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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
CYCLIST'S INTERNATIONAL CUP
& SID PATTERSON GRAND PRIX Including the 'Men's Victoria Keirin Championship' 7pm Saturday 28th February Vodafone Arena A double feature event reviving the Cyclist International Cup whilst also honouring the legend of cycling great Sid Patterson. The night's main events include: Men's Victoria Keirin Championship Match races Sprint races Motor pace events Scratch races Invitation events and more! International riders Erik Weispfennig and Cristian Lademann, who will be riding the Bendigo Madison Championship in March, will be making an appearance on the night. Weispfennig will feature in a Derny Race against Tim Decker. The night will also feature a Sprint Match race between two of Victorias and Australia's hottest young cyclists, Shane Perkins and Daniel Thorsen. Shane has recently been selected to represent Australia at the upcoming Moscow World Cup and Daniel represented Australia at the 2003 World Junior Track Championships in Moscow and returned with 2 medals. This is the 2nd last Cyclist's International event at Vodafone for the 03/04 season, so come along and see some great cycling action. Melbourne is hosting the 2004 World Track Cycling Championships at Vodafone Arena in May, so for a taste of great cycling action before then, make sure you get to Vodafone Arena on February 28 for this great night of cycling. Tickets from Ticketek on 132 849 or at the door. For more information please contact Barry Langley on 03 9525 1318. hippy |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
G'day
& will we be seeing a recent track 'convert' by the name of 'Hippy' cheers Hitch - |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
"Hitchy" wrote in message
... & will we be seeing a recent track 'convert' by the name of 'Hippy'? I will most likely be there... spectating/photographing.. I don't think they'd let a newbie like me on the track with guys/gals that can actually ride fast! :-) I've been to the last two big track events at Vodaphone and they've both been great fun - I recommend everyone give it a look. hippy |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
hey, hippy, have you got photos of the Austral posted somewhere? (ie: the ones you took with the Big Camera
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
"hippy" wrote in message ... "Hitchy" wrote in message ... & will we be seeing a recent track 'convert' by the name of 'Hippy'? I will most likely be there... spectating/photographing.. I don't think they'd let a newbie like me on the track with guys/gals that can actually ride fast! :-) I've been to the last two big track events at Vodaphone and they've both been great fun - I recommend everyone give it a look. hippy Hippy, Agreed, track cycling events at Vodafone Arena are great fun to watch. I'll be there but as a competitor. I'll be the guy in the Richmond Cyclery colours riding the white/blue FORT bike in the D grade races. I can assure you that I am not that fast but hey, that's why handicaps and graded racing exist. It's so that everyone slow or fast has a reasonable chance to win. To give you an idea of how close you are to riding at one of these events I'll tell you my story. I started racing Crits in September 2002. I then took up track racing at about this time last year and had my first ride on Vodafone Arena in March 2003. It was the Mens Masters (Class 2/3 combined) Victorian 10Km Scratch Championships, my first ever proper scratch race on the track. Prior to that my only previous racing was one Wed night at Brunswick in the presence of some pretty elite company (ie Will and John Walker) which made me realise how fast I really wasn't. Unfortunately on that same night I crashed during an elimination race (my mistake and a big dose of experience was gained). The bike escaped with just a couple of scrapes on the bars. I ended up suffering from a broken right thumb which, for a few months, left me unable to ride my road bike and race crits (a bit of a problem with using the brakes). Luckily I could still ride the track bike in relative comfort so my summer season was not completely over (You don't need or have brakes on the track). Anyway getting back to Vodafone Arena. Although I was unable to hold on for the whole 10Kms I was pretty satisfied with my ride. Most of the other riders in the race I knew raced A and B Grade club crits and at that point in time I had only just started riding C grade crits after moving up from D grade so I knew I was probably a little out of my depth here. In the end I finished around 650m behind the winner and about 100m behind the guy in front of me. But best of all, I didn't finish last I think the winning time was just over 12min 30seconds. The initial speed at which the race started took me by compete surprise. The first few laps were timed at low to mid 17s. I just could not hold this pace and started dropping back into the 19s and low 20s. Now I'll tell you what the best bit of the day was. I arrived nice and early so that I could get some experience and gain some feel for the track. Prior to this day the steepest banking I had ever ridden was at Brunswick (Slightly steeper than Blackburn). The whole arena was deserted except for a couple of other people out in the middle. There was no sound as both the ventilation and sound system were switched off at this time. I rolled out onto the track to do a couple of laps. As I did I could hear this sound that I had never heard before. It was the sound of the timber creaking beneath my wheels which was echoing in the silence of the moment. The thought that went through my mind was something along the lines of "WOW". As I gained speed the sound of the creaking timber was replaced by the sound of the wind screaming past my ears. As I gained even more speed I realised that the bends in the track melted away giving the illusion that I was riding in a continuous straight line. This sensation is definitely something to be experienced. This year I started the track season with a winter of road training behind me but still not a lot of racing experience. I had always wanted to do a "Melbourne Cup on Wheels" but decided against this for this year due to lack of handicap racing experience. I decided that the Austral would be my first major handicap race on the track for the season. As preparation for this I did a couple of Saturday race meets at Blackburn. I then targeted the Bendigo and Shepparton Christmas carnivals (handicap races galore). From doing this I was able get an idea for how to tactically go about riding this type of race and got valuable experience. I also took part in the Vic Metro Championships (MMAS2/3/4 combined) in all four disciplines. I was a first timer in all but the scratch race so everything was new to me. To my surprise I ended up with a Bronze Medal in the 2000m Pursuit. I will now be giving the all of Vic State Titles a go and may even make the trip up to Sydney to the Australian Masters National Titles in April. (Do you think I'm hooked) I will also be riding in this weekends Sid Patterson Meet at Vodafone Arena So Hippy my advise to you is if you don't currently feel comfortable riding a club level handicap then you are probably not quite ready to attempt a major track event, such as the Austral etc, this year. I would recommend you start looking at what you want to achieve next season and then look at how you can get the experience required. At this time of year, as I discovered last year, with Championships happening there is not a lot of quality club racing around. The numbers turning up for club track meets are a fraction of what they are prior to the month of February. If you are really hungry to get a ride on Vodafone you probably have 2 opportunities. The first is the Vic Time Trial Champs (if you are an Elite the distance is 1000m). The second is the Vic Sprint Championships (200m qualifying round followed by match sprints if you qualify). Entries for these two close on Monday 1st March. There is also the Vic Senior(Elite) Points Race Champs but at the level you are currently at you are going to be way out of your depth if you attempted this one. Time Trials and Sprint qualifying are individual events so you are only racing against the clock. Even if you don't set the world on fire with your times this year you can always look back and say to yourself that you actually rode in a State Title Event on the boards of Vodafone Arena. Geoff |
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2004 Austral Pix (was: Cyclist's International Cup)
"cfsmtb" wrote in message
... hey, hippy, have you got photos of the Austral posted somewhere? (ie: the ones you took with the Big Camera) I do now: http://www.thehippy.net/Cycling/2004Austral/ I wasn't going to post these because I wasn't happy with them at all. I was using a much higher ISO than at the MCOW which made the images way too noisy after any cropping. Also, I shot jpeg and not RAW which meant any exposure correction lost quality. These images are uncorrected, hence some really underexposed ones. I could tweak them in Photoshop but they're not worth the effort IMHO. Next time I will try and get closer to the track, use lower ISO (maybe 400 or 800), use the flash and play with shutter speeds. Any other tips, most welcome :-) hippy |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
"Geoff" wrote in message
... Agreed, track cycling events at Vodafone Arena are great fun to watch. I'll be there but as a competitor. I'll be the guy in the Richmond Cyclery colours riding the white/blue FORT bike in the D grade races. I'll try and keep an eye out for you. It's unlikely, but I'll try and get some shots of you in action. I'm not good enough to pick out riders early enough to snap 'em ;-) Will the D grade races be outlined in the program? I've never bought one before, that's all. I started racing Crits in September 2002. I then took up track racing at about this time last year and had my first ride on Vodafone Arena in March 2003. It was the Mens Masters (Class 2/3 combined) Victorian 10Km Scratch Championships, my first ever proper scratch race on the track. I've not raced on the track yet - only Blackburn training sessions so far. I've been on/off crit racing for a couple of years now. You are obviously pretty good/keen, going from starting out to Vodaphone in ~7 months. Prior to that my only previous