Victory!!!

Yesterday while most Australians enjoyed a day filled with a barbeque, sun and for some the beach, I and many others were at the annual Australia Day Madison run by Blackburn Cycling Club. From 10-4 there were four madisons and three support races run over six grades making for an action packed day of racing at the East Burwood velodrome. The big event of the day was the A Grade Madison itself comprised of a 75 lap madison, a 150 lap madison, a elimination and a motorpace. After those four races and over 75km of Madison racing the Eastern FM team of Tom Leaper and Brent Nelson triumphed convincingly after taking two laps over the field in the two Madison as well as pretty much all the sprints along the way.

The B Grade madison was also a hotly contested affair this time one madison run over 75 laps. The outcome of this madison was very close in the end however the Charter Mason team of Aaron and Haydn Eynaud won after taking a lap midway. The junior team of Michael Stringer and Ben Andrews showed some great effort to finish with the bunch and riding in a very fast competitive field on 82″ gears which makes any racing a challenge.

However the C Grade Madison was the race which I was racing in as Team Trigon with my partner James Tickner. It was the first madison for both of us so we were both excited and nervous about how it would play out. The race started off with the first 10 laps of 60 at a hard speed. However at 50 to go there was the first intermediate sprint when I was in the bunch and we got second. Immediately after the bunch split up with the Quickcycle team launching an attack and before I knew it we were out in front with the team from Bikes De Ver. However after a few laps they started to weaken and we opened a small gap which lap by lap started to increase. Over the course of about 10 laps we managed to lap them and at 21 to go we were back in the bunch and the leaders of the race. Now a lap up I was inclined to sit in the bunch and just make sure De Ver didn’t get away from us but James Tickner had other ideas and soon we were off the front again. We ended up finishing three quaters of a lap ahead of the bunch and were the winners both on points and laps of the C Grade Australia Day Madison.

The Australia Day Madison was without a doubt one of the hardest but most enjoyable events I’ve ever raced in. The great weather and the great club atmosphere as well as the great racing just added to the day itself. It was a day which I will look back on with great memories as the day I won my first Madison and celebrated Australia Day 2012. One of the other riders in our race Grace Phang also did a report of the race. She raced in C Grade with Chloe Baggs as part of Team Quickcycle and they finished third and they initiated the attacking in the race. Here is her report. I’d like to thank Blackburn Cycling Club first and foremost for running such a great event, the other racers who put on a show and made for such a great day and I’d also like to thank Trigon Bicycles Australia who sponsored James and myself to race in the madison.