Sunday 19th Feb 2012: Victorian Club Teams Championships. With SKCC finally entering a squad for the first year thanks to both Ray and Marita Box’s hard work and perseverance, it was an exciting day for the club’s new trackies.
Having now done a few track championships, I was pretty relaxed going into the velodrome now knowing the routine. The look of excitement and nervousness on a couple of my team-mates’ faces who were racing their first championship certainly brought back good memories of my first race just a few months back - same like them – I was extremely nervous back then too. It certainly is amazing how that extra bit of experience goes a long way in building confidence.
 |
| Getting the bike ready... (Photo by Ray Box) |
The day kicked off with the team sprints. My first team sprint with my partner Kerrie Baumgartner, we were up against Carnegie Team 2. As first rider, I was leading us out from the gates. Right from the gun, I took off – and before I knew it I heard a crash behind me. Unable to adjust to the new race wheels, Kerrie misjudged the corner and came down. Lucky for us, it was nothing too major other than a little sore hip and a couple of scratches. We both immediately jumped back on our rollers to spin off for our second attempt.
Not being able to hear the MC from where I was, the next thing I knew, Kerrie was already being held up for our second attempt. I immediately grabbed my track bike and ran over to the start gate trying not to trip over my cleats on the way. With the earlier crash and the mad rush, I was certainly pumping with adrenaline then. I took off hard from the gates unintentionally dropping Kerrie behind in the first half of the lap. Nevertheless, she managed to chase me down before I saw Daryl Perkins screaming at me to swing up. Filled with excitement, I’d almost forgotten that I was only riding one lap – I’d just manage to swerve off in the knick of time! Kerrie took us home with our new PB of 40.43s – we had qualified second fastest out of the 4 teams for the gold-medal ride-off.
 |
| Kicking out of the gates with Daryl Perkins hot on our backs (Photo by Ray Box) |
The gold medal ride-off against the state champions pair of Ziggy Callan and Adele Sylvester was never going to be an easy affair. Sprinting was their domain, but we were certainly keen to give it a crack. We managed to shave over another 200 hundreds of a second from our qualifying time, though the Carnegie pair did take home the championship comfortably beating us by 3.82s.
It certainly was great to wrap up the 2010/2011 track session with another silver medal in the bags. Overall, SKCC managed to take home 3 silvers and 2 gold medals – indeed a pretty good effort for a young club on the track. For now, it’s time for the track bike to gather some dust and build on those road k’s. With the road season fast approaching, it’s certainly going to be an exciting couple of months ahead!
 |
| On the podium (Photo from Cycling Victoria) |
 |
| The SKCC track team in smiles with our medals |
