TRACK RACING
The Track season kicks off around mid October and finishes March/April of the
following year. Wagga Cycle Club is an extremely strong Club in the Track racing
circles and many Junior State and National champions come from the Wagga Club.
All racing and training is conducted at the Kincaid St Sporting grounds near the
Horse racing track .
Racing: is conducted every Wednesday night. Junior U/9 and U/11 racing start at
6.30pm. U/13 and up start at 7.30pm.
Most nights consist of a heart starter event followed by a 2 lap handicap, 5 lap
handicap and scratch race.
Training: is conducted at 4.30pm Monday afternoons for all juniors. There is
also training conducted on Tuesday Nights by the Riverina Academy of Sport for
selected Junior riders.
The Club Road Season normally starts around the middle of March and the first
NSW State race is around early April. Depending on the amount of events the Road
Season finishes around late August early September.
Club Road racing usually goes all year round. However during the actual road
season which as you can see is normally through the winter months races are
between 40 kilometres to 120 kilometres. Longer races are about if your Keen.
Road racing during summer is usually no longer than an hour or 20 to 30
kilometres.
They are three levels of racing: Club racing, Inter-club racing and State races.
The Riverina area is a Mecca for bicycle racing. Various Clubs from around the
Riverina participate in the Tour De Riverina. The TDR consists of around 5 to 8 races spread throughout the Winter season.
The Wagga Club host several Road events throughout the year being the:
Gwen French memorial 2 day Junior Tour,
Butch Menz Memorial handicap 62km,
The Riverina Championships (Scratch Races and Individual Time),
McDonald's Classic 100km State open handicap + Criteriums in the CBD
Club Racing is held Juniors in the under U/5 and up category. You can usually
find someone out at the club course from 1.15pm on a Saturday afternoon during
the winter Road Season. Senior racing starts at 2.00pm sharp and Junior races
commence before and after the Seniors. Most of the races are
Handicap events where riders are given a head start depending on their level of
fitness and ability. The Handicap system is to try and give everybody a
fair chance at winning the bike race.
Map of the
Uranquinity race course
There is no designated summer racing on the road for the Juniors as the track
racing season normally takes priority.
The following is a few tips for the beginner who would like to have a heads up on riding with the weekend or morning bunch.
Road Race
Road racing is an endurance event conducted over varying distances. Depending on the cyclist's age, ability and category, road races vary from 6km to 260km and road courses also vary from hilly, flat, mountainous or a combination of those.
Road races are conducted as massed start or handicap events. Bunches form because of the distinct advantages gained from sitting-on/ drafting. The number of bunches in a race will vary depending on how the race evolves. In many cases there is one big bunch.
The number of participants in an event varies on the popularity of a given event, with some open category races attracting up to 200 participants. Throughout the duration of an event any number of bunches might be formed with competitors taking turns of pace to improve their efficiency in order to ride faster.
Criterium
A Criterium is a high speed event conducted around tight technical circuits 800m-2km in length. Criteriums are much shorter in distance than Road races.
Individual Road Time Trial:
This is an individual event with each participant starting at given time intervals. This is a race against the clock where riders are not permitted to sit-on/draft other riders.
Multi Stage Road Races
Commonly referred to as "Tours", the most famous is the Tour de France, which is 21 stages, conducted over 23 days. Stage races can be made up of any number of stages and days. A stage can vary in distance from 5km to 260kin and can include massed start Road races, Criteriums and Time Trials. Each rider is timed for each stage and these times are added together. The rider with the lowest overall time is the race winner.