Australian Road Criterium Championships

[light_sabe_r]

Well I got to experience something really special yesturday, as a spectator of course!

i got to southbank just after the Women's elite had started racing. 28mins into the race there was a major crash and the girls in second and third took each other out. But that was not to be the most SPECTACULAR stack of the day.

Anyway... I was there to see my current heros Lorian Graham and Alexis Rhodes. As it was Lorian's first race since the Australian women's road team was run down in germany in a freak accident.

As luck would have it, Alexis took the race out HOORAY!

All the girls did a great job.

Then we hung round and watched the men's under 23s. Well! The most SHOCKING crash of the day occured... on the last lap!

From where I was standing, the leader of the peleton hit the traffic island after coming off the roundabout on the course. I saw BIKES in the air, and a freaking big cloud of dust circle up into the air!!!

5mins after the winners crossed the line, the boys, tattered, torn and hurt finished their race. To a rousing applause!

NOW here's the race where I nearly lost my FRONT ROW position on the finish line.

Robbie McEwen came onto the course... and the crowd goes wild!!!

The interesting thing was seeing robbie interact with all the local boys... We had Davitamon Lotto Jerseys siding up next to LIFECYCLE and CYCLELOGICAL and VICTOR BRONCOS jerseys... (three of the local bike shops sposoring teams in the race) it was WILD! RABOBANK and Discovery channel teams had representatives here too. (all aussie of course) Even my work had a team entered... GO UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway... The race went for an hour there were many breakaways... at times Robbie McEwen was at the back of the pack for a few laps.... It seemed that every individual lap, the lead had changed!! The number of leaders changed, the Peleton had absorbed the leaders, New breakaways occurred.

Robbie wasn't even IN the race until the last 100m!!! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME he took the lead!

WOOHOO!

Anyway if you ever get the chance to go and see a criterium I reccommend you do!!! It's sooo much fun! I lost cout of how many times I almost lost a limb because of how close the riders came to the barriers. It was AWESOME!!!

Anyway. Alexis and Robbie get to wear the green and gold jerseys for the next 12 months. YAY!

http://www.cyclingnews.com.au/road.p...6/south_bank06

And that's cycling new's version of events. ENJOY!

[crazycanuck]

Light that sounds cool. Are you able to volunteer at the event next year?

I too had tons of fun at the WA Ironman as a road marshall cheering folks on!

Good to see the girls back & racing again.

c

[Mimosa]

Next year you will see Robbie riding in a "salmon pink" jersey. The company behind the brand Davitamon decided to switch to another brand (they make and sell) being Predictor, which is a pregnancy test kit. The riders are already asking for input on the jersey, they fear to be laughed at.
I don't see why, the T-Mobile team is riding in magneta and no one has ever laughed at them ... silly boys.

[Trekhawk]

Well I got to experience something really special yesturday, as a spectator of course!

i got to southbank just after the Women's elite had started racing. 28mins into the race there was a major crash and the girls in second and third took each other out. But that was not to be the most SPECTACULAR stack of the day.

Anyway... I was there to see my current heros Lorian Graham and Alexis Rhodes. As it was Lorian's first race since the Australian women's road team was run down in germany in a freak accident.

As luck would have it, Alexis took the race out HOORAY!

All the girls did a great job.

Then we hung round and watched the men's under 23s. Well! The most SHOCKING crash of the day occured... on the last lap!

From where I was standing, the leader of the peleton hit the traffic island after coming off the roundabout on the course. I saw BIKES in the air, and a freaking big cloud of dust circle up into the air!!!

5mins after the winners crossed the line, the boys, tattered, torn and hurt finished their race. To a rousing applause!

NOW here's the race where I nearly lost my FRONT ROW position on the finish line.

Robbie McEwen came onto the course... and the crowd goes wild!!!

The interesting thing was seeing robbie interact with all the local boys... We had Davitamon Lotto Jerseys siding up next to LIFECYCLE and CYCLELOGICAL and VICTOR BRONCOS jerseys... (three of the local bike shops sposoring teams in the race) it was WILD! RABOBANK and Discovery channel teams had representatives here too. (all aussie of course) Even my work had a team entered... GO UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway... The race went for an hour there were many breakaways... at times Robbie McEwen was at the back of the pack for a few laps.... It seemed that every individual lap, the lead had changed!! The number of leaders changed, the Peleton had absorbed the leaders, New breakaways occurred.

Robbie wasn't even IN the race until the last 100m!!! RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME he took the lead!

WOOHOO!

Anyway if you ever get the chance to go and see a criterium I reccommend you do!!! It's sooo much fun! I lost cout of how many times I almost lost a limb because of how close the riders came to the barriers. It was AWESOME!!!

Anyway. Alexis and Robbie get to wear the green and gold jerseys for the next 12 months. YAY!

http://www.cyclingnews.com.au/road.p...6/south_bank06

And that's cycling new's version of events. ENJOY!

WOW sounds like you had a great day.
Glad to hear that Lorian Graham is back racing - those girls sure do have some guts.
Im very jealous that you got to see Robbie. Yep he sure does pop up from nowhere when its time to put the foot down. All the dvds I have with Robbie in them the commentators just keep saying hey its like he is invisible right up until the final sprint and then out of nowhere appears the Pocket Rocket.
YAY Robbie what a nice win for a Brisy Boy.

[DirtDiva]

Nice. Crits are great to watch with the circuits being so short that people are coming by all the time. I saw some of the NZ equivalent on Sunday. I caught one of the fun races (folding bikes and recumbents - there might have been a hand bike in there too...) and the elite men's race, but I missed the elite women. Much better entertainment than the Santa Parade!