racing was one Wed night at Brunswick in the presence of some pretty elite company (ie Will and John Walker) which made me realise how fast I really wasn't. Unfortunately on that same night I crashed during an elimination race (my mistake and a big dose of experience was gained). The bike escaped with just a couple of scrapes on the bars. I ended up suffering from a broken right thumb which, for a few months, left What was the mistake? If you tell me now, maybe I can avoid copying you? :-) Anyway getting back to Vodafone Arena. Although I was unable to hold on for the whole 10Kms I was pretty satisfied with my ride. Most of the other riders in the race I knew raced A and B Grade club crits and at that point in time I had only just started riding C grade crits after moving up from D grade so I knew I was probably a little out of my depth here. In the end I finished around 650m behind the winner and about 100m behind the guy in front of me. But best of all, I didn't finish last I think the winning time was just over 12min 30seconds. The initial speed at which the race started took me by compete surprise. The first few laps were timed at low to mid 17s. I just could not hold this pace and started dropping back into the 19s and low 20s. 12:30 for 10k... damn, I've got some work to do! How long is the track at Vodaphone? I didn't realise there was racing at Vodaphone for anyone under A grade level except for the junior races which were invitational. Does that mean anyone could do some club races and then enter themselves in races at Vodaphone? I don't plan to do this, just curious. Track basically stops over winter right? Other than sneaking down there on dry days, does anyone do any track work over winter that doesn't involve indoor training? I don't want to lose all my recently acquired "skills"... I arrived nice and early so that I could get some experience and gain some feel for the track. Prior to this day the steepest banking I had ever ridden was at Brunswick (Slightly steeper than Blackburn). I have to get some experience on other tracks too... As preparation for this I did a couple of Saturday race meets at Blackburn. What are those Sat races like? I'm thinking about going this Sat.. What sort of races do they usually run? Many people? So Hippy my advise to you is if you don't currently feel comfortable riding a club level handicap then you are probably not quite ready to attempt a major track event, such as the Austral etc, this year. No, like I said above, I've never raced and never actually considered that I might be able to race at Voda. I guess it will depend on how I go in club races as to whether I even continue track racing. The training is awesome fun though, so unless I make a regular habit of crashing or losing, I don't see why I wouldn't continue on the track. I would recommend you start looking at what you want to achieve next season and then look at how you can get the experience required. At this time of year, as I discovered last year, with Championships happening there is not a lot of quality club racing around. The numbers turning up for club track meets are a fraction of what they are prior to the month of February. Goal setting? What's that? ;-) All I want to do is give myself an oppurtunity to win something else - track is much more suited to my physiology (fat bugger, likes sprinting). I've really on just touched the surface of track racing and didn't even know what a wheelrace was 3 weeks ago! The first is the Vic Time Trial Champs (if you are an Elite the distance is 1000m). I'm certainly no "elite" but my licence says "Elite"... The second is the Vic Sprint Championships (200m qualifying round followed by match sprints if you qualify). Entries for these two close on Monday 1st March. What time is needed to qualify? There is also the Vic Senior(Elite) Points Race Champs but at the level you are currently at you are going to be way out of your depth if you attempted this one. Time Trials and Sprint qualifying are individual events so you are only racing against the clock. Even if you don't set the world on fire with your times this year you can always look back and say to yourself that you actually rode in a State Title Event on the boards of Vodafone Arena. I think I'll settle for some more club-level experience first :-) Thanks VERY much for your story. You seem to have taken to track like a duck to a couple of hydrogen molecules and an oxygen molecule. It'd be nice to think I could replicate your effort, but I'm a slow learner (at least when we're talking bike racing). I might try and put in more of a showing this year during the road season and do the ergo sessions that Blackburn runs (if they let me). Meantime, I'll race crits and fit in any further track stuff I can find. cheers! hippy |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat28th February - Vodaphone Arena
Geoff wrote:
Hippy, To give you an idea of how close you are to riding at one of these events I'll tell you my story. cool story snipped Geoff Fascinating reading - thanks for sharing. &roo (P.S. maybe you could write a senryu about the amazing sensations when alone on the track!) |
#9
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
