Glen Cook & Greg Gleeson

A successful start to the Banks thargo South west series was held at Warrnambool on the weekend.
With Fine weather mid 20's and slight winds conditions were ideal for good racing.

The Glen cook held on saturday the 13th of March saw a field of 57 starters.
The field was divided into 5 large bunches and a smaller bunch of 3 on limit.
The course Framlingham Forrest then 4 laps of the falls circuit.

in the early stages of the race it looked as though the fourth scratch bunch or the 3rd scratch bunch would get up.
Both Bunches were working well and holding good speeds, as were the back markers.
Third Scratch caught the 4th scratch bunch and held the rest of the field off for the win.
Matt Lane (WRN) took line honours closely followed by Richard Schilling (MTG)
Scratch crossed the line soon after with David tozer (PTF) taking fastest time.
final placings; 1 Matt Lane wrn, 2 Richard Schilling mtg, 3 Roland Evans ham, 4Larry McArthy wrn, 5 Wayne hately cpd, 6 Mark Hyland wrn, 7 Nick Lee, 8 Clive Coomber wrn, 9 Laurie paltridge ptf, 10 Geoff Mclaren wrn. Fastest David tozer ptf.

Greg Gleeson

Sunday March 14th the "Greg Gleeson" was held once again with favourable conditions.

41 riders turned out for this event and the field was divided once again into 6 bunches.

The course Wangoom-Warrumyea-Falls-Wurrumyea-Wangoom.

Things looked very similar to theprevious days racing with the exception of the 4th scratch bunch gaining strength with the inclusion of Scot Noonan.

once again the 4th scratch bunch & 3rd scratch bunch looked like the two most likely bunches to get up.

3rd scratch picked up the next bunch about the same time second scartch and 3rd scratch came together, however the outmarkers had held enough time to take the win.

Cris Jehu from colac was the form sprinter in this bunch and took line honours.

Placings, 1 Cris Jehu clc, 2 wayne collins wrn, 3 Scot noonan Mt Gambier, 4 Laurie paltridge ptf, 5 Robert Boydel wrn, 6 Darren earl mtg, 7 Goeff Mclaren wrn, 8 clive coomber cpd, 9 darren Sheldon ham, 10 Barry Warren wrn

fastest time went to Brian mcnamara from warrnambool.

2010 Banks Thargo South West Series

The 2010 banks thargo South West Series will be kicking off on March 13th At Warrnambool.

Warrnambool is holding a double header on that weekend.

Saturday 13th march the "Glenn Cook" Approximatelly 68km. Starting at the Wangoom reserve at 2.00pm Vic. Time.

Sunday The "Greg Gleeson" 57km 11.00 am start Vic. time.



Junior Racing will be held on both Days.



Noms to Seniors mhyland@sjwbool.balrt.catholic.edu.au

Juniors deslane@hotmail.com



As soon as all participating clubs set their South West Series dates I will post a Callender on this spot.



Cheers

Good luck to all participating in this years events

Banks Thargo Wines South West Series Summary

The 2009 Banks Thargo South West Series has been an outstanding success this year.
With 195 different Riders from over 12 clubs participating through out the season.
Stuart Robinson has emerged the outright winner of the series with 285 points in total.
Stuart a fitting jersey holder in his return year has been the most consistent performer of the year.
His win came down to the line with Matty Gstrien from camperdown finishing just a few points behind after the final race.
Monica Kelly from Horsham also a worthy winner of the females jersey coming 12th overall in the series as well.

The Most successful club was Mount Gambier having 47 club members participating throughout the series, Hamilton came a close second only 32 points behind, while Hamilton had a smaller amount of competitors they had a very successful year with 6 of their riders finishing in the top 10, Port Fairy came 3rdthen camperdown came in 4th.

Next year we need to get a few more Mount riders and Camperdown riders to travel and we will have quite large fields at each event!

With over 195 participants there is a large pool of riders to draw from for any club promoting an event.

I can see no reason at all why there couldnt be over 100 riders at a few of next years events, perhaps the 1 casterton 40, 2 june long weekend or 3 anzac day where there is 1 hard race, 2 good weekend 3 good prizemoney along with the frank long.
Any way thats a thaught for individual clubs to keep in mind for next year each event in the South West series has been a good event, all for different reasons.
The last event the Camperdown Classic has the best finish of any event in the South West Series! the finish alone is reason enough to put it on next years must do list!

To all Clubs that have hosted races well done and to all participants in the events well done.

I know there are a few more mount Gambier Riders that are keen to travel to quite a few more events next year.

If any one can think of a way to get all 195 riders at the same place on the same day let us know, then we will have a race!

I will post the final points table for both riders and clubs soon.

