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Carnegie Caulfield Women's Criterium Series

Round 1 - Sunday - 29th January -  Karak Cycling Classic Women's Invitational

Series supported by Tri-Alliance Cycle Coaching and Smooth Ride Australia

Carnegie Caulfield Club Website

Carnegie Caulfield’s biggest ever field of 270 riders flocked to a once in a life time opportunity to tackle part of the course which will be used for the Commonwealth Games Road Race on March 26th. M2006 organisers needed to train staff and trial their set up for the big day, including road closures and the race convoy, and invited CCCC to relocate from Glenvale Crescent for the day. Unsurprisingly, the CCCC Committee were only too happy to accept! The event was named the Karak Classic: Karak (a South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo) is the Mascot for the M2006 Games.

The 2.9 kilometre course circled Melbourne’s landmark Shrine of Remembrance, with the start line located on Birdwood Avenue between the Shrine and the Royal Botanic Gardens. From the start, riders raced downhill to a tight left hand corner onto St Kilda Road, then into a slight head wind before another left onto a gentle climb up Domain Road. The corner back onto Birdwood Avenue was the trickiest, doubling back on itself and kicking sharply up, stringing out the bunches each lap.

The B, C and D Grade riders shared the circuit to kick off the Classic, followed by the Elite and Sport Women. Wrapping up a great day of racing was the 77 rider Elite Men’s field, which included Australian Under 23 Road Champion Will Walker (Rabobank), 2006 Jayco Bay Classic winner Hilton Clarke (Navigators) and Jonathon and Simon Clarke of the new SouthAustralia.com-AIS Cycling team. The overnight forecast was for Saturday’s rain to continue through the morning, but the weather gods were kind and the rain stayed away, with the final races run in warm but very humid conditions.

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Elite Women

The Women’s races also doubled as Round 1 of the Tri-Alliance Cycle Coaching Super Summer Criterium Series. Featuring two intermediate sprints, the Elite Women’s bunch stayed intact until after the first sprint, which saw two of Australia’s most promising juniors fight for the win, with Tess Downing (Drapac-Porsche Development Program) just holding off Lisa Friend (Bianchi)  and Mary Rogers (Kathy Watt’s Personal Training) for the win.

Approaching the second sprint, Emma Rickards (Univega) went on the attack, along with Helen Kelly, ex Rona and Quark and a member of Australia’s 2005 World Road Championship team. The pair didn’t contest the sprint, as they set about extending their advantage, with the ‘win’ taken by Kelly, while back in the bunch Rogers mopped up the final prize once again.  

      Helen Kelly                              Peta Mullins                                                   Mary Rogers                                                

   Emma Rickards                              Tess Downing                                              Stephania Magri                                             

The two leaders pulled away as they raced to the finish, and were still together as they came into view for the last time. Kelly led out at the three hundred metre mark, but wasn’t able to hold off Rickards’ fast finish on the long uphill stretch. A very tight sprint for third saw Kirsty Bortolin (The Freedom Machine) well positioned, before late bursts from Peta Mullens (VIS) and Downing saw them scrape into third and fourth places.

Result - 45 minutes + 2 laps

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Support Race

The women’s support race saw a well matched group, many of who were experiencing their first ‘women only’ race, usually racing in mixed C, D and E Grade fields. Malta’s Commonwealth Games hope Stephania Magri tried to split the field, but was reeled in by a well organised chase, and the race came down to a bunch sprint.

Fittingly, a Tri-Alliance pupil, Clare Vlahopolous, came up with quickest sprint, taking the win by a wheel from Kerrie Howard (Fitzroy Cycles), Brittany Foster (Uno) and Meaghan Godfrey, with Louise Bourke a narrow fifth.

Result - 45 minutes + 2 laps

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The Officials and Volunteers

The circuit received rave reviews from all, and special thanks go to Mike Victor, Karin Jones and Liz Taylor and the M2006 Cycling Team for all their hard work in making the Karak Classic possible. Thanks also to the M2006 staff and volunteers training as course marshals, communications and security, the Shimano Neutral Service team led by Agostino Giramondo and Terry Hammond, Matt Keenan from SEN Sports Radio for his commentary and the Commissaires panel led by Karen O’Callaghan. All races were also sponsored by Smooth Ride Australia, with place getters collecting prizes from Maxim recovery products and Pro-Link Chain Lube.

From the Club, our usual team of Lorraine Collings, Doug Moody, Ann Johnstone , Frank Cipriano and Heather Friend were joined by Brian Reeves (time keeper and chief judge), while Dave Eadie, Darren Cathie, Pete Johnstone and Helen and Bob Kelly joined ‘Cipo’ as riding marshals for the support races. All races were also sponsored by Smooth Ride Australia, with place getters collecting prizes from Maxim recovery products and Pro-Link Chain Lube.

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Other Carnegie Events

Carnegie Caulfield Criteriums continue with Tuesday Twilight racing at Sandown Racecourse. (Melways map 80J6). Racing at Sandown runs until the end of March, with the Sandown Road gate opening at 6pm for a 6.30pm race start for all grades. Sunday mornings are at Glenvale Crescent (Melways map 80B2) with new start times for 2006: B, D and E Grades start at 9am, while A and C Grade ride at 10am.

All holders of current Cycling Australia licenses are welcome (don't forget to bring your license or receipt!) and non-members can have a go by taking out a day license for $20. 2006 licenses are now available at all CCCC events.

For first time competitors and the younger juniors, Tokyo Olympian Mick Hollingsworth conducts novice racing clinics within the E Grade race at Glenvale Crescent. For further details, go to www.carnegiecycling.com.au.