Dairy Flat Points Race - Sunday 24th Jan 2010

[SimonD]

Dairy Flat Points Race - Sunday 24th Jan 2010

Thanks to the race director Damien Clarke and his able helpers Susan Hiron, Steven l'Eroica Callahan, Matty Larkin and Sam Lewin.

The first race to head out chasing points was D grade. After the first couple of sprints, things settled and legs got tired, and that's when Lee Sheather made her move, attacking hard to build a long lead. Sheather stayed away solo for most of the 50 minute race, finally being reeled in with three laps to go. Meanwhile behind, Anton Wurtzur had been taking out every second place from the bunch and not losing too much ground. In the final sprint, Anton took second with Sheather 3rd, bringing them level on 18 points. According to the rules, a draw is decided on the result of the final sprint, so the win was given to Anton, despite Lee's brave effort and four sprint victories during the race. Come back man John Hill took the final sprint to come in for 3rd place.

D Grade (inc WB)
Anton Wurzer 18
Lee Sheether 18
John Hill 8
Matty Menz 5
Shrideui Vasudeva 4
Richard Altria 4

In C grade, the first sprint places went to those who would prove to be the main protagonists in this race (if the language purists will allow me to use the plural). Glen Warwick from O2 racing looked to have some solid sprint legs, but Al Bontjier and Ben Long both had a domestique to help them. A crash mid race unfortunately removed Al from the equation, making the main race Glen vs Ben and leadout man. But in a surprise final sprint, Etienne attacked early to solo for the 5 points, threatening the second place of Ben, who was nowhere to be seen. Luckily dues to a trackstand on the line by team mate Simon, Ben was able to grab himself the final point on offer in the race to put himself one point in front of Etienne in the final tally. Glen finished the final sprint in second which gave him a strong points victory. Special mentions go to Etienne who was very active in his first C grade race, Frances who was not willing to see any breaks go clear and did a huge amount of work, sma goes for Sue during the first half of the race, and it was particularly good to have a race with Sluggo again.

C Grade (inc WA)
Glen Warwick 18
Ben Long 11
Etienne Blumestein-Jones 10
Allan Bontjer 7
Ross McPherson 6
Frances Mc Namara 2
Tony O'Connor 2
Simon Dwyer 1
Sue Powell 0

The early sprints in the combined A and B grade were dominated by the Bike Culture train of Dale Percival and Scott Sparkman, until a MACT tactical counter netting Paul Connor a swag of points caused some tension in the bunch. Eventually Leigh Taylor, having earlier been dropped, put in a long attack which was given the space to go and netted him a sprint victory and a lot of space. The stronger riders from the bunch saw an opportunity and attacked to bridge, giving a five man lead group of Leigh, Dale, Scott and Paul Connor. The big effort to bridge and the huge turns from Percival were too much for Sparkles and Paul who dropped back to the peloton soon after. But having gained some rest space earlier, Taylor managed to hang on. The duo took out the last of the sprints with Taylor coming over the top for the final one. The points count showed Dale and Paul level on 17 points, with victory handed to Dale for his higher place in the final sprint. Third place went to Scott Sparkman with Leigh Taylor taking fourth after his quiet start.

Post race there was some discussion about some sprinting issues, with a rider cautioned and the group reminded to address any race issues to the organisers calmly and appropriately.

A and B Grade
Dale Percival 17
Paul Connor 17
Scott Sparkman 15
Leigh Taylor 13
Simon Niemeyer 4
Jeremy Rhind 2
Jamie Young 1

[bosworth*]

Jamie, I'm twice as good as you. :p

[j_young_80]

Funny that you were too knackered to pull turns in the last part of the race but were magically rejuvinated come Glorious Victory time eh Boz?

I do find points races particularly negative though - the last one I did I ended up just sitting in once i'd done the calculations on who I needed to beat and who had what points. This one the maths was slightly easier for me to calculate my tally.

[SimonD]

I do find points races particularly negative though - the last one I did I ended up just sitting in once i'd done the calculations on who I needed to beat and who had what points. This one the maths was slightly easier for me to calculate my tally.

That sounds like racing, to me.

[j_young_80]

It is, but it still pisses people off and creates a bit of a negative vibe. I'm not saying it's bad - but it's certainly different. In a road race its likely that you'll have a hill thrown in to drop wheel suckers - it's a lot easier to stick a wheel on a dead flat road, even with a turnaround thrown in.

Plus, as Damien said, there's the associated games that get played in a race like that - which become increasingly frustrating

[SimonD]

I just reckon it's different tactics. If you get in front early then you can go on the defensive. If you're behind, you'll have to play some different cards to try to claw back the points. You can imagine each sprint like a stage in the Tour de France - if Lance has 10 minutes over everyone after the first few stages, then it's his right to sit in and everyone else's job to do whatever they can to reel back some time.

[bosworth*]

Funny that you were too knackered to pull turns in the last part of the race but were magically rejuvinated come Glorious Victory time eh Boz?
Just like magic!





I do find points races particularly negative though - the last one I did I ended up just sitting in once i'd done the calculations on who I needed to beat and who had what points. This one the maths was slightly easier for me to calculate my tally.

I love racing that involves a lot of stuffing-about.