 |
|
|
Quote of the Week
“I wish I had discovered cycling as a kid!”
(Rob Drury, echoing a common theme).
What Else Would You Do on a Sunday Morning?
Ernie Smith’s dramatic photo sums up last Sunday at the Dragway for the second leg of the Waratah Avanti Plus Masters Classic: blue skies; fine crisp Autumn weather; dramatic displays of racing skills; fantastic prizes by Northside Avanti Plus, and to cap it all, a breathtaking display of aerobatics and sky-writing, courtesy of Tony Whiteside, who spared no expense to make this a memorable event.
144 riders registered for this great event, of whom at least 300 were from Newcastle and the Central Coast--at least it seemed like that!
In Blue grade (A/B unders) the Michaels Foster and O’Brien stayed away for a year and a day at the front and even a fast-finishing Eddie Salas failed to catch them. Michael Foster held on to win the race and the Group.
White grade (A/B overs) was won by David Wells but “The Frenchman” Steve Darracott did enough to win the Group.
In Purple grade (C/D unders) Nickolai Wyman was a convincing winner but the ever-consistent Lee Kliousis took out the Group.
Red grade (C/D overs), locally known as chez-Waratah, witnessed a powerful Maurice Mathe win the race, the prime and the Group.
In Yellow grade subtle team tactics were employed to fix Colin Appleyard’s little red wagon. He was taunted, blocked, sat-on, burned off and hooked. In the sprint the red and gold team led out and peeled off in perfect harmony, and you know what? It did’n’t do a damn bit of good, he still placed second to win the group!
So it all came down to the Wheelrace: one lap round the Dragway for the Group winners with a handicap start. Steve Darracott showed his class and power to win in a canter and become the 2005 Waratah Avanti Plus Classic Champion and pick up a very nice little Avanti Corsa bike for his pains.
There was a young man named Darracott
Who loved to cycle and train a lot
He raced the Avanti
And upped the ante
And rode off with the lot!
Check out the full Results and Ernie’s photos of all the action.
Racing Sunday 5 June 2005
Next Sunday we are back at Lansdowne Park after all the excitement of the Avanti. The Duty Officer is Gil Candido, the Commissaire is Alec Lazich and the duty helpers are Michael Howarth and John Miller.
D, E and F grades will start at 0800 hrs and A, B and C grades will start at 0900 hrs.
Check the Infoline 1902 261 007 for any last minute changes and consult the Race Programme for future events.
12 Hour Enduro
Hands up all those that want to do the 12 Hour Enduro again! In late breaking news Bright Orange Promotions have announced that they will be holding another 12 Hour Classic on the 5th November 2005 at--wait for it--the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria. The event will be sponsored by Cycleops as before. So put that in your diary and start thinking about teams and logistics. Jonesy suggested we should ride down, compete and bus back! Sounds like a week of fun!
So Remember! Remember! The 5th of November! Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!
Trackies
Friday night racing at Dunc Gray velodrome is on again, starting 24 June. There will be five grades, including a novice grade, covering sprints, handicaps and wheelraces. As in previous years there will be a Pointscore which will run for the whole Winter. Apart from the official prizes Waratah will award Turramurra Cyclery vouchers as prizes for Club members in the Pointscore.
So, now’s the time to renew the challenge or try your luck on the boards for the first time.
For full details check out the FNWTR website.
Pointscore
Due to the running of the Avanti no points were added to the pointscore so it still remains unchanged with Alec Lazich in the lead, Leo Jaegli second, and Robert McNamara in third place. Check out your own position in the Pointscore.
Race Management
Don’t forget to check the Club Racing Rules as strict adherence to them not only contributes to our safety but is also a condition of our insurance cover.
Fitness
As you age bones become important. After all they do prop up the blubber into a socially acceptable shape, and when you fall over it’s really good if they don’t break. But how to preserve bone health? In this column we have already alerted you to the advantages of increasing your intake of calcium, and warned about the need for load-bearing exercise, as well as cycling, to delay the onset of osteoporosis. Now we can reveal that losing fat by exercising does not affect bone density, whereas dieting alone does. Researchers at John Hopkins have just completed a six-month supervised exercise programme with a group of 104 older men and women. Not only did they lose weight, compared to the control group, but they maintained their bone density and those who had the greatest gains in fitness actually showed modest increases in bone density. The only caveat to these findings is that the exercise was carried out on treadmills and was thus weight-bearing. Cycling still has a question mark against it for healthy bones.
