Ballina Masters Cycling Club

Well the Season has finished for another year and sadly, this is the last year for the BMCC.
The good news is that BMCC has merged with the newly formed Ballina Bicycle Club.
The Page will no longer be posting content and will not be monitored from 31 December 2017.
Please direct further interest to http://ballinabicycleclub.com.au/
or
[email protected]

Ballina Bicycle Club – share the joy of cycling Racing The club host a variety of road races and participate in racing with other clubs in the Northern Rivers area. Racing is conducted in classes so anyone can come along and enjoy some healthy competition with their peers without having to be rocket-fast rider. Learn More Social Rides I you enjoy...

Racing News 18 November 2017

Skies were overcast and thunderstorms threatened to spoil the party as the Riders took to the course for the last Official Race for not only the year, but for the Club itself. As this was The Bicycle Emporium’s annual Omnium the format was a 3 Lap, Reverse Handicap which was 36.6km in length, the longest race the Club has held.

The riders set off in a group with a rolling start with the front runners putting the hammer down soon after crossing the Start line and gaps soon started to appear. Kevin Durkin and Paul O’Kelly were the first two to pop and they soon settled in to a smooth rhythm and worked well to mitigate their loses. The four riders further up the road were still surging and trying drop each other, eventually uncoupling Richard Brown to leave him dangling in no-mans land, unable to stay at the front and too far back to the others. David Cowdrey tried successively to ramp up the pace and tire the Bruce Quinn and Garry Whitfield and almost succeeded a couple of times, had the race been longer, this strategy would have been successful.

On the line the Bruce had best sprint finishing in 1:05:28, with Garry 1 second behind him and David coming third over the line, on corrected time however, the order was reshuffled somewhat.

1st Garry Whitfield 1:05:29 (52:40)

2nd Bruce Quinn 1:05:28 (53:01)

3rd David Cowdrey 1:05:30 (55:09)

No prizes were awarded however as this race is 1st of 3 parts of the Omnium with the winner to be decided next weekend.

A huge thanks goes out to Alan Paull and Carol Sharrock for their dedication throughout the year, also to Ian Gailler, Chris Syme, Murray Ebbott and all the volunteers that donate their time to keep us racing.

As the date of Hans' untimely death draws close members of BMCC and 3 of the Riders from that fateful day staged a ride to remember him. The ride was paused at the site and "The Padre" said a few words before resuming the ride through Hans' old stomping grounds.

There's a few familiar faces in here ...

Gold Coast Masters Cycling Club Gold Coast Masters Cycling Club allows mature aged cyclists to to enjoy cycling and to compete again

Gold Coast Masters Race 5th November 2017

On a warm and sticky morning three member of the Ballina Masters Club, Shorty Brown, Garry Whitfield and Bob Charlton travelled up the Gavin Short Course.

D grade had a field of 27 riders, It was a race of attacks and surges, Bob rode well throughout the course and at times hit the front.
Garry rode well chasing down a break-away. Due to a large truck backing out onto the course, D grade had to ride an extra circuit. In the final sprint to the line Garry just got his noise in front for third place. Bob finished not to far behind the winners.

Racing News 29 September 2017

Gloomy skies, cool conditions and fresh breezes were the a welcome change after the heat of the previous few days and the Southerly was going to be beneficial for the return legs of the race.

4 Riders set off at 30 second intervals for the Individual Handicap and while drafting was allowed the riders would need to either catch the rider in front or sit up and wait for the the rider behind if they were to take advantage. Bruce Syme was off first followed by Garry Whitfield, Bruce Quinn and David Cowdrey.

At the first turn Bruce S. had maintained his advantage while Garry and Bruce Q. had joined forces, leaving David dangling off the back unable to make up ground on the pair now working together in front of him. By the second turn the gap to Bruce S. had shrunk to around 15 seconds with David still hanging in but making no real ground. By the third turn the the pairing of Garry and Bruce Q. had caught the lone leader and the trio now worked for position towards the finish.

The sprint opened up with about 400 meters to go with Bruce Syme taking it up a notch, Garry fancied his chances and tried to come around him but couldn’t make it stick while Bruce Quinn was waiting for an opportunity that never came as Bruce Syme charged across line.

1st Place – Bruce Quinn 43:31 – ride time, (35:43 corrected)
2nd Place – Garry Whitfield 44:02, (35:55)
3rd Place – Bruce Syme 44:30, (37:45)
4th Place – David Cowdrey 45:02, (39:54)

Thanks to our Officials, Jack Ransom, Ian Gailler, Kevin Durkin, Andrew Downey & Alan Paull.

Ian Gailler – Photos.

Racing News 23 September 2017

Two words, Hot & Windy summed up the afternoons’ racing on Saturday for the grouped handicap race. Riders were grouped according to their respective handicaps which saw two groups of 4 riders line up on the Start line. Kevin Durkin, Richard Brown, Andrew Downey and Bob Charlton went off first, followed 2 minutes later by Bruce Quinn, David Cowdrey, Bruce Syme and Garry Whitfield.

