Club awards – People’s Choice

This award was introduced last year and we had a huge amount of nominations. So this year, we are awarding the People’s Choice award again. This is a chance for the club membership to vote for two people in the club (one male, one female) who have had some great results or gone out of their way to make the Steam experience better for you or just generally been a helpful, positive person.

The only rule is that it cannot be awarded to those who got it last year – so Daniele Vanolini, Rod Knutson (joint awardees) and Anna Murray are out ! That still leaves 153 club members to vote for.

Please send all your votes and any accompanying words to ciclismo@tpg.com.au by 10^th December at the very latest. I would very much prefer it if everyone could send in their votes in the next couple of weeks. This award will be given out at the Steam Xmas party.

Race Results

There was quite a lot going on over the weekend. There were a few Steam crit specialists out at Heffron on Saturday and Eastern Creek on Sunday and Breeda Kelly was supposed to represent Steam at the Triple Tri but unfortunately came down with a bug and was unable to compete. At least Breeda will have some time to train for next year’s race now.

We received two very different receptions – Randwick Botany who organise Saturday afternoon racing at Heffron have decided to grade everyone new to Heffron regardless of age or experience in C grade. After much negotiation we managed to get 3 Steamers into D grade and the rest of us raced C which I have to say was the most dangerous racing experience I have had so far. C grade was huge and had a massive difference in experience – so I spent the whole race making sure that I stayed on my bike and was blocked at the back for most of the race – not a good place to be in a bunch of 40 at Heffron.

To add insult to injury, they disqualified Daniele from his win in B grade although he won fair and square. I might be calling it wrong but all the Steam guys out there felt that Steam was being victimised and treated differently from the other clubs out there. I’m not sure what we have done to upset Randwick Botany so much but I will try and get to the bottom of it. We have enough anti – cycling feeling out there without arguing amongst ourselves.

Anyway – congratulations to everyone that ended up taking part and to Leonard who got 2^nd in D grade in his first race despite everything. Well done to Andrew Caie, David Bowman, Gary Leahey, HT Goh and Michael Trinca who were forced to race in C grade and acquitted themselves very well. And Marco (Comesso) Corrent made up some ground to get 4^th – I don’t know how he does it when I was riding next to him for most of the race and I came practically stone cold last !! Well done too to Muir Mathieson who was also put up a grade and had to race in a very fast B grade race when he normally races C and well done to Allan Marks who was forced to race D grade when he normally races E.

And we will congratulate Daniele on his first in B grade even though Randwick Botany wouldn’t award it to him.

Apparently, Eastern Creek was a completely different experience with Waratah Vets Cycling club and Marconi cycling club welcoming Steam members to their races and wanting to do some joint events as they really appreciate having new riders come along to events and want to encourage all to take part. It was such a refreshing change to the horrible way we were treated by RBCC.

Congratulations to Daniele who achieved 2^nd in Masters 2 (I think he was still fired up from the day before) and to Rob Vanolini who got 3^rd in Masters 3 and Therese Becker who got 2^nd in the Masters Women’s race.

Clothing

The latest Steam clothing order is finally in – please see Daniele or myself after training and it is available 900m from the York Road gates in the Magic Laundry. Prices are at cost and all items should be paid for on delivery.

The Hamill Cup

The most sought after trophy in the Australian sporting calendar is on again ….. dust off those wheels, practice that time trialling and pick your partners. Since the inaugural championship in 2003 when Alex Hamill threw down the gauntlet to the Steam membership, the hotly contested award has been a Steam highlight. Teams of 3 are eligible to take part – must have one female rider and ages should add up to as near 120 as possible otherwise there will be a time penalty. For ages over 120 years, there will be time bonuses. If you are wondering who to team up with, let Anna, Daniele or Rod know and we can organise some teams for people (especially if teams are running short of girls – nice to be in demand isn’t it ladies ??). We can help you put teams together so just have a quick word if you are looking for team members.

So put Sat 17^th December in the diary as it’s on again – the Steam Team Time Trialling Championship.

