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SENIORS
A Grade,
36km
1 Matthew Lucas (Randwick
Botany)
2 Liam Kelly (Randwick
Botany)
3 Nick Rathborne (Eastern
Suburbs)
B Grade, 32km
1 David Wells (Lidcombe Auburn)
2 Danielle Vanolini (Steam)
3 Todd Dunn (Eastern Suburbs)
C Grade, 28km
1 Joel Xuereb (Randwick
Botany)
2 Luke Beuchat (Manly
Warringah)
3 Matthew Cordery
(Sutherland)
D Grade, 20km
1 Ben Howard (Steam)
2 Peter Galvin (Steam)
3 Steven Beletich (Randwick
Botany)
4 Tayla Aitchison (Southern
Cross)
E Grade, 18km
1 Sylvia Yuen (Randwick
Botany)
2 John Lynch (Randwick
Botany)
3 Leeanne Emery (Randwick
Botany)
4 Joe Gatt (Randwick
Botany)
5 Ian Langley (Randwick
Botany)
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RBCC CHRISTMAS
PUDDING RACES |
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THANK YOU:
Thanks to Joanne and Helen who had
a very hectic time on the registration table
for the last race for 2004 with re-affiliations and new uniform
purchases which just came in. That left me to be
Commissaire for the afternoon. Thanks to our marshals and
to Tony Horneman who was photographer for the day. Thanks
to Fred and Helen who organised all the Christmas puddings and
put together a magnificent afternoon tea. Thanks to Mark
Murdoch for performing duty as First Aid Officer.
Thanks to Ritchard who deployed and retrieved all the safety
equipment. |
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CLUB SPONSORS
As everyone is no doubt aware, RBCC's major
sponsor for 2005 is FRF Couriers. Associated with that
sponsorship is a change in club uniform. Yes the "Chain rings"
are gone but we still retain our traditional red white & blue
colouring. Associated with our major sponsor, we also have lots
of minor sponsors who we welcome onboard for the coming 2005 season.
More about them on 1 Jan 2005. In the meantime, I found some
"elite" male models who were keen to show off the new gear.
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Introducing the new RBCC/FRF kit |
Randwick Botany Cycling Club is proudly
sponsored by
Cheeky Monkey Cycle Company Clovelly Road Centennial
Park, DS Labels – Marrackville
and and FRF Couriers, parent company
of Excelpro.
Excelpro is the distributor of products
including Argon 18 bicycles, Colnago bicycles,
3T cycling assessories, Parentini
clothing and Speedplay pedals.
REPORT
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Left, A grade on the line and ready to go
in perhaps the most highly contested event of the year, the RBCC
Christmas pudding races. |
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Some of the "biggies"
like Pete "The Machine" McDonald, Brent Jenkins and Shaun Higgerson couldn't be
there because of work committments, however I knew that Matty Lucas
had been tapering his training program to peak for this event.
So too had he been working heavily on his sprint with his Wed
morning Sprint training sessions in Centennial Park. |
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Early A grade action and Chris "Spongee" Jenkins
was looking very comfortable. Team FRF pilot their Argon 18
steeds to the front of the A grade peleton. |
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RBCC members Matt Lucas and Liam Kelly spent the
later part of the race working together to maintain quite a good
break on the chasing peleton. |
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The pair
went head-to-head in the final sprint to the line. The photo finish
camera was used to confirm that Matt had just edged out Liam by only
a tyre width. Third place went to Nick Rathborne. Placegetters in
all grades were presented with large Christmas puddings for their
efforts. |
JUNIORS
Juniors recommence in 2005
click here.
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B Grade on the start line and there's "The Body"
looking resplendent in the new RBCC/FRF uniform and when I refer to
"the Body" I am referring to Karl "The Body" Bellamy, not the other
individual visible in this picture (hint no:74). |
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Early B grade action with Dave "Jacko" Jackson
giving the Colnago C50 her head and taking B grade around the
Netball courts. |
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Neil "Polkadot" Morris, our B grade hill-climb
champion stretches them out as he takes "King of the Pimple" at
Heffron Park |
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David Wells rode strongly in B grade.
David spent much of the race away by himself. In the later
stages a couple of riders got across. Dave still had plenty in
the tank however to ride home to victory and take the Christmas
puddings. |
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C grade on the line ready to start and where
else would you find Shaun "Don't need a new bike" Ballesty? He
actually starts at the back. |
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Early in the C grade race and Ken Johnson gets
away with RBCC's Joel Xuereb.
Ken later had a mechanical and
left the break. Joel was later joined by Luke Beuchat
of the Manly club and the pair worked well together to stay away
from the chasing C peleton. Joel victorious in the end taking
out the major Christmus pudding prize. |
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Yes we know that D Grade was fast! Yes we
know that some of the guys on the D grade podium looked like they
were on the start line for the A grade event. In their defense
however, some of the riders from Steam, although very fit
triathletes, have very little racing experience, some never having
raced at all. We have a duty of care to ensure the safety of
all riders and our policy is, despite how fit a rider might look,
that if he/she hasn't raced before then he/she starts in the novice
grades of D or E which starts at 2pm. He/she is not thrown out
amongst the A, B & C graders. |
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Having said all that, I must apologise to the
Steam riders for a little bit of underhandedness on my part.
