What a season! We had 20 race nights out of 20 scheduled and only a couple of racing incidents, not to mention pretty consistently good weather with only a couple of wet races and very few windy nights.
Before I recap the season, I feel it’s vitally important to mention our volunteers, without whom, our race season would have been impossible. Firstly and most importantly, I want to thank on your behalf our main commissaire, who turned up for all but 2 or 3 races out of 22, including our ACT Champs weeks – Malcolm Paterson. His tireless commitment and great sense of humour went largely unnoticed as it is such an anonymous role until something goes wrong. Thanks, Malcolm.
Our second major mention goes to Trish Ellis, who ran rego every week over the season, diligently entering riders into the system and organising prize money. To commit to spending every Wednesday night in service to club members is extremely generous and worthy of immense gratitude. Thanks, Trish.
Thirdly, our club secretary Rainer Wilton worked hard along side in implementing new systems to make racing and record keeping easier. Our transition to entering in Entryboss was a major one essential for further changes to come in the next year or two, and enable us to keep track of licences and registrations more easily. Furthermore, his work on the volunteer registration system has made running races easier, with all the leg work being done essentially before the season started. No longer do we have to call on specific teams to man the forts a few races per season, with the workload being shared across the club more. Thanks, Rainer.
Finally, I’d like to thank all the ‘on the night’ volunteers who, regardless of if they had a season pass, or they just wanted to support the racing by keeping track of results, marshaling kangaroos and setting and packing up. Your assistance was invaluable.
Photos are a work in progress – please email copies of any missing photos or corrections to us.
Grade Point Score
With that out of the way, let’s wrap up the season. Our Season Points Score winners, regardless of grade, were Tom Chester with a massive 346 points, Stephen Blackburn with 250 and Stuart Griffiths close behind with 245.Consistent riding and strategic prowess saw these riders consistently finish towards the pointy end of their grades. Congratulations to those riders.
A Grade
B Grade
C Grade
D Grade
1st – Mathew Duncan, 2nd – Angus Withington, 3rd – Robert Moore
Womens A
1st – Emma Viotto, 2nd – Alana Forster, 3rd – Ella Bloor
Womens B
1st – Kim Pederson, 2nd – Laura Van den Honert, 3rd – Abigail Adera
Womens C
1st – Chloe Pragt, 2nd – Lauren Bullman, 3rd – Natasha Sitsky
Junior White
Junior HC
Puncheur Awards
This season, our committee sat down and discussed each grade in terms of a rider that maybe didn’t podium, but rode frequently, never shirked a turn, raced hard and showed consistency or great improvement over the season. This seasons our inaugural Grade Puncheur awards go to:
A Grade
Nick Wilson
B Grade
C Grade
D Grade
Simon Pollak
Womens A
Lauren Bates
Womens B
Natasha Sitsky
Women’s C
Junior HC
Junior White
Team Point Score
Team Podiums were tightly contested, with only 13 points separating 2nd to 4th. In 3rd, just hanging on to the podium were Presidents 7 (Rainer Wilton, Rae Rogers, Tristan Dimmock, James Jordan, Nathan De Tourettes, Nick Wilson and Steve Crispin), just trailing CCS Green (Cam Rogers, Reece Tucknott, Harry Jones, Kris Johnston, Matt Darling, Ben Marshal and Marc Williams) by only 6 points.
This leaves our winning team, 35 points clear of second – Those Guys (Nathan Edwardson, Heath Chester, Wayne Pettet, Edward Marcks, Andrew Yates, Simon Porombka and Gordon Marcks). Congratulations on a consistent team effort over the season.
Club Championships
Finally, our last race served as our Club Championships and we crowned our 20/21 champs following the grade races. It should be noted that we did not focus on CCC riders, but rather treated the champs as Combined Club Champs, like our road races.
Our Combined Club Champs for 20/21 are:
A Grade
B Grade
C Grade
D Grade
Womens B (with C Grade)
1st – Jordyne Rauter, 2nd – Josie Pepper, 3rd – Abigail Adera
Womens C
1st – Chloe Pragt, 2nd – Alexandra Apse, 3rd – Amy Betts
Junior White
1st – Luke Rogers, 2nd – Xanthe Pick, 3rd – Darcy Henwood
Junior HC
1st – Hugo Williams, 2nd – Ashleigh Maas, 3rd – Archer Peppinck.
Congratulations to all podium winners and, more broadly, to all that made this season so much fun with some great racing and community.
Finally, I would like to thank all participants – riders or volunteers – for participating in the program this season. It has been really rewarding to see so many people enjoying the racing and the atmosphere of the biggest bike race program in the ACT. That being said, I have served my last race in the role of Crit Coordinator as the stress of maintaining my career (at the busiest time of the year as a teacher), keeping my family happy and maintaining a hefty training program has left me pretty empty after 2 seasons.
I look forward to working alongside the next coordinator to assist in a transition and support role as they find their feet. It’s a rewarding role, and you can really make a difference and put your own stamp on the program. If interested, come along to our AGM coming soon, or drop the committee an email. The good news is that the work done this year alongside Rainer has made the job far more streamlined, and it promises to become easier still as new plans come to fruition.
Steve Crispin
CCC Crit Coordinator