2003 champions – Kate Everett, Rex Wood and Paul Angel

2004 champions – Alison Urquhart, Adam Radford and Dave Pegley

2005 champions – IT COULD BE YOU ……….

Trophy will be awarded at the Steam Christmas party on Sunday 18^th December at the Steelcase Showroom in Union St, Pyrmont.

Steam Xmas Party

We are furiously planning for the best ever Steam Xmas party on Sunday 18^th December from 3pm at the Steelcase showroom in Pyrmont. We will have great lucky door prizes, the Steam awards for 2005 (both serious and fun) as well as a great chance to socialise with your Steam members who you have been training with for 12 months. We will also be awarding the prestigious Hamill Cup and the first 3 teams will also get a trophy. So put the date in your diary and make it the best Xmas party we have had yet.

Steam in NY – from Matt Drake and Shawn Burgess

The picture right was taken in Central Park after a 3 lap morning training ride (OK maybe we should have used the flash!). There is a 6 Mile/10 km loop in the park, and while not hilly there was one reasonable climb to get the heart rate up. Since there was only the two of us there was no sitting-on at the back for a rest. Typically our lap times were around the 18 minute mark. The park was always busy but because it was so big, not really crowded, at least not until after 7am. In the seven weeks I was in town the weather went from uncomfortably hot and humid to having to wear sleeves. One good thing - especially considering how people drive in NYC - is the park is closed to traffic in the morning. I did have to a 3km ride back to my apartment after riding, but I quickly worked out which were the quiet streets.
We also did an awesome ride out to Oyster Bay on Long Island (Pic bottom Right) using a route borrowed from the New York Cycle Club web site. We started in Central Park and getting out of the city was a rather slow and tedious due to all the lights. But once clear of the city limits, we had a great ride along a mixture of suburban streets, the service road of the Long Island Expressway and some leafy country roads. (Pic Right) The best bit of advice we took was to finish at the Statue of Civic Virtue outside Queens Borough Hall. (Pic Bottom Left). This is a common meeting/finishing point of many rides, as is next to a subway station and avoids having to negotiate the city streets and traffic back into Manhattan. Total ride distance 75miles/120km

Weekend Rides

NO ORGANISED RIDES THIS WEEKEND – all your coaches and ride captains are at the Shoalhaven weekend this weekend. If you do ride, please make sure that you are safe and courteous on the road and do not ride alone. Not only is it proved to be very unsafe but you are not covered by any insurance while riding alone. Normal rides will resume next weekend along with Pilates.

Triathlon NSW update

Hi there;

As you may know Triathlon NSW is moving ahead with the Kurnell Triathlon (Sprint) series; now confirmed for 2005/2006 with a 25% increase to four rounds...

It has taken many weeks of negotiation to keep Kurnell as the last remaining open race venue in Sydney and the 'win' comes at a cost of a maximum 500 starters...

As TriNSW is an association, and not a club, we don't have a huge membership (because our members are your members!) with which to make the Kurnell experience even better.

So I'm penning this email to invite clubs to join with us at Kurnell; by providing volunteers to help in marshalling the run, helping with registration, manning the Transition and other activities such as manning aid stations...

We have a great history in the past with clubs such as Cronulla and more who have helped so much (and who is out there having been to Kurnell who doesn't remember the Cronulla Club BarBQs!) and and we hope to see them all back again, but we hope to have more people in the volunteer numbers through more clubs as this is the TriNSW members race and therefore your club members race...

The racing this year, while similar to years past, is being run through TriNSW directly, with myself Nick Munting having been asked by TriNSW to take on a role as Racing and Marketing Manager.

My first task was to confirm dates and lock in contracts with NPWS, local councils and police and our implementation staff and this is now complete... the next phase is to make these races so much fun and this I hope to achieve by having the clubs on hand, to have club tents on hand and to make the day a great day out for clubs and their members.

Please feel free to respond to me if you are able to forward this on to your members and also if you have any additional questions

Best Wishes

Best Regards

Nick Munting

Racing & Marketing Manager

Triathlon NSW

0404 874 024 / 0412 228 409

02 8901 0823

nick@trinswrace.org