Team Skope

13/11/2019

Phil smith testing his legs at Seymour

28/05/2018

Phil Cav fastest time

28/05/2018

Seymour Handicap 26 05 2018

Team Skope Phil Cav & Phil Smith
Scratch (4 riders) departure was 33 minutes after the first riders. We took off at a good pace and rolled turns with stronger riders pulling longer/faster turns. As we got to the hills the bunch stuck together, it was at the crest just before the Avenel/Imperial pub that we had our first drama. Phil Cav had a mechanical and slipped off the back. It was not till we got to the pub that we all became aware we were down to 3, the decision was made not to wait – we had a hard chase and we couldn’t afford to lose any time and in hindsight this turned out to be a good call.
Close to the first turn and we could see the returning 3 minute and 5-minute bunches forming together to make a super bunch, we were in for a hard chase and fastest time was not going to be a cinch! Were pleased to see Cav chasing us but the gap seemed too large and waiting for him would have cost scratch 20 seconds…. might be enough to lose fastest time?
Heading South to Seymour and just as we are cresting the first hill, we get a very welcome surprise. Cav has done a great turn and bridged to us! We eased up a bit on the hill to give Cav a chance to catch his breath and then it was back into it. On the undulations we lost Aaron Field temporarily, but he was able to re-join us on the downhill.
We could just see the super bunch ahead and this was enough to spur everyone along. All four scratchies were riding hard and leaving nothing on the table. U turn at the Southern end and we could see we were slowing making time on everyone, but we were running out of kilometres.
At the final turn at Avenel we had the super bunch in our sights, but it was looking like the catch would be after the hills – no good for losing passengers!
The bridge was made with about 10 km to go, and we now had a massive bunch of about 25 riders.
Scratch was assured of fastest time and it was now up to the other marks to contribute – if they wanted to make the top 10? Unfortunately, things started to slow down, and scratch riders got blocked, the achievable chase to the front mark was now pivoting towards the unlikely.
The pace become slow enough for some attacks to happen, but these were reeled in. A few guys pulled hard turns, but it was only enough to get the bunch in to the top 8 places.
Great ride from Scratch; Phil Cav to win bunch sprint for fastest time, Chris Hughson pulled super long turns and Aaron proved his mettle with his never quit attitude!

28/01/2018

Holty wins!

17/12/2017

Eastern Vets Christmas handicap 16/12/2017

A grade had a bunch of 7 starters in the qualification race, with only 5 qualifying for the handicap, it was going to leave two left out and head early to the beer garden! JP Leclercq and Phil Smith were the team Skope riders.
Phil Smith attacked straight from the gun and had the field stretched, with a gap of 20 metres. After a few laps the chasers caught Phil but the numbers were down, an assesment revealed that there were only 5 left. Nick Tapp and Paul Webster were off the back and considering the high pace were not likely to rejoin the bunch.
Now that we had our 5 qualifiers sorted the pace dropped slightly - just to ensure that we all had legs for the final handicapp race.
Phil Smith had a few mental lapses and went off solo, a few times, but at the end of qualification it was the same 5 that were in for the handicap race.
Perry Peters, Steve Ross, Rob Amos (good to see back in A grade), JP Leclercq and Phil Smith were the 5 qualifiers.
We had an A grade briefing and worked out a plan, then looked forward to the start of the handicap, 3 super fast laps of Casey with no time to take a breath!
At the start line,it seemed like an eternity before we were released for the start, eventually we were away! Steve and Perry pulled hard turns early and then we settled into a rythym with everyone giving 100% to catch front markers. After Lap one it was not looking promising, we were rapidly gaining ground but a strong B grade were still well ahead, it wasnt till the end of Lap two that we reeled in a few groups, and got past B grade. Perry had dropped off but A grade were still 4 strong and working well as a team. Lap 3 saw us pass more groups and we were happy to see the front of the field with still one third of the lap to go!
Of course A grade had a few strong "hanger onners" from other grades, and they were wanting to spoil the A grade party. Phil Smith, did his best to wear out the wheel suckers with a strong leadout for the last kilometre, and then JP and Steve, took over for the final Sprint. JP 1st, Steve 2nd, Phil 3rd and Rob Amos 4th. Almost a clean sweep for Agrade. Perry came in out of the places but he had contributed greatly to the effort!

17/12/2017

Eastern Casey Christmas handicap. Looks like Steve Ross & Phil Smith so fast they got airborne?

15/12/2017

Casey Field winners

15/12/2017

Sun 10th December Lancefield Northern Vets

Team Skope members; David Anderson & Phil Smith, travelled to Lancefield to race the 60km Merle Jamieson Handicap.
In perfect conditions, Dave was off at the 8 minute mark with a group of strong accompanying riders.
Phil was off last with the 3 man scratch mark, riding with the Northern Hardmen, Darren Roberts and Michael Borowski.
Dave and Phil have been riding the Lancefield loop for many years (Phil since 2004) and know how to pace themselves over this undulating terrain. Dave was using his experience and pushing his bunch fast to try and hold out the 5 min & scratch chasing bunches.
On Lap two, Scratch was steadily picking up remnants of groups, and at Newham they caught the 5 minute mark. The pace was high and the 5 minute group were not able to offer much help on the undulations. Scratch tore through the last part of the circuit, passing many more front markers, but were unable to get into the places.
At the finish line we could see the winning grins from Dave & George. Dave showed his good sprint form to win the race, closely followed by George Micevski.
Fastest time to Michael Borowski, first unplaced lady Stacey Hatton and first unplaced O65 David Drew.
Well done to everyone who supported the race and thanks to officials and volunteers for making it possible.

19/11/2017

Phil Cavaleri had a big day at Dunlop Rd with an A grade win and also the raffle. It was an Eastern Veterans Cycling Club Charity Day with $1,100 raised and donated to the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in honour of the memory of Paul Semmens.

A-grade, 1st Phil Cavaleri, 2nd Chris Hughson, 3rd Steve Ross

19/11/2017

Phil Smith ventured out to East Trentham to ride with the best of Northern Cycling to contest the Bradley Family Handicap. Phil was in a 3 man scratch group which needed to pull back 33minutes on limit.

The boys worked hard and only missed out by a couple of minutes. Ian Hatton, off 19mins, remarkably scored a back to back win for this race with John McKinnon 2nd, Tommy Gray (24 mins) rounding out the top 3 and Darren Roberts fastest.

09/07/2017

JP had great frog legs today at round 2 of the Tour de Metro. Finished 2nd behind Kos Samaras after spending almost the entire race in the break away.

04/07/2017

Cold