McFarlane flies at carnival
THOMAS McFarlane was one of five Leongatha Cycling Club riders who competed at the Latrobe Valley Cycling Club Energy Australia track carnival on Sunday where he stood out from the crowd with several wins.
The other club riders who competed, Ben Meadley, Bernadette and Thomas Fitzgerald and Kaleb Jans, also did well and enjoyed the day.
It was a new venture for three of the riders to compete away from the home track.
Kaleb picked up a third in his first race, a three kilometre scratch race.
His training over 30km last weekend obviously helped.
Thomas McFarlane took out his first race, an eight kilometre scratch race and backed this up with a win in the Senior A Grade keirin.
Ben Meadley took out the Senior B Grade keirin.
In the Junior 1500m handicap, Thomas Fitzgerald rode well to take out second place.
He took confidence from this effort to win the Junior elimination.
With 11 Juniors competing and on the big track at Newborough this ended up being a race over seven kilometres.
In the Junior four kilometre scratch race Thomas Fitzgerald was again on song taking out the win from a Warragul rider whilst Kaleb Jans fought on well for third.
In the senior feature wheel race, Thomas McFarlane riding from scratch put in a great ride to finish third in the Senior feature wheel race and whilst he scored a second in the shorter 1000m handicap he went one better with a win in the Senior elimination.
He backed up with another win in the Senior A grade motor paced scratch race.
Bernadette had to battle hard with plenty of other strong riders in the fields.
Friday evening the club conducted the Junior club titles in a varied format evening.
The club titles are raced over three events – 500m time trial, sprint and scratch race.
Competitors gain points in each event and the points tally gives the overall placegetters.
The titles are run in age categories.
At the completion of the titles the riders competed in their more traditional events.
The Senior riders received some skills training in madison team changes with Thomas McFarlane and Will Lumby providing demonstrations of the skill set to be acquired.
The new riders were then given the chance to practice the art of the hand sling to change riders.
The riders were racing in Under 17, Under 15 and Under 13 age groups.
In the Under 17’s there was a good battle between Austin Timmins, Will Lumby and Grace McLean. In the opening event Austin Timmins answered the challenge from Will with a slick 37.89 sec 500m time trial.
Will was at 38.48 and Grace 42.66sec.
In the sprint round Austin Timmins just managed to come round Will and Grace, however, in the two kilometre scratch race finish, it was Will who managed to reverse the tables.
The overall result saw Austin the winner from Will and Grace.
In the Under 15’s the 500m time trial saw a win to Thomas Fitzgerald in 49.07 just ahead of Fleur Timmins 49.24, Oliver McLean 49.35 and Michael Eastwood at 51.30sec.
In the sprint rounds Thomas won heat one ahead of Michael whilst heat two went to Oliver ahead of Fleur.
The final round saw Oliver take the win ahead of Thomas whilst in a narrow result Fleur took the heat for third place.
This left all with a chance of a medal depending on the scratch race.
Oliver hit the front after the b
ell to take out the scratch race.
Thomas lead home the others for second whilst Fleur knew she would be challenged by Michael and delayed her effort until the last which saw her grab third by half a wheel.
The overall points tally saw Oliver champion with a one point margin over Thomas whilst Fleur secured the bronze.
In the Under 13’s the competition was again keen.
Max Slinger had a baptism by fire in his first night of racing but rode well.
The time trial went to Kaleb Jans in 52.33sec ahead of Josh Wight 56.36 and Max at 59.82 sec.
In the sprint a close result went to Kaleb ahead of Josh and Max.
In the scratch race the outcome was the same.
This left Kaleb the overall winner from Josh and Max.
The Seniors present rode a 500m time trial.
Harrison clocked 39.82sec, Bernadette Fitzgerald at 42.52 and Kevin Feely at 42.86 sec.
In the six lap scratch race Thomas McFarlane joined in and cruised to a victory ahead of Harrison and Kevin.
After the titles were complete the Juniors raced a one lap handicap.
With a wall of riders heading to the line it was Josh Wight (30) who claimed a narrow win ahead of Michael Eastwood (20) and Kaleb Jans (30) in third.
In the Senior handicap over two laps it was another very tight finish with Kevin Feely gaining a narrow verdict over Grace McLean and Harrison McLean.
The final race of the night was a Junior elimination.
Oliver McLean answered all the challenges to take the win from Thomas and Fleur.
Wednesday night training continues to see new riders looking to try out the racing so it is producing a potential bunch of young riders moving from the track to road season later in March.
The force: the Leongatha Cycling Club members who competed at the Latrobe Valley Cycling Club Energy Australia track carnival on Sunday from left, Bernadette Fitzgerald, Ben Meadley, Kaleb Jans, Thomas Fitzgerald and Thomas McFarlane.
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Posted by Sarah Vella on Feb 11 2015. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