This is yet another finding to support the dictum that as you age you should increase, rather than decrease, your activity level. There is a rich harvest of good health to be garnered from going like the clappers in your dotage. Rage! Rage! Into the darkness!
Training Rides
Dad’s Army: 0800 Tues & Thurs
Mona Vale Rd, St Ives (carpark opposite Stanley Street); 52 clicks through Terrey Hills, Akuna Bay and Duffy’s Forest.
Grandad’s Army: same as above but starts at 0730 hrs.
Parramatta Park: weekdays at 0545 (strewth!); two bunches: one fast and the other speechless. Run by Parramatta Club.
Homebush: 6.00 am Tues & Thurs; Olympic Park train station; 45 mins of high-speed fun. Three self-selecting bunches to suit all levels. Run by Lidcombe-Auburn but all clubs welcome. Expect large bunches in Summer.
Homebush: 7.00 pm Tues & Wed;
carpark Olympic Park train station;
7 km circuit; high intensity. This ride only operates in Winter.
Get Into Gear
The new Club knicks will now be available mid June at bargain prices of $85 for the shorts and $95 for the bibs. Rush your orders to Donna Meehan.
To complement the new knicks don’t forget you can still buy the Club windvests, great value at $85. Club jerseys, warm-up jackets, socks and even skinsuits are all available from Donna Meehan by ‘phone 9590 3022 , email or in person.
Trade Fair
If you’re in the market to buy or sell bikes or gear, there’s a great website run by Alban McGuinness where you can set up your own free ads, upload a picture, link to a website and amend the ads as desired.
Subscription
This newsletter has been mailed to you as a WVCC member or as an interested subscriber. If you don’t want to receive it email drkeith@bigpond.net.au with “unsubscribe” in the title.
|
|
|
|
|
Rider of the Week
Rob (“Two Up “) Drury
It’s April 1999. A week out from Melbourne the fleet is hit by a southerly gale. 40 knots, gusting to 50 with ugly quartering seas building from astern. On board “Sayernara” Jon Sayer, the boat’s designer, and Rob Drury the owner/skipper have their hands full. Even without foul weather, crewing a 13m yacht two-up in the short-handed Melbourne-Osaka yacht race is no picnic. Five weeks of unremitting toil crossing 5500 nautical miles of ocean and experiencing three seasons in the process!
The evening sked brought more bad news. Seven of the 20 yachts had sought shelter from the gale along the NSW coast and one, “Green Hornet” had broached on a following wave, rolled over--and sank! “Jeez” thought Rob “I wish I was home riding my bike!”
However, all recriminations were forgotten three weeks later when “Sayernara” glided across the finishing line off Maishima, Port of Osaka, to win Division B in a record time of just over 30 days.
Rob had always had a thing about water: sailor; rower; swimmer; water-treatment engineer--bottom of the harbour schemes!
He still rows competitively, competing at the National Masters in Rockhampton next week and at the World Masters in Edmonton in July. “I’m a bit burned-out with rowing at the moment, so I’m concentrating on the bike”, he observes resignedly. If that’s “burned-out” God only knows what “turned-on” looks like!
Rob came to us in ‘95, at the tender age of 50 (middle-age crisis?). He had been a tri-athlete but “could’n’t swim, and could’n’t run”, which narrowed down his choice of sports a bit. In ‘99 he disappeared off the radar for a couple of years to carry out the exploits mentioned at the top of the page, then back to the fold where he has been doing serious damage in B and C grades ever since.
Alzheimers Anecdotes
Chemical Bill has devised an infallible test for the onset of Alzheimers. Read the following text carefully and count the number of “F”s.
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
If you counted 3 F’s, go and seek immediate help from a competent neurologist. If you counted 4-5, still seek help but your GP will do. If you counted 6, you’re a genius and won’t be reading this anyway, but you’re correct! There are 6 “F”s there! Have another look!
The explanation? The human brain cannot process “OF”.
Widely Read
We welcome our latest subscriber and the first one from overseas, Austin Meehan, Paul’s Dad. Herewith the gospel according to Paul....
“My dad Austin was born in Yorkshire, and as a youngster did a lot of 10 and 25 mile time trials. Although one of the youngest members in the club, his training rides around the Yorkshire Dales invariably ended with a pint at the pub in the village green. The passion for beer and cycling has obviously been passed on.