"hippy" wrote in message ... "Geoff" wrote in message ... Agreed, track cycling events at Vodafone Arena are great fun to watch. I'll be there but as a competitor. I'll be the guy in the Richmond Cyclery colours riding the white/blue FORT bike in the D grade races. I'll try and keep an eye out for you. It's unlikely, but I'll try and get some shots of you in action. Don't forget to get some snaps of your fellow Blackburn riders as well. There's quite a few of them riding. (btw I'm a St Kilda CC member) I'm not good enough to pick out riders early enough to snap 'em ;-) Agreed. It can be hard to take pic of object moving at speeds 45km/h The lighting in VA can also make pics difficult to snap. Will the D grade races be outlined in the program? I've never bought one before, that's all. The races listed in the program will most likely not actually state the grades but the entry lists on the Cyclesport Victoria website will. Usually for a Vodaphone arena event there are four grades ie Elite, B, C and D. For the rider a program is a neccessity for planning your warmups, and knowing how much time you have to do things like change gears and rest. As a spectator you can probably get away without one except in the case of a madision where there is a page to record the points (in a running total format) won by each team. Knowing this info can make the race much easier to watch. Personally when I'm spectating I like to know who is racing so I alway get a program. I started racing Crits in September 2002. I then took up track racing at about this time last year and had my first ride on Vodafone Arena in March 2003. It was the Mens Masters (Class 2/3 combined) Victorian 10Km Scratch Championships, my first ever proper scratch race on the track. I've not raced on the track yet - only Blackburn training sessions so far. I've been on/off crit racing for a couple of years now. You are obviously pretty good/keen, going from starting out to Vodaphone in ~7 months. Prior to that my only previous racing was one Wed night at Brunswick in the presence of some pretty elite company (ie Will and John Walker) which made me realise how fast I really wasn't. Unfortunately on that same night I crashed during an elimination race (my mistake and a big dose of experience was gained). The bike escaped with just a couple of scrapes on the bars. I ended up suffering from a broken right thumb which, for a few months, left What was the mistake? If you tell me now, maybe I can avoid copying you? :-) basically I was just of the the back of the bunch with another guy racing to stay in. I was on the low side he was on the high side. Neither of us was giving in. After crossing the line and me being eliminated we both came up on the back of the much slower bunch very quickly (the leaders knew they were safe so they were not going as fast) . The other guy had the space to go around the top of the bunch. I had nowhere to go but down the track and aim under the bunch and try to loose some speed at the same time. Things got a bit tight, and if you know the Brunswick track it is a bit rough just below the measuring line in the first turn, I lost the front wheel and the rest is history. Anyway getting back to Vodafone Arena. Although I was unable to hold on for the whole 10Kms I was pretty satisfied with my ride. Most of the other riders in the race I knew raced A and B Grade club crits and at that point in time I had only just started riding C grade crits after moving up from D grade so I knew I was probably a little out of my depth here. In the end I finished around 650m behind the winner and about 100m behind the guy in front of me. But best of all, I didn't finish last I think the winning time was just over 12min 30seconds. The initial speed at which the race started took me by compete surprise. The first few laps were timed at low to mid 17s. I just could not hold this pace and started dropping back into the 19s and low 20s. 12:30 for 10k... damn, I've got some work to do! How long is the track at Vodaphone? 250m on the measuring line. (the black line near the bottom of the track) I didn't realise there was racing at Vodaphone for anyone under A grade level except for the junior races which were invitational. Does that mean anyone could do some club races and then enter themselves in races at Vodaphone? Technically you could enter without doing any club level racing but I would not advise you do this. Remember there will be other riders on the track with you in a handicap that may do this for a living, are national level riders etc. You don't want to be responsible for injuring one of these people. Also if it is found that you caused an accident as a result of dangerous riding you can be fined and possibly given a suspension. I don't plan to do this, just curious. Track basically stops over winter right? Yes but this may change when, the Northcote Velodrome is complete. Other than sneaking down there on dry days, does anyone do any track work over winter that doesn't involve indoor training? I don't want to lose all my recently acquired "skills"... Winter for me is a combination of Ergo, Lots of road Kms and Road Races and the occasional crit. I arrived nice and early so that I could get some experience and gain some feel