You may recall that last year Vikings Cycling Club ran a Women’s Novice track program, well what have these women been up to since then…?
They have been busy with training, training and then some more training. After months of preparation, a group of ACT riders took part in the NSW track champs over the past week and showed what a force to be reckoned with they are!
All but 2 of the Vikings masters ladies who raced took part in the novice program last year. This tremendous jump has been down to the riders dedication and Sian and PK’s spectacular coaching skills.
First event was the WMAS 135+ team sprint – gold final. Vikings teams SHOC (Sarah Stephens, Ali Hale and Brandie O’Connor) started on the front straight with Team TEK (Karen Clutson, Taryn Dickens and Liz Lowe) on the back straight. It was a competitive race with SHOC winning with a 0.17 of a second faster time after an impressive flying start out of the gate by Brandie.
In the NSW Team Sprint and Team Pursuit Championships Elite Women Team Sprint Qualifier – Team ACT was Lily Stratford, Claudia Marcks (CCC) and Felice Beitzel (CCC). These 3 looked calm and relaxed as they took on St George.
The Shoortless team of Isabelle Burns, Hannah Calderwood, Kirsty Lower and Claudia were impressive with an extra kudos to Kirsty who had never been to Dunc Gray Velodrome before. Team Shoortless backed up their team sprint efforts to win the 4,000 metre endurance event.
NSW Team Sprint & Team Pursuit Championships WMAS 140+ Team Pursuit – gold final. Both Vikings teams lined up for the final as there were no wider entrants… go Vikings!!
Team Talk (Taryn, Ali, Liz and Karen) and Team BKISS (Brandie, Kerry, Sarah and Sian). A competitive ride by both teams with Team Talk taking the win.
An enormous thanks to Carlos who came with the teams and supported everyone with their bike issues, and to Sian, Kerry and Claudia who stepped in to support the teams race.
Now for the men!
All Torque had a blistering heat in the qualifier which placed them in the Gold Final. A competitive race saw the team take the silver – Paul Kennedy, Ryan Bates and Stephen Phelan (CCC).
The Elite Men’s saw the CCC qualify with the second fastest time, placing them in the gold medal final. It was a very close race with them coming in 0.25+ of a second after the winners.
We can’t wait to see what these impressive trackies do next!!