The Northerly wind gave a firm push to the riders on the way to the first turn at Wardell and the first group were sitting on 38-40 kph all the way down. Any elation was short lived as they were well insight of the second group who had been sitting on 47-48 kph and whittled the 2 minute gap down to about 30 seconds in the first leg. On the way back to Empire Vale to complete the first Lap the two groups came together with about 2 km to go to the turn. David Cowdrey leapt off the front in an effort to distance himself from the sprinters but an inform Richard Brown jumped straight onto his wheel and the pair gaped the rest of the riders. This was short lived though as one by one the faster group got across the gap and had closed it down under brakes at the turn mark, Andrew and Kevin missed the break and were left off the back to make their own way to the finish.

David had another couple of surges in an attempt to shake the sprinters again but was ultimately unsuccessful as he couldn’t get rid off Richard and the two Bruces and Garry kept hauling them back. Bob Charlton was also a victim of these surges and was spat out the back of the group on the way back to Wardell. Andrew led a tiring Kevin back up to Wardell, gathering Bob up his wake and the Trio stayed together till the finish.

On the Line it was a 4 way sprint with Bruce Syme just getting over the top of Bruce Quinn with Garry finishing third followed closely by Richard. Kevin put in a bid as the following trio approached the line but Andrew was too strong and sprinted to the front for 5th followed by Kevin and Bob.

1st Bruce Syme 44:26 (32.95 kph)

2nd Bruce Quinn 44:26

3rd Garry Whifield 44:26

Thanks as always goes too our Officials, Ian Gailler, Chris Syme, Jack Ransom and Alan Paull.

You couldn’t have asked for better weather for the Individual Time Trial held on Saturday afternoon, blue skies and light winds were on hand for the longest Time Trial in the Clubs’ history, 24.4km.

5 Riders lined and were set off at 1 minute intervals in no particular order starting with Bruce Syme followed by Richard Brown, David Cowdrey, Bruce Quinn and Garry Whitfield.

All riders rode strongly and there was a slight reshuffle of the order as a couple of riders managed to catch their “minute man”.

At the finish there was not much difference in elapsed times, with just over two minutes between the 5 riders.

1st Place went to Garry Whitfield – 40:07 (45:03 elapsed), 2nd David Cowdrey – 40:13 (44:27), 3rd Bruce Quinn – 40:39 (45:07), 4th Richard Brown – 42:05 (47:10) and 5th Bruce Syme – 42:11 (45:16).

Thanks to all our officials once again, Jack Ransom, Carole Sharrock, Alan Paull, Bob Charlton and Andrew Downey.

Congratulations to Richard Brown, picking up two Monthly Medals, June & July, presented by Bruce Syme and Mark Downey.

Runaway Bay GCMCC Race Meeting

On a crisp spring morning four members from Ballina Masters Cycling Club drove up to the Runaway Bay Criterum track to do battle with the Gold Coast Masters Cycling Club boys.

Bruce Syme in C grade, Bob Charlton and Garry Whitfield in D grade and Richard Brown in E grade.

Bruce put in the final sprint at the finish just got pipped out of third place.

Both Bob Charlton and Garry Whitfield put in a big effort throughout the race but sadly Bob was out sprinted in the final 200 meters, but Garry just by a managed second place nose.

Richard Brown out sprinted the field for first place.

Racing News 2 September 2017

A bright sunny afternoon heralded the start of Spring as the Final part of the Winter Series got under way. The format was a reverse handicap which has a Rolling mass start. The Handicaps are applied to the riders Finish Times and so it is as important for the fast riders to get away soon as possible as it is for the slower riders to hang on for as long as possible.

The field was 6 riders strong comprising Bruce Syme, Bruce Quinn, Garry Whitfield, Richard Brown and David Cowdrey, with John Parella visiting from Geelong S.S.C.

The riders were still all together at the second turn and would have their work cut out to make large enough gains on the second half of the race.

The Hammer went down soon into the 3rd leg as David Cowdrey went on an assault and a split was caused, with Richard Brown finally being tailed off as the group of 5 riders got back on terms and rode to the finish.

It wasn’t to be enough though despite the group finishing over 1 1/2 minutes in front of Richard, he managed to sneak onto the top step of the podium, taking the race and the Series. Bruce Quinn managed to take line honours for the second race in a row as the bunch sprinted to the line. Garry Whitfield rode exceptionally to finish 3rd on the day and 2nd for the Series. David Cowdrey took 2nd on the day and managed to place 3rd for the Series despite sacrificing his chances by acting as First Aid Officer last week.

The standings for the Winter Series are:

Richard Brown – 23 Points,

Garry Whitfield – 21 Points,

David Cowdrey – 14 Points,

Bruce Quinn – 11 Points,

Bruce Syme – 9 Points,

Paul O’Kelly – 6 Points,

Bob Charlton – 2 Points,

Harry White & Andrew Downey – 1 Point.

A big thanks to our Officials for the day, Ian Gailer, Alan Paul, Jack Ransom and Kevin Durkin.