Road: All-Ages Team Sprint, Saturday May 29

27 May update, from Chris Liston, event coordinator:

We will run this year's event as a combined-ages team time trial, from slowest rider to fastest, with a gap between teams. A selection of "goodies" will be awarded to team members.

(See below: this is a basic outline.  The event will be modified on the day, dependant on entries and competencies.  Just show up and enjoy it! - ed.)

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Next Saturday's BSCC road race, May 29, will be a repeat of last year's inaugural All-Ages Team Sprint event. All of last year's participants enjoyed it.

Chris Liston, inventor of the event format, and this year's event coordinator, writes:

The All-Ages Team Sprint event is a fun event, designed to bring all age groups in the club together for a common points race objective.  Here's how it works.  All the entrants are placed into eight or so groups of roughly equal ability, from "big, fast riders" - the club's elite members - all the way through to our youngest U7-U11 riders.  We create teams of eight or nine riders, one from each group, with the "big fast rider" as the team captain.  Then the fun begins.  The event is conducted on the 7-km Triangle road circuit at Haddon.  All the riders from each team start together.  On the first lap, team members shepherd their youngest riders around the course, and at the end of the first lap, the little ones have a sprint for points.  They then stop, and the next lap is a sprint between the second riders in each team, the U13s, who end up riding a 14-km (2-lap) event.  Team members, who might not know each other before the event, work together and encourage the nominated team member to complete his or her lap. This continues for seven or so laps until only the "big, fast riders," the team captains, are on the course to contest the last lap.  the scratchmen bring home the final lap and collective team time after 7 or so laps.  Points are awarded for each sprint, and the team with the most points at the end of the event is declared the winner. 

This is a basic outline: it will be modified slightly on the day, dependant on entries and competencies.

The event starts at the Haddon primary school at 2 PM on Saturday, May 29.  Please enter as usual with 80,104,105,108 by 5 PM Friday.  Please direct questions to 67,104,114,105,115, who will be the coordinator on the day.

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Here's a reprint of the report from last year's event:

The Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club conducted its first ever combined junior – senior club teams race on Saturday April 18, around the 3 km Mag Dam circuit in Snake Valley. The event brought together Masters, Seniors, Juniors (U13, 15,17) and Sub Juniors (U9 and U11) into teams of eight and nine riders. The exercise was predominantly a fun event designed to bring all age groups together for a common points race objective. Another goal was to find out who is the “Mr Cycling” of Ballarat, as team captains Rob Doyle, Scott Keating, Scott Townsend, Matthew Smith and John Polkinghorne mentored their brood of cyclists on race day.

The first section was a combined team time trial, where the four or five youngest riders in each team set the pace over the first few laps, with the team supporting them. The young riders then dropped off, and the U15/17 riders brought their teams home on lap four. Each team was awarded points for their placing in the time trial. Angus Lyons brought home Matthew Smith’s team for the maximum points with their time of 28:57, Emma Bilston delighted team manager John Polkinghorne as runner up in 29:36, and Joshua Liston had his team in third in 30:50. Rochelle Liston and Beatrice Pickersgill, the smallest two riders in the club, worked hard for teams Keating and Doyle respectively.

The second section of the event saw senior, master and women riders regroup and start a team points race. After two neutral laps, there was a sprint each lap, with each team’s number four riders contesting the first sprint, number three the second, number two the third, and the big guns contesting the fourth and final sprint. A strong lead-out from captain Keating saw Chloe Hegert win the first sprint from Gail Oliver and Kylie Zelly. On the second sprint, Liam White sprinted with a vengeance for the line but was second to Peter Kyatt. As the top-seeded riders came to the fore, race strategy came into play, but young gun Mitch Brogden showed that youth and strength often triumphs over age and cunning when he took the penultimate sprint from Jonathan Lacey and Neville Bilney after leading for the entire lap. The final sprint by the team captains and top seeds saw track strong man Scott Townsend get over Rob Doyle and Matt Smith with Scott Keating and John Polkinghorne in close contention.

In the end Team Smith gained enough points to take the event outright from the Keatings, with Polkinghorne taking third. The minors went to teams Townsend and Doyle respectively. Race organisers Chris Liston and Tony Mirabella were pleased with the outcome. “We have proved we can do combined racing that involves everybody and is good racing. It is an engaging spectacle and develops relationships between riders and spectators. The club now has a base model we can refine and tune and the membership enjoyed the ride! – that is what we are about,” Liston said, and for the record, Mr Matthew Smith might be the current BSCC “Mr Cycling.”

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