He met my mum when she left Ireland for England to do her nursing training. They met at a dance, and the following day he offered to drive her to Sunday Mass in a troop carrier he'd 'borrowed' from his employer, the RAF. She indulged his sense of the ridiculous by introducing him to Ireland where he fitted in perfectly.
He's just retired and is busy playing golf in Florida. He's still thinking of getting back on the bike...”
And you thought Klingon was unique!
You Can Do It Lying Down
Those of us that competed in the 12 Hour Enduro saw them in action--the back view at least. Recumbents have been around since 1895 but have been banned from competitive cycling because they are too fast. As a leading Masters Club, particularly one composed mainly of old blokes looking for ways to go faster with less effort, we feel we have an obligation to test out “new” technology. Therefore in the next few weeks we will be arranging for a demo of the fastest racing ‘bents to allow riders to test them out for themselves.
The Human Race
Race A rather painful way to end up where you started from.
Brace Bushie’s handicapping system.
Grace Competing under pressure.
Trace Similar to a coffee ride
Erase Rub out the opposition.
Durace? Patronising enquiry from the owner of a top of the line gruppo after inspecting your clunker.
Racer A sharp rider.
Racy A sexy rider (Where? Where?).
Racial Crash-land on your mush--also known as the “Overdue Bill”.
Race course Swear at the opposition.
Race horse Swear loudly and continuously at the opposition.
Paceline Group ride where you work your r’s off.
Master Race C-grade
Mill Race It’s a bit of a grind this week!
Wheel Race Waratah Charity founded for the support of Octogenarians from Newcastle--the CON trophy.
A Brief History of the Bicycle
Le Tour de France (cont’d)
Credit for devising the actual idea appears to have come from the journal's chief cycling reporter, 26-year old Georges Lefèvre. He suggested to Desgrange, "A several day race, longer than anything now going on, something more of the order of a track six day race, only this time on the road. All the major towns are begging for cycle races, and they are bound to go along with the idea".
"If I understand you rightly, Géo", someone said, "you are proposing a cycling Tour de France."
"Well, why not?", replied Lefèvre.
Thus the idea was born. Desgrange presented it to Goddet, who sanctioned the expense. Lefèvre surveyed the route and did the preliminary organising, and on 19 January 1903,Desgrange announced the race on the pages of the newly-christened l'Auto. The race would be "The greatest cycling trial in the entire world. A race more than a month long: Paris to Lyon to Marseille to Toulouse to Bordeaux to Nantes to Paris." Desgrange scheduled five weeks for this epic from May 31 to 5 July, specified "equal terms" (no pacers), an entry fee of twenty francs. The conditions were deemed too hard, such that with a week to go, only fifteen had signed up for the event. Desgrange moved the race to July 1 to July 19, promised a five france per day living allowance to the first fifty riders and upped the prize money to 20,000 francs. 60 riders rose to the challenge; 21 were sponsored, the other 39 were a rag-bag of the poor, the unemployed and the plain adventurous. To l'Auto, they were all heroes, dignified with exhuberant nicknames: Emile Pagie was "the prince of the mine"; Lucien Pothier, revelation of the race, "The fierce butcher of Sens".
The true hero of the race was Georges Lefèvre. He followed the race as best he could, sometimes riding in the bunch on his bicycle, then catching a train to go ahead to see to the next checkpoint - a one-man, roving commissaire, organiser and reporter. Desgrange, meanwhile, remained in Paris, content to let his young assistant run the event, and hoping not to damage his reputation if it flopped. Which of course it didn't: when Garin rode into Paris as winner, in front of a crowd of 20,000 paying spectators, Desgrange rushed out a special edition of l'Auto, whose sales had rocketed to 130,000. The first running had been a resounding success (Velo Archives).
This could have been a description of Sunday’s Avanti--particularly with the mad Frenchman doing everything himself!
Spreading the Word
We have produced an information card about the Club, similar to the one which used to be passed around the shady cafes where cyclists congregate. The cards are available for members so carry a good supply on you at all times and make a practice of bailing up innocent passers-by and slipping them one--if that fails give them a card!
(...and, no, the waratah’s not upside down--the card’s designed to fold so you can prop it on a desk or send as a Christmas card!).
|
|
