Our first Club Race of the 2015 Calendar year was blessed with great weather and a minutes silence in honour of Liam Davison at the Dromana course. All grades were on show including a Junior and Womens grade.
We have 3 race reports and a complication video below, Congratulations to the winners:
Dave Toleman – Liam Davison Memorial Inaugural Winner.
David Toleman – Inaugural Winner of the Liam Davison Memorial
Fastest time – Paul Weymouth
Fastest Time – Paul Weymouth
First Female – Kim Eberhart
First Female – Kim Eberhart
Junior – Jaxon King
Winning Junior – Jaxon King
Race Report by David Toleman (Winner)
We are not the A graders, we are not the “hard men” who have learnt to love pain and don’t mind teaching others their lesson. We ride because we like the chat, the banter and occasionally like to feel our bodies pushed, spurred on by those around us so that we can relive the moment over a coffee. Then there is racing! The nerves, the energy, the anticipation. On Sunday, the Mornington Cycling Club came together to honour the memory of a good man; Liam Davison.
As a handicap event it gives everyone on the club the chance to play on an even playing field thanks to the hours of analysis of rider performance undertaken by the handicapping committee!! Being a front marker there was never a thought that we could possibly win the race or if there was it was more a dream than a possibility. However dreams, even vaguely held, can come true.
The five of us set off and immediately began rolling turns and constantly offering each other encouragement and in the tough sections making sure we stayed together. This was tested early with Ben Shuster turning right rather than left at the major round-a-bout. Lots of laughter and shaking of heads ensued as we waited for Ben to get back on; the power of five is the better than four and why would we leave a guy to ride 4.5 laps on his own.
The next four laps were a solid slog with different members of the group felling the pain. However, we managed to stay together until the start of lap five when we became a group of three; Ben Shuster, Clive Strickland and David Toleman. Kerrin and Kim dropped back to fight it out as to who would be the first female to cross the line – well done Kim. The remaining three pushed on toward the finish line with no idea how close the chasing pack were but knowing that we needed to keep pushing and working together to give an honest and fair account of ourselves.
The turn into the final hill saw Ben break away from Clive and myself. In those moments the brain was just focused on turning the pedals and chasing Ben down. Clive gave chase and I was able to hold his wheel and come around him and grab Ben with just a few meters to go. Ben held on for second and Clive for third.
The experience of wining a race is indescribable as it happens only a few times in a riders life on the bike, well at least that is what everyone keeps telling you after. Mostly, you just can’t stop smiling and every now and then catching the eye of those you shared the journey with and smiling even more broadly for having done it together. So a huge thanks all who participated, to the gang of five front makers and to the generous handicappers for a great experience and a lot of fun.
Race Report by Kim Eberhart (Winner)
It was a very nervous arrival on Sunday morning at Dromana for the Liam Davison Memorial Handicap, I never met Liam but it seems he will always be remembered fondly by his mates at MCC.
I was off handicap in the starting group with Kerryn, Ben, Clive and Dave.
It’s been a very long time since I have ridden in anything but the dirt (MTB), let alone a group and better still throw in some rolling turns.
The guys in our group really looked after us and were very helpful and encouraging.
I tried to put in as long as I could, alas I popped on the last lap but the guys were away, good on them and Dave came away with a well deserved win.
I had to goad Kerryn into the sprint as her heart wasn’t in it but I figured we were destined for ridicule if we held hands again over the line! I would encourage any ladies thinking of giving it a go to just get out there and have a go. MCC has a great group of people and they’d made me feel very welcome. Good to be back on the roadie.
Race Report by Emil Foller (Scratch Group)
Who needs a warm up anyway….?
It was always going to be hard work to catch another group in a 34km handicap race even with MCCs finest young guns rolling turns with me but the lack of warmup before we embarked on the first and fastest lap of the day in 9.44 turned this otherwise lovely morning into a lactic acid fuelled hurtfest.
With only 4 of us rolling turns you can’t help but spend a lot of time in the wind and it took us 2 laps before we saw another group. As we approached the the start line after 2 laps we were all relieved to see a pair of Flouro Orange shoes in the horizon. Steve Baker decided to join us after a well deserved sleep in. With Bakes onboard the moral was improving and we set off to chase down a few groups.
Sadly we didn’t have much success and finished pretty much where we started after a blistering sprint with PW taking line honours in Scratch and was awarded Fastest Man of the day.
A great day and tradition in memory of a terrific guy, Liam Davison.
Once again Andrew Carpmael has been very kind in taking the time to put together the following video.
Many thanks to Simon Clement for taking the time to capture the day, refer to link below.
Mornington Cycling Club 2015 Liam Davison Memorial Pictures
Footnote: Apologies for the delay in getting this all up (Geoff)