for the track. Prior to this day the steepest banking I had ever ridden was at Brunswick (Slightly steeper than Blackburn). I have to get some experience on other tracks too... As preparation for this I did a couple of Saturday race meets at Blackburn. What are those Sat races like? Good hard racing. When I have raced there have been at least 3 grades with around 10 riders per grade. If there are 4 grades I will race C, if three I will race B. You might be better to ask someone like Rowan G or maybe John N (who seems to be the one who runs the racing on Saturdays). I'm thinking about going this Sat.. I don't think you will find much of a turnout this sat as many of the usual riders are entered to do the SPGrPrix or are riding the Pursuit Champs on Sunday. However that said you may still get enough people for some racing. It's still worth rocking up to see who else is there. What sort of races do they usually run? racing from my experience has generally been a combination of some or all of the following. Graded Scratch, Handicap, Elimination (miss and out) Match Sprints and Sprint Derbys. Many people? Enough to make it worthwhile but not too many. So Hippy my advise to you is if you don't currently feel comfortable riding a club level handicap then you are probably not quite ready to attempt a major track event, such as the Austral etc, this year. No, like I said above, I've never raced and never actually considered that I might be able to race at Voda. I guess it will depend on how I go in club races as to whether I even continue track racing. The training is awesome fun though, so unless I make a regular habit of crashing or losing, I don't see why I wouldn't continue on the track. Are you saying that you would give it up just because you didn't win!!! I don't really care if I win or loose. I just do the best I can do in each race. If that means I cross the line first then thats a bonus. If I finish further back then I look at what went wrong both tactically and physically and then take the neccessary steps to avoid it happening again. You learn more about racing in the races you didn't win. Since the odds of not being the winner in a race in which you start are pretty high you might as well get used to not winning. If you find you are always winning you are probably racing in the wrong grade. Not winning is not a reason to give up any sport. I would recommend you start looking at what you want to achieve next season and then look at how you can get the experience required. At this time of year, as I discovered last year, with Championships happening there is not a lot of quality club racing around. The numbers turning up for club track meets are a fraction of what they are prior to the month of February. Goal setting? What's that? ;-) All I want to do is give myself an oppurtunity to win something else - track is much more suited to my physiology (fat bugger, likes sprinting). I've really on just touched the surface of track racing and didn't even know what a wheelrace was 3 weeks ago! The first is the Vic Time Trial Champs (if you are an Elite the distance is 1000m). I'm certainly no "elite" but my licence says "Elite"... The second is the Vic Sprint Championships (200m qualifying round followed by match sprints if you qualify). Entries for these two close on Monday 1st March. What time is needed to qualify? I think it is the 8 or 16 fastest times that qualify. (i think the number is dependant on the number of entries or the rules of the event) My guess is the faster times will be in the high 10s or the 11s. There is also the Vic Senior(Elite) Points Race Champs but at the level you are currently at you are going to be way out of your depth if you attempted this one. Time Trials and Sprint qualifying are individual events so you are only racing against the clock. Even if you don't set the world on fire with your times this year you can always look back and say to yourself that you actually rode in a State Title Event on the boards of Vodafone Arena. I think I'll settle for some more club-level experience first :-) Thanks VERY much for your story. You seem to have taken to track like a duck to a couple of hydrogen molecules and an oxygen molecule. I don't believe I was thinking the likes of the above "duck and water scenario" earlier tonight as I was busy depositing a portion of my lunch onto the ground just after completing a practice individual pursuit during training. But it was nice to know that I was not suffering on my own. There were 2 other guys that were sharing the same "why are we doing this to ourselves" moment. But for some reason we still keep on coming back for more pain and suffering. Hip, I think I have covered most of your questions you have asked here but I appologise if I have missed a couple. Geoff |
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Cyclist's International Cup & Sid Patterson Grand Prix - Sat 28th February - Vodaphone Arena
"Andrew Swan" wrote in message
news:vQh%b.215 (P.S. maybe you could write a senryu about the amazing sensations when alone on the track!) I know you wanted Geoff's but... Very fast, no brakes Total rush, corner a blur Spin like mad to win hippy |
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