Bress Mega Criterium and St Kilda Crits

1:58 pm Unknown 0 Comments

It's raining crits! Officially October is the start of the criterium season. We are spoilt for choice with weekly club crits from Hawthorn, Coburg, Carnegie, Southern Masters, and my own Club St Kilda.

More often there is a feature crit that pops up and the Bress Mega Twilight Criterium filled a spot on the calendar where the Femme Vitesse would have been. I hope that the Women's only crit series comes back in full force next year.

It was a squeeze to get out of Melbourne, warmed up and ready to race for a 6pm start on the Friday, but it was worth it.

Post by Bikebug.

Harcourt pulled out all stops with a jumping castle/slide, BBQ and the Tavern refurbished and opened up with a beer garden overlooking the circuit. To top it off the weather was warm and the pear ciders were flowing! MAGIC

With equal prize money for men and women, the $3-4000 for first place would be hotly contested. I was pretty comfortable riding the course as it was the same that I had raced on for the Masters Crit Champs that I had won in April.

The race was fast and furious up the small incline each lap. There were attacks and counter attacks that were enjoyed by the Tour de Bress riders that had finished their fundraising ride from Macedon to Harcourt earlier that day.

Post by Bikebug.

Eventually a breakaway of  Miranda Griffiths, Nicole Whitburn, Georgina Beech, Liz Doueal got away and the remainder of Bike Bug team closed anything down that tried to upset the chase. I overworked myself on the front trying to close the gap and spent the rest of the weekend coughing up a lung!

A photo posted by Cycling Victoria (@cyclingvictoria) on

Overall I really enjoyed the race and it was a great atmosphere and turnout. I'm super proud that Victoria can offer equal prize money in new events like this and I can't wait to see an up and coming chick walk away with a big novelty cheque that I know could cover a big portion of bike racing expenses for the year. Awesome stuff!!

Women's Results
1st 37 Nicole Whitburn Carnegie Caulfield
2nd 35 Elizabeth Doueal St Kilda
3rd 31 Miranda Griffiths St Kilda
4th 34 Georgina Beech St Kilda
5th 42 Jessica Lane Carnegie Caulfield
6th 43 Prudence Rothwell St Kilda
7th 40 Elizabeth Hall Hawthorn
8th 41 Ruby Greig-Hurtig Carnegie Caulfield

SKCC Crits


Post by Kirsty Baxter Photography.

There are many things I like about crits. They are:
  • an awesome workout,
  • mentally challenging-tactical,
  • most often technical,
  • over before you know it.
I'm usually pretty impatient and want to just keep attacking and chasing things down so I was super patient at my first appearance at the St Kilda Crits on Sunday.

Post by Kirsty Baxter Photography.

Our first 10 minutes were pretty cruisy, then it was a combination of surge attacking or high paced rolling and counter attacks for the remainder of the 50 minutes plus 3 laps.

Post by Kirsty Baxter Photography.

The amazing weather continued and without too much wind we had a great morning out to battle to a bunch sprint finish. The podium was:
1st Nicole Whitburn
2nd Amy Bradley
3rd Josie Simpson

Bike Adventures and Melbourne Kermesse Championships

11:22 pm Unknown 0 Comments

Life has been a little topsy turvey lately and I've had awesome opportunities to travel with my bike and check out more of Australia.

Thule soft bike bag with internal mounting bracket that turns into a bike stand. 

Queensland

I've been to Brisbane and checked out the paths, a roll up to Noosa and checked out the local crit track.


Post by Veronica Micich.

Western Australia

I've been to Perth and rolled Kewdale Masters/vets and finished top of the bunch on the "non race" Papas ride around the river.

Post by Unicorn-Specialized.

Post by Unicorn-Specialized.

Australian Capital Territory

I've been up to Canberra and found Red Hill climb and tried to beat the PM's time up there. Raced the Stromlo Crits in Women's A grade and got smashed by Kimberly Wells.

Post by Veronica Micich.



Victoria

I made it back to home to race the Melbourne Kermesse Champs as a guest ride with Building Champions Squad today. It was a great race with the big guns coming out for some good hard racing.

The course was a nice open sweeping route which suited me and we had a great cross head wind on the downhill section which meant there was a fast tailwind finish. I'd like to come back and have another race when my head is a little clearer after the fun headcold I've had, but I was really happy that I could respond to the attacks, read the race right and move up when I could.

It was a great chance to catch up with the BCWS ladies again too!

Post by Building Champions Squad.

I also got a one-off writing gig for Ride On magazine to trial and review a bike. Thanks for the great feedback on my first published article! It's a lot harder to write than I first thought :)
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