WOMEN BATTLE IT OUT AT CLUB ROAD CHAMPS  

Yoni and Cass battled it out at the Club Championships yesterday for the Gold.  Six females rolled out including Jas and Sasha (in the under 17 category) and Tegan rolling out with the under 15's.  It was to be a gruelling 50km ride of which Louise hadn't yet managed to get under her belt.  She managed to get dropped at Blood Hill and as usual rode the rest of the race by herself ;-) (with an encouraging accompaniment by Murphs for the last lap).  Cass and Yoni stayed together til the bitter end with a sprint finish seeing Yoni take it out.  As the last rider coming in for the day, Louise managed to finish the 50km with a great bunch of die hard supporters staying to cheer her to the end.  Although the numbers were low, it was fantastic to have a womens category.  Hopefully next year we will see some increased numbers for the womens category.  It's great to ride with the girls.  And as Louise so frequently shows, its not always about winning, it's about doing your best, finishing and being out there having a go.

YONI SMASHES IT AT THE CLUB INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL

Yoni has become a force to be reckoned with!  Given that she hadn't even ridden the Calga course this time last year, she has proven that she's a born cyclist.  Donning her skin suit, time trial helment and her new TT bike, she absolutely smashed her previous time by around 7 minutes with a time of 40.54.  After handicapping she won Bronze in the overall Club Championships with a HC time of 34.54, only 19 seconds behind the winner.  Unbelievable! 

Was great to see Renee, Sasha, Jasmine, Kiah and Louise in there doing some great personal times too.  ITT is a fantastic way for women to ride against themself and the clock. 

ROAD RACING

Just a reminder that the 2009 Road Racing season has begun and the girls are already doing well.   This is the place that a few of us girls that just started cycling last year got some initial experience.   It's a great course and E grade is a great place to start for those who haven't raced before.  For more info on the course and details click here.  Contact Louise if you want to try out the course first over a coffee mid-week or on the weekend.

COFFEE RIDES

It's been great to see the number of women on the Club coffee rides increasing.  On one ride in March there were more women than men!!  You do need to be able to keep a pretty quick and steady pace to hold on (between 25-32km per hour depending on who is in the pack).  The Coffee rides on Saturday/Sunday mornings and leave at 7am from West Gosford Shops.  Click here to get more info on the rides.

WOMEN'S CRITERIUM - Off to a flying start!

There were enough women at the Club Criterium Championships this year to warrant a Women's Grade!  How good is that?

A criterium, or crit, is a type of bike event held on a short course (usually less than 5 km - ours is 1.8km), often run on closed-off streets.  Normally it is run over a time period (anywhere between 25-60 minutes) after which a bell rings to let riders know they have one or two laps left in the race.    The club runs from A to E grade and the plan is to run a womens category this year.  For more technical information about criteriums visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterium .

Women's Cycle Skills Day 2008

Mother nature delivered a bright sunny day for our inaugural Women’s Skills Development clinic at Palmdale on Sunday 22nd June.   By all accounts, it was a wonderful success.   

In total 27 women, of varying abilities participated on the day.    Dan Cleary from Pushy Galore walked us through women specific bikes, gear and apparel as well as demonstrating how to change a tyre.  Everyone seemed to like the idea of the compressed air cartridge to get us back on the road. 

Allan Brown representing Gosford Council helped keep things running on the day and everyone enjoyed his presentation on riding on the Central Coast – not to mention the yummy lunch. 

Nicolette Rowe provided some valuable information on training and nutrition ensuring that no matter what type of riding you want to do you can create a personalised program to improve your fitness. 

Desrae Cameron, Jock Murray, and Wayne Mellis headed up the three ability level teams – skilled, medium and basic.  There were two little falls on the day – both funnily enough in the skilled group!  Both were clipping-in/clipping-out malfunctions.  Thankfully the only things bruised were an ego and an elbow! 

Being the first ever program, we ran over time.  So unfortunately some, with other commitments, had to leave us and we apologise for that.  But those who stayed continued.  The Basic and Medium level women continued to sharpen their skills and experience the road simulation course. 

Those in the Skilled group hit the open road with Jock, Mick, Sue and Graeme coaching the ride.  Everyone loved riding in a such a large group and successfully negotiated a very busy roundabout and intersection quite easily.  We even managed a practical skills session when one of the riders got a flat. 

A few lessons learned on the day for the organisers.  More time was required to fit everything into the schedule.  Also, a number of people suggested that we create separate clinics for the Basic and Skilled.  Some of the basic information was too basic for the skilled riders and some of the skilled information was too detailed for the basic.   

Central Coast Cycling Club would like to thank all of the wonderful volunteers who gave up their precious Sunday to assist us.  These generous people are Desrae Cameron, Kylie and Simon Huggins, Jock Murray, Mick Curran, Cass Kell, Wayne Mellis, Wal Shelley, Sue and Graeme Tierney, John Hope-Hodgetts and Kane and Louise Kennett. 

A huge thank you to our speakers who also gave up their Sunday freely to impart their valuable knowledge.  Dan Cleary, Allan Brown and Nicolette Rowe.  You all contributed more than you could know (oooh, that rhymes). 

CCCC would also like to acknowledge the generosity of our wonderful supporters including Gosford City Council, Pushy Galore (Wyoming and Umina), Cycling NSW, The Edge Cycles (West Gosford) and Chapmans Fruit and Veg (Wyoming).   

Keep posted as we plan on doing some more skills sessions with those who attended and hopefully another full Women’s Skills Day for those who were unable to make it. 

Photos of the day will be posted soon.

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

Sue looks great in Silver

Its been 8 years since her last open yet CCCC’s Sue Tierney dug in deep and won Silver at the 2008 Sydney Road Titles in the WMAS 4 in combined WMAS 2/3/4.  She says, “It was so nice riding around with just ladies. Still hard but a lot smoother and the surges are not as strong as when riding with the guys.”

Well Sue, keep up the great work and we are all proud of you! 

Desrae’s on Fire