BiciSport has been sponsoring the Force Cycling Team in Nieuwkerken (near Antwerp) in Belgium since 2023 for a three year period. The team presentation is to be held on 3 February in the town of Temse.
Koen VerHulst will be the BiciSport representative on 3 February
Trans Andean Epic 2024 - Dudley Hoskin (BiciSport Happy Wheels) recently completed the Trans Andean epic ride that started in Santiago and ended in Buenos Aires in South America . Total distance of 1,710k over 9 days with 8,000m of climbing
Bathurst Road Race @ 28 Jan - Ian Grant (BiciSport Anytime Fitness) takes the victory
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Julian Arias, Julian Soto & Christian Quintero (BiciSport Happy Wheels) before the start in C grade. A grade dominated the opening round of the Heffron Summer Series, and both B & C grade did it real tough
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Julian Arias on the Heffron start line
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Julian Soto on the Heffron start line
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Julian Arias on the Heffron main straight
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Julian Arias
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Christian Quintero in C grade on the Heffron main straight
Heffron Park Tuesday Criteriums @ 23 Jan - Christian Quintero on the Heffron Pimple Hill
The Goulburn Track Open is to be held on Saturday 3 Feb and features Davide Browne (BiciSport Happy Wheels) in search of Goulburn Wheelrace glory
The Rutherglen Cyclosportive on 20 April - A lovely cyclosportive through the Rutherglen wine district in North East Victoria.
Go to www.rutherglenrotary.org.
Vale Jan Bogaert @ 24 Jan @ 66 years. RIP
BiciSport has a long time connection with the town of Temse in East Flanders. Temse sits on the River Schelde just 50k from Antwerp. With Temse came Jan Bogaert - a very classy professional cyclist who raced from 1980 to 1995. Jan also has a major cyclosportive in July each year based in Temse named in his honour.
Jan rode for several teams including Vermeer Thijs (see Jan winning a stage in the Tour of Switzerland above). Europ Decor, TVM, & Palmans professional teams.
Jan was a super quick sprinter and won 50 UCI level events with single day victories including E3 Grand Prix, Schaal Sels, Schelde Prijs, Nokere Koerse & Dwars Vlaanderen, then Amstel Gold 2nd place and twice 5th in the Tout of Flanders. Stage wins in Tours were numerous - be it Herald Sun Tour, Milk Race (UK), Circuit Franco Belge, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium.
A typical Jan Bogaert giving it 100% riding in the Europ Decor team colours
WHEN INTERESTS OF ORGANISATIONS & ATHLETES DIVERGE
It would be fair to state that staging any National Road Championships anywhere except the eastern States … well it is headed for an uphill challenge in more ways than one. For some the financial challenges are less when these are offset by taxpayer funded budgets, but invariably the financial burden is simply transferred to others in the cycling hierarchy (being the athletes & supporters).
Loxton (SA) & Perth (WA) …. two new venues on the national road cycling Championship calendar in late 2024 & early 2025. Obviously those governments that have friendly tourism budgets may believe the promised hordes of lycra clad legends invading their town or city as appealing. But will they invade regional SA and far away WA ?
In the case of Loxton you must wonder what the economic & tourism benefits could possibly be to a small town in outback SA as there is virtually no accommodation some 250k from Adelaide. Surely there must be a more suitable NSW venue for Masters championships … somewhere, anywhere …
Perth ? ... Perth has been tried before at the Masters level and the term “success” was a much abused term. With expensive Christmas air tickets and a double drive for mum & dad across the Nullabor Plain, you must wonder who will attend and how will they afford to get there. What if you have an aspiring Junior (in Tasmania) and the cyclist is virtually obliged to attend to get national recognition ?. What of the related Gran Fondo, Masters & Para events held at Ballarat ?. Maybe the teaser is, on the way home, spend another fortune in accommodation and watch the TDU in Adelaide. Maybe watch the Lanterne Rouge podcast and do none of the above.
RACE SEEKER - THIS WEEK
3 Feb
BiciSport Force Cycling Team Presentation (Temse, Belgium)
Goulburn Track Open
Note - the Bowral Track Open set down for 4 Feb has been cancelled
4 Feb
Eastern Creek Dragway (Waratah Masters)
BICISPORT TRAINING RIDES
Every Mon/Wed/Fri Mornings
Centennial Park Masters @ Centennial Park
Meet at the corner of Parkes Drive/Grand Drive at 8.20am and do CP laps until 9.30am then coffee at Spruce Goose Cafe
Tues 30 Jan & Thurs 1 Feb
Blossoms & Buds Peloton @ pass the corner of Yulong Ave & McCarrs Creek Rd Terrey Hills @ 8.00am for Akuna Bay, top of McCarrs Creek Rd climb at 8.40am, then direction Duffys Forest, then return Terrey Hills shops @ 9.15am then to St Ives for coffee
Centennial Park Lower Loop from 5.30am to 7.45am
Thurs 1 Feb
Belgian Waffle Ride @ Spruce Goose Cafe @ Centennial Park @ 10.30am for CP laps
Sat 3 Feb
Coffee @ Sandstone Cafe Miramare Gardens @ 9.30am
Sun 4 Feb
Depart Shark Park carpark near Cronulla @ 9.30am for Kurnell & return
Panasonic Pro Cycling Team (Netherlands (1984-92)
Led by the no nonsense manager in Peter Post (pictured above). Post won the Paris Roubaix Classic himself and was renowned for being hard, hard and then hard some more. Both on himself and all around him.
The Panasonic team came out of the TI Raleigh team …. half of the team went to the new Panasonic team, while others followed Jan Raas to the new Kwantum team. The rivalry between the two teams was bitter & acrimonious. Sponsorship was Panasonic (electrical goods), Isostar (sports drinks), bikes were either Raleigh, Colnago, Eddy Merckx then finally a generic Panasonic brand. Groupsets were Campagnolo early on then Shimano towards the end.
Riders …. well, where to start …. riders were a classy lot, victories in all events as required. Erik Beukink for stage races, Phil Anderson for both stage races & one day Classics, Eddy Planckaert (Classics) , then Tuen Van Vliet, John Paul Van Poppel, Johan Lammerts, Alan Pieper, Steven Rooks, Peter Winnen, Gert van Theuinesse, Robert Millar, Johan van der Velde, Olaf Ludwig, Eric Van der Aerden & Marc Sergeant.
Peter Post doing what PP does best ….
Eddy Planckaert was a renowned single day Classic rider
Johan Van Der Velde (centre) at the Tour of Italy
Phil Anderson (Australia)
Eric Van Der Aerden (right) crashes on the Mur de Geradsbergen in a wet Tour of Flanders
Alan Pieper on a team Eddy Merckx bike
Eric Van der Aerden
