Friday night 16 December saw our final evening of Junior Racing for 2011 and we finished off the year with a brilliant display night of racing - a whole crew of our Wheelers and Flyers coming along to show off all the skills and race tactics they have been learning over the year. It was exceptional stuff!!!
It was also fantastic to have some riders from Tinwald joining in as part of their big weekend of training on the Velodrome. Inter-regional racing is something we would love to see more of next year!
We had 43 riders for the evening and riders were split into one of our four U13 /Wheelers and Flyers groups, or into an U15 or U17 age category. Races included a 515m Derby, Scratch Race and a Keirin. The crowd were hugely impressed with the skill of the 9 to 12 year olds behind the bike – and the Keirins turned out to be the feature race for the evening!
We thought our Wheelers and Flyers rode the best they have ridden all year and really stepped up to the mark. We were very proud! All the U13’s and Wheelers and Flyers received a drink bottle and chocolate bar, and a couple of special prizes went to a few who really stood out on the night – Jack Peddlar, Matthew Nunn, Bradley Knipe, Aiden O’Connell and Kees Donaldson from Tinwald.
Bruce Ross also kindly donated some memorabilia from the Tour de France which he and Pam were lucky enough to go and watch this year, and a few selected riders were able to choose one these special items…..the king prize of a bright yellow Tour de France T-Shirt going to Josh van den Arend who came through our Wheelers and Flyers programme and is now racing in the U17 Grade and carved it up on Friday night – great work Josh, we are proud of you! A huge thanks to everyone who has helped out this year with the Junior Division and with our Wheelers and Flyers Carnivals, particularly Marie Muhl and Alan Strong. It was great to see some of the older riders helping out on Friday night as well – particularly Jen Muhl and Josh Carpenter. Good on you guys!
We are looking forward to another awesome year of development racing in 2012! Bring it on!!
Dale and Matt