aug 2007, 12:17

We actually had quite an excellent night last night even though there was only two of us & we both felt really sluggish to begin with. It was me & Huw & we picked up a few places between us.

Sprint Div3 heat1
1 Garth McInerny
2 Jeff Smith
3 Graeme Heap
4 Huw Morgan

I kicked with just over a lap to go but just couldn't hold on & they rolled me on the line. These are some of the form sprinters in Div 1 so it wasn't a bad result to lose by half a wheel.

Sprint Div 1 Heat 1
1 Jackson Law
2 Mitchell Stock
3 Simon llewellyn
4 Scott Law

Huw had a blinder in this race he piped Garth on the line in the first sprint which Crafty had already given the to Garth saying "no one will catch this man" but Huw did. It was four sprints the winner of each qualifying for the final sprint. Docker rode away with it easily in the final sprint, tactically it may not have been too wise for HUW to take the first sprint & have to wait another twelve laps for the race to conclude, but it was exciting none the less. In my Winner's race as part of the purple team we had a tactic to target the third sprint but I got pipped on the line by Mitchell Stock again with only two men able to contest.

Div3
1 Michael Docker
2 Huw Morgan
3 Matt guggispare
4 Matt Worley

& in the Italian pursuits I was second last rider for team purple & Huw was riding for yellow from memory. In purple we were way down on numbers, we had 3 riders which had to do two laps each so it was a good result. As the anchor we pulled the race back together only to get pipped on the line. Not all was lost though, the pace we set blew up Adriano who didn't finish so they were disqualified and we moved up into third place for the night...


Round 5
Italian
1 Team Green
2 Team Red

3 Team Purple
4 Team Orange relegated to 4th for loosing a rider

5 Team Yellow
6 Team Blue

timyone
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Postby timyone » 18 Aug 2007, 15:49

nice work!!

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Huw
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Postby Huw » 20 Aug 2007, 11:46

Actually, Simon rode really well in the sprint on Friday night. It was a three lapper, but the resemblance to a traditional Tempe leadout finishes right there. Those guys in Div 1 set out hard right from the gun - there's no cruisin' around at the top of the track - it's pretty much down to business on and around the sprinter's lane. Simon would know best, but I'd reckon that by mid lap two, they're probably running at 80% or more.

With just over a lap to go, bell ringing, Simon jumped the field from the up-track blue line. He surprised everyone. The other guys in the race suddenly realised they had a big race on their hands, and immediately started workin' their bikes over like crazy ants on a piece of fresh meat. Into the front turn, Simon had established a quality lead, well in front now. Right through the back straight he was working himself hard, maintaining the lead. I'm pretty sure he uses a slightly lower gear than the other riders in that division - he seems to run higher cadence than the other guys. Into the back turn, Simon was well-positioned - boxing a couple of guys behind, but there wasn't much he could do against the sheer contractile bulk of a couple of the big boys in the bunch who were now slowly but certainly clawing their way back. Out of the turn, and it was neck and neck. But those big boys weren't gonna stop there. They'd looked deep within themselves and found a white-hot source of winning desire, and their chains were now spittin' flames. Now it was meltdown time for Simon, too long in the lead, but only just. A very convincing third against serious competition, in a race that he shaped single-handedly.

timyone
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Postby timyone » 20 Aug 2007, 13:14

far out man what a run down there!! got my heart racing!!

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 20 Aug 2007, 19:14

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