The more things change, the more they stay the same

by Pip Read - Australian Masters Cyclist

I was reminded just recently of the heading that I've used for this article. Just when you expect things to become a bit on the boring side, along comes not one new project, but two! I had been thinking seriously of attempting some track racing, just to spice up the competition season. I had picked the bike that I was going to buy and started thinking about events. Cycle Sport Victoria and the Masters Commission then announced a Masters Individual Road Time Trial series. This was something that I had been lobbying for some time.

Then my club, St Kilda Cycle Club (SKCC) announced it was planning to put together a women's team, something that I also lobbied for. After much thought I decided to forget about the track racing and spend the rest of this season, and with luck next season, contesting teams racing and perfecting my time trial racing. We have actually finished up with two women's teams, the race team and a development team with a total of 11 members. I will also race the Masters TT series. The upcoming road season is looking like being great fun, a learning experience and a lot of plain hard work! Bring it on!

Now we need to get some more women coming along and entering the races, especially after the poor turnout at the recent Victorian Masters Criterium Championships. As some of you may remember I'm a committee member of the CSV Women's commission and the CSV Masters Commission, so I think that this year we need to concentrate on encouraging more women to come and have a go at road racing. I believe the ideal series of events for this would be the upcoming Masters TT series, which will offer the almost perfect event, no close quarters racing, no super long distances and above all no intimidating atmosphere. I am also hoping a pre-event information session will be offered. I will keep you up to date on this as the season gets closer.

Bendigo International Criterium

Over the past few years I've grown to like racing in Bendigo. For one thing the weather always seems to be good, the public embrace bicycle racing and the courses, being in the middle of town, are usually good. This year however was different. Not bad but different. For some reason we raced partly on a bike/pedestrian path, which I guess was smooth but with some interesting bends and not that much room for racing.

After passing the start finish we had a very sharp left hand turn that almost turned back on itself then a slight ramp to the path, followed by an S bend with kerbs of blue stone. If you picture a wide footpath with gaps between it and the grass you get the idea. We had a good field with some great racing and most of the field finishing in a bunch sprint. I think that most of the competitors were a bit surprised at the circuit and it's beyond me how the men raced on it considering the size of their bunch.

2009 Victorian Masters Criterium Championships

This year's championships were held in Castlemaine in country Victoria, just up the road from where the Castlemaine Cycle Club hosted both the Road Race and TT championships in 2008. To say the weather was custom made for cycle racing would be an understatement; sunny and no wind. The hotdog style circuit, while not my idea of the perfect criterium track, located in the centre of town and being part of the Castlemaine State Festival, promised a good crowd of spectators. The location and the crowd were great.

We were scheduled to race with the juniors which was good and as we headed out on the first of many laps I was asked by Kendal, one of the junior riders, if I would like to go in a break. To which I said 'you bet, give it two laps and go'. We worked together for quite a few laps but as with hotdog circuits you tend to lose track of the laps and I got a shock when I downloaded my GPS giving me data for 78 laps! It was interesting hearing Kendal's coach yelling instructions from the sidelines to work with Pip.

This type of circuit not only confuses riders but officials as well, especially after we had both lapped the field a few times. I believe track was lost of who was in front and we had lap countdowns given to us that were confusing. Not surprising considering the total number of laps. I was happy with race especially as I won the title for the second year in a row. It was just a pity we didn't have more masters competitors, I'm getting a bit tired of chasing the younger riders.

Time to start thinking about my program for the upcoming road season, which will be a new experience for me as I usually put the bike away after the criterium season. I need to rethink my weekly schedule focusing a bit more on endurance and time trial events.

Talk soon.

Pip