Bicycle Network: Roadies
Race Calendars and Event News
Crit Season is Almost Here
4th October. The magpies are swooping and the weather is improving. All signs that the competitive cyclist can read to know that criterium season is about to kick off.
Melbourne riders will have the choice of racing in criteriums hosted by Carnegie Caulfield, Southern Masters, Hawthorn, St Kilda and Coburg Cycling Clubs.
Your Weekly Racing Schedule:
- Tuesday Evening: Sandown Twilight Criteriums run by Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club
- Wednesday Evening: Hawthorn Cycling Club's Kew Boulevard Summer Crit
- Thursday Evening: Southern Masters Cycling Club's Sandown Criteriums and VUT Criteriums run by Footscray Cycling Club
- Saturday Morning: Northern Criterium Series at National Boulevard run by Coburg Cycling Club and VUT Criteriums run by Footscray Cycling Club
- Sunday: Glenvale Crescent Criteriums run by Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club, St Kilda Cycling Club's Port Melbourne Criterium Series and Southern Masters Cycling Club's Casey Fields Criteriums
Contact us if there are other criterium series that we have missed.
2013 Tour of Bright: The New Grand Final of Victorian Road Racing
19th September. Cycling Victoria has recently announced that 2013 will see a State Road Race Series established. Details on the series aren’t currently clear but one of the rewards for doing well in the series is that the top 20 in each category will receive automatic entry to the 2013 Tour of Bright making Bright the unofficial Grand Final of road racing in Victoria.
The unprecedented demand for the Tour of Bright saw the 2012 event sell out all grades within a day - and many categories within an hour - and has led Cycling Victoria to introduce a ballot for the 2013 event.
The ballot will be open for one week in September to all riders that don’t receive an automatic entry for the event.
Riders can win automatic entry by being in the top 20 in the general classification or the top 3 in the sprint and king of the mountain classifications. Male and female A-grade riders are an exception as they will qualify through their team's performance, which rewards the top three teams from the previous year and the team of the tour winner if his or her team isn’t in the top three.
There are no details on how the automatic entry system will handle riders that are promoted to a higher grade between tours but the reward of an automatic qualification is sure to intensify an already tough race.
January to become Australia's Month of Cycling
19th September. The announcement made by the Victorian State Government and the Herald and Weekly Times that Australia's oldest stage race, The Herald Sun Tour, would return for 2013 in January, will mean a month where cycling fans are spoilt for choice.
The Herald Sun Tour's move to January will mean a month of world-class cycling competition. The month kicks off with the Mitchelton Bay Classic Criterium Series, running from New Year's Day to the 3rd of January. The final stage of the Bay Classics will be held in Williamstown, coinciding with the prologue of the Herald Sun Tour. The Sun Tour will consist of the prologue in Williamstown, followed by three road stages finishing in Bendigo, Healesville and Arthur's Seat.
The month of cycling then shifts to Ballarat for the Australian Championships that will see fierce competition in the time trial, criterium and road race.
Competition then heads out of Victoria for the first time during the month for the Tour Down Under in South Australia. Held from January 20th to 27th, the Santos Tour Down Under will see some of the stars of international cycling battle it out in the first ProTour race of 2013.
This month-long frenzy of world-class racing is a fitting testament to the continual rise of cycling in Australia.