Camperdown Classic

The final event in the South West series, the "Camperdown Classic" was held on the 3rd of october 2009.
The event a fitting final for the South West Series, a demanding course with a finish more suited to the Climbers and stronger riders.
The climbs ath the final few km's of the event up Sadlers road and Caravan park hills decided the placings for the event and ensured if there were to be a sprint it would be only a very select few contesting the win.

The field was divided into 5 bunches, and as with all of this years South West Series events the marks set by the handicapper were well set.
Although the outmarkers broke up the remaining bunches stayed together and worked well

The entire field had not come together with only 5km to go but scratch and second scratch had the leading bunch of 4 riders in their sight.
Dispite a gallant effort from these outmarkers including series leader Stuart Robinson second scratch had the strength to close that gap and Luke Agget from Port Fairy took line honours just catching in the final climb.

Placings, 1st Luke Agget Port Fairy, 2nd Travis Greening , 3rd Rohan Creed, 4th Roland Evans, 5th Stuart Robinson, 6th Laurie Peak, 7th Grant Oats, 8th David Tozer, 9th Simon Walsh, 10th Laurie Paltridge.

current points table

If you click on comments below you can see a complete list of riders and the overall aggregate.

This weekend Stuart Robinson has to start and finish the race for his 10 points, Matty Gstrien could theoretically win outright, so the Camperdown race will be an interesting wind up to the series, good luck to both of them and hopefully there will be no mechanical failures or punctures to hold eithor of them up.

All of the riders in the top 10 have not only been consistent competitors they have performed well, Stuart Robinsons effort this year in his first year back has been outstanding.
Hope to see a good turn out at Camperdown, and good luck to all the riders.

Who will get the series, Matt has the Home town advantage, and Stuart has the determination!

belated south west update

Here is a brief summary of South West Series racing since the casterton 40.
There has been 4 races, Coleraine Iga 40km loop, Gorae West Classic, Colac race and the Glen Cooke at hamilton.

The Coleraine event was dominated by the back markers, a windy and hilly loop was suited to the stronger riders, Scratch had reeled the entire field in at the half way mark.
Schultz showed his strength bt taking first and fastest. Andy Graham and the Matty Gstrien hot on his wheel.

Gorae west was a day for the front markers, once again conditions looked suitable for the strong men, but the back markers had a smaller bunch, and with witmitz from scratch and Matty Gstrien from the block both out with punctures the event realy did favour the front riders with Mark Mclaren (Port Fairy) from limit taking 1st, Mellissa Mckinlay 2nd and Spek3rd.

All I have from the Colac race is the results so here they are 1st Cameron Shaw, 2nd and I presume fastest Richie Belleville 3rd Matty gstrien looks like scratch and the block stole that one!

The Glen Cooke had a small field start, just under 30 riders. the weather was horrendous with strong winds and a very cool day.
Conditions pointed to the back markers once again.
Lannigan had decided to give schultz a 2minute gap to bridge as a lone scratch rider, an indication of schultzes percieved strength.

second scratch had a group of 5 riders, Matty gstrien looked to be the strongest rider in that bunch.
As the race unfolded second scratch put up a great fight and managed not only to hold off Brendon schuktz, but Matty Gstrien from the block managed to get time replicating his brothers effort in the same event last year.
Mat only managwed to get time by 8 seconds, another indication of the strength of Brendon Schulz.
1 chasing a bunch of 5 and only just missing out on fastest time is an outstanding effort especially under the conditions!

Hamilton Fairing Well in SWS

After recieving 2 copies of the "Hamilton Spectator" and reading the articles regarding the Banks thargo South West Series and the Up and coming Hamilton 75, I have to agree with the comments published bt The Spectator!

Especially after witnessing Gary Pollack convincingly taking line honours in the Hamilton 75 under Less than favourable conditions for a road race!

You would all have to agree with the "Hamilton Spectator"! Hamilton is doing exceptionally well in the series!

I will simply quote headlines, Thursday July 2nd 2009 front page sports index Quote

"LEADING THE PACK"

Full page article on back of same publication the article headline "DOMINATION"

For the benefiet of everyone that has not seen the publication there is also a half page picture of Stuart Robinson sporting the Banks Thargo Leaders Jersey sitting back to back with Darren Sheldon.

Outstanding publicity for Cycling and Banks Thargo Wines!
also a pic of Alex Bosch with a Bicycle Superstore Jersey placed on right hand side of page, also from Hamilton also happens to be leading the Junior SWS leader board!

I guess the lesson for all of us is, consistency pays!

For the full leader board check in comments under the Casterton 40 it has been finally posted.
Click on comments under this post for the top 15, possibly you will notice that Hamilton has featured quite well in the top 15!