Seeing the D grade Steam lineup and fearful of losing all the D
grade Christmas puddings, I convinced one of our regular RBCC "B"
graders to ride in "D" grade. Team Steam quickly disposed of
him as he went out the back about lap 7. Shortly after that,
eventual winner Ben Howard came around and started lapping the
field. Ben, congratulations and consider yourself
"experienced" now. Peter Galvin you can consider yourself
"experienced" as well. Congratulations to Steven Beletich for
flying the RBCC flag and winning one of the puddings. |
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Carlo Grisolfi gives a rude signal to the
Commissaire. No, actually Carlo was trying to convince me that
he had one lap to go as I gave the bell to Ben Howard. Nice
try Carlo but you have been lapped and you have TWO to go. |
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Left Kev blanchfield rolls off the line, his
RBCC jersey looking in pristine condition very much like it did in
the 70's. Even though Kev is 75 years old he shows no signs of
slowing down. Good on you Kev! |
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Well, finally all the racing was over and we had
to kick all these people out of our magnificent new tent for the
afternoon feast. In the foreground it was good to see Warren
"The Major" Wilson and his lovely wife Yolunda (hope I spelt it
correctly). With everyone out of the tent all the goodies were
brought out and arranged and looked magnificent. You'll have
to take my word for it however as our cameraman didn't get a photo
of it. |
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He did get quite a few good shots of the model
hellicopter that was buzzing around all afternoon and I am sure that
everyone would much prefer a picture of that than the feast.
Good one Tony. |
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Ok, we have to put up with a few hellicopter
photos and the odd late or absent explanation but on the whole Tony
"Excuses" Horneman is a Tower of Strength without whom our club
would have to find about 3 people to do his jobs. Left I
present a Christmas present to our Vice President, Tony Horneman on
behalf of the club for all his work throughout the year.
Thanks Tony. |
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What can you say about Richard "Ritchie"
Jenkins, RBCC Treasurer. Well one thing is that we would not
be enjoying the magnificent tent had it not been for Ritchie.
Two years ago we tasked our Treasurer with purchasing the club tent.
Talk about thorough! |
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Mark accepted on behalf of his lovely wife
Janette, who has done a magnificent job with the juniors in 2004.
Janette was recently awarded with the Club Person of the Year Award.
Thanks Janette. |
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Not to tight, that's my bad one Dale!
Thanks Dale as a member of the Executive Committee for all your work
in 2004. |
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I tried to award Fred "Uncle Freddy" Vella his
present when some intoxicated yobbo with a hairy chest jumped in and
tried to steal the limelight. |
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Here's me congratulating the old ball & chain.
In truth I could never call Joanne that. She's put up with me
buying 3 new bikes within the last 12 months and now looks like I
will be buying a fourth. Joanne is always there to help me and
the club and cycling in general. I am very lucky to have a
wife who loves cycling as much as I do. Thanks Joanne from
your husband and your club. |
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Sorry Helen, Tony got another great shot of the
chopper though ! Although we haven't got a picture of it, on
behalf of our club I thanked our Secretary Helen Vella for all the
hard work she does for the club throughout the year. We also
had a present for Jenny Spurgeon who helps out in time of need
however Jenny is away and there was no way we were presenting
chocolates to Spurge. They would be all gone before Jenny got
to see any of them. |
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Anyway that's it for
another year. The Randwick Botany
Cycling Club would like to thank all riders, sponsors and spectators for
their support during 2004. Special thanks to cyclingnews.com and the
Southern Courier for reporting race results and to Randwick City Council
for the use of Heffron Park. On behalf of the Executive and
members of the Randwick Botany cycling Club I would like to wish
everyone a safe and Merry Christmas and a posperous new year.
Talking about the new year, we will see you all again when racing
resumes at Heffron Park on Saturday 8 January
2005. D/E Grades start at 2pm and A/B/C Grades at 3pm.
Racing
resumes for Juniors on Sat 30 January at 4pm (after school hollidays).
MORE INFORMATION
Randwick Botany Cycling Club conducts
racing at Heffron Park, Maroubra NSW each Saturday throughout the
year. Seniors D & E Grade start at 2.00pm
and A, B & C grade at 3pm and Juniors 4pm. For more
information please contact the club secretary Helen Vella on 02 9667
3307 or email:
secretary@randwickbotanycc.com
Web page layout & editing by: John Buckton
Photos by Tony Horneman.
Contact:
Tony:
communications@randwickbotanycc.com
John:
webmaster@randwickbotanycc.com
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