We were back at the TEC, allegedly just for a criterium race this weekend however Col Maciver was in charge and clearly he wasn’t in holiday mood just yet. A race is a race and anything else is a wasted training opportunity, or something like that. Anyway, our smiling assassin announced we’d be having an Elimination Race followed by a 10-lap Scratch Race, all-in regardless of grade. Hmmm.

With 17 riders, a one-lap elimination race would take about half an hour so there were two elimination points – one at the normal start-finish line and another, marshalled by Sam Jenner at the end of the esses.

Once again, those with something other than squashed flies in their heads worked out than an early exit from the elimination race = more rest and fresher legs before the main scratch race. This probably accounted for the mass exodus that occurred between laps 2 and 3. An exception to this was Hammy Williams who was enjoying racing so much that he decided to get eliminated twice. Eventually after 6 or 7 laps it was down to Johnny and Hugh and despite hitting some good form of late, Doctor John was no match for the younger Munday legs. 1-0 to Hughey.

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After giving the later finishers about 15 seconds to recover, Col got the Scratch race underway which was really thoughtful of him as it meant anyone who finished in the top 3 or 4 places still had a heart rate of about 185bpm at this point thus ensuring they were properly warmed up.

After an official ‘warm-up’ lap (allowing those already simmering to return to a rolling boil), there was an attack at the end of lap 1, notably populated by all the riders who were eliminated early in the previous event. One exception to this was Hughey who doesn’t seem to get tired. That was the end for Dave Jenner who sensibly worked on his ITT skills but everyone else managed to drag themselves back on for more pain.

One lap later, it was the young Munday legs that came into view first with an impressive 11-second lead on the bunch of 15. Next time round Josh and Kirky were half-way across the gap and by the end of lap 4 it was all back together with the pace significantly lower. There then followed 6 more laps of on-off riding with Kirky, Josh and a few others all having a go but Hugh covering every move with ridiculous ease, the bunch dwindling down to 10 in size.

The final sprint was comfortably won by Hugh who crossed the line several bike lengths ahead of Houlty with Hammy in close attendance, Lachie impressively taking fourth. 2-0 to the young Munday, capping off an impressive afternoon.

Many thanks to Col for running the races and ensuring that there was no slacking in the build-up to the holiday season. We are back at the TEC next weekend for another criterium but don’t forget the Club Christmas and 2016 Awards Party at the Services Club – 3:30pm today (Sunday).

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