B
Bleve
Guest
HCC ran their first crit for 2006/2007 summer, it was good to see a
few familiar faces, and generally the racing was good, apart from the
usual first time out for the summertime riders jitters and crashes and
a couple of A graders with heads buried somewhere dark who wanted to
shave the ambulance when it was on the course.
*but*
D grade was another story. A very small number of riders who were
obviously too strong broke D grade up in the first 5 minutes or so,
ruining the race for the rest of D grade.
One in particular, a certain Ben MacNee from Brunswick CC, who won D
grade last night, got 5th in B grade at Glenvale 3 weeks ago :
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/AUS/2006/oct06/oct30cccc
Ben MacNee has, in the past 4 weeks, won at Glenvale : D grade, C
grade, and placed 5th in B grade. This is not the results that would
suggest it right that he enter D grade at an HCC crit.
In the past at Glenvale we've removed riders mid-race who were
obviously mis-graded and blowing the lower grade bunches to pieces,
hopefully HCC will consider the same course of action for this season.
It's normal to have a bit of sorting out of grades early on in the
season, but what happened yesterday evening was just plain wrong. This
is not a reflection on the grading process (although it's been broken
for years) but rather on the integrity and honour of the people who
nominate their grade, despite knowing full well that it's the wrong
grade for them.
few familiar faces, and generally the racing was good, apart from the
usual first time out for the summertime riders jitters and crashes and
a couple of A graders with heads buried somewhere dark who wanted to
shave the ambulance when it was on the course.
*but*
D grade was another story. A very small number of riders who were
obviously too strong broke D grade up in the first 5 minutes or so,
ruining the race for the rest of D grade.
One in particular, a certain Ben MacNee from Brunswick CC, who won D
grade last night, got 5th in B grade at Glenvale 3 weeks ago :
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/AUS/2006/oct06/oct30cccc
Ben MacNee has, in the past 4 weeks, won at Glenvale : D grade, C
grade, and placed 5th in B grade. This is not the results that would
suggest it right that he enter D grade at an HCC crit.
In the past at Glenvale we've removed riders mid-race who were
obviously mis-graded and blowing the lower grade bunches to pieces,
hopefully HCC will consider the same course of action for this season.
It's normal to have a bit of sorting out of grades early on in the
season, but what happened yesterday evening was just plain wrong. This
is not a reflection on the grading process (although it's been broken
for years) but rather on the integrity and honour of the people who
nominate their grade, despite knowing full well that it's the wrong
grade for them.