Road: Tri Series - BSCC Wins the Battles but Geelong Wins the War

Updated: it's official - Geelong CC won the Tri Series, breaking Ballarat's recent stranglehold.  The series points tally is HERE, and the individual standings are HERE.  Geelong's C-grade king, Ben Andrews, was the top individual rider across the series.  Congratulations Geelong!  The keys to Geelong's win were their performances at Cape Clear, where they had a lot more riders in the points in all grades than BSCC, and their dominance of the C-grade racing, where BSCC was under-represented.  BSCC had more wins than Geelong, but Geelong got a lot more points.  Like Petacchi vs. Cavendish.  There is a gallery of photos from the Beeac race HERE, thanks to Geelong CC's Simon Masters.  (Clive won by miles!)  Simon is also responsible for tallying the series points (in great detail - check out the links above), and was third in the overall series standings, by far the most consistent rider in B-grade.  Simon's view of the series:

"In my opinion this was a pretty fun series to ride in (though if I was out the back each race I might have looked at it a little differently!). We had over 80 individual riders racing across the 3 races, probably a pretty good indicator that the format is right. The courses were varied and each circuit had its own attributes, so the aggregate is a good indicator of those riders that performed well across all terrain."

We agree.  Thanks to all who made the series happen. 
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The third and final round of the Tri Series of road races was held at Beeac this Saturday, hosted by the Colac Cycling Club.  Scott Keating scored a clever breakaway win in A-grade, with Damien Keirl bringing the bunch home for third, and Phil Orr amongst the placings.  Clive Silcock took a gutsy win in B-grade, after riding a third of the race solo.  Jarrod Boyd took a strong third, and BSCC took four of the remaining top ten placings, but the unofficial word is that Geelong's consistent top-ten placings, especially in C-grade, gave them the overall series win. 

Racing was on the flat, exposed Beeac - Warrion - Ondit circuit.  The A-grade race featured a flurry of attacks from Geelong and Colac riders for the first two of three laps.  Phil Orr and Damien Keirl tirelessly chased them down, to set up a bunch finish for proven sprinters Keirl and Scott Keating.  It appeared that a stalemate had been reached on the third lap, but on the last rise near Ondit, Keating skipped away with a Geelong rider, and the pair held their lead to the finish.  Keating sprinted to the win, with Keirl unsurprisingly the fastest in the bunch, and Phil Orr (who had ridden the 80 km to the race) not far behind.  Phil was last seen riding back towards Ballarat ...  Castlemaine Six-Hour MTB competitors, look out!

BSCC's B-grade crew - Thayne Turley, Jarrod Boyd, Clive Silcock, Charlie Stebbing, Scott Bilney and Jonathan Lacey - were determined to grab as many series points as possible, despite the absence of sprint gun Charles Martin on a sprinters' course.  The strong Geelong contingent, led by the in-form sprinter Simon Masters, were equally determined to maintain their series lead.  The race was a stop-start affair, like the race at Meredith.  After a series of attacks on the cross-wind Beeac-Warrion sector on the second lap, Bilney and Lacey had a dig on the corner after Warrion, creating a springboard for a ferocious attack from Clive Silcock.  Masters decided to let Silcock dangle in the headwind from Ondit to Beeac, but despite steady work from four Geelong riders, the gap to the courageous Silcock remained at 35 seconds as the field started their final lap.  A massive blast in the crosswind from Geelong's Belgian triathlete strongman Steve Vander Bruggen, chased by Turley and then by the bunch powered by Masters, reduced the gap somewhat.  After a brief rest, Vander Bruggen went again, this time pursued by Boyd.  Boyd reached the flying Belgian, and the pair crossed to Silcock just before Warrion.  Masters declared himself content, the Ballarat riders agreed, and the chase stopped.  Up the front, Silcock still had enough to counter several more attacks from Vander Bruggen, and then to hold him off in the long, headwind sprint to the line in Beeac, with Boyd a close third.  A minute or so later, after a final motor-pace session from the super-strong Turley, Bilney took the long way around the outside into the wind to uphold his legendary family name* and take the bunch sprint from Lacey, with Stebbing and Turley also up there.

Official Beeac results, including C grade, and overall Tri Series results, will follow soon.

* We never tire of telling people that Scott Bilney's father, Ray, sprinted to 4th place at the 1964 Olympic road race in Tokyo.  12th place in that event went to a Belgian cyclist named ... Eddy Merckx.  There are a lot of cycling Bilneys in Ballarat and they are all fast. - ed.

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The third and final round of the Tri Series of road races will be held at Beeac this Saturday, August 7, at Beeac. The race will be hosted by the Geelong Cycling Club.  Start time is now confirmed: 1:30 PM.  Click HERE for a course map, thanks to Geelong CC.  It is the same circuit as last year's race: flat and very exposed. 

Entries have been extended to noon Thursday, so drop 80,104,105,108 a line now. 

Here's more Tri Series info, from Simon Masters at Geelong CC:

I have updated the points from round two of the Club Challenge Road Series (Tri Series).  Here are the links:

Club leader board

Individual Aggregate (all grades combined)

Points are allocated as follows: 1st 10 points, 2nd 9 points, 3rd 8 points..... 9th 2 points, 10th 1 point.

Thanks Simon, and congratulations on leading the individual aggregate! 

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