Talents such as young George Griffiths have Tuesday nights booked out every week as four grades do loops around the velodrome track at Moama.
Summer racing is “a little bit more relaxed” according to club president Matt Dobeli.
Certainly more so than the 50 or so kilometre, open road winter rides.
He compares the current treks to T20 cricket — shorter, faster and a bit more fun-filled.
“This is smaller groups, shorter races and you’re home within an hour,” Dobeli said.
“It’s quite popular and the numbers have been okay.”
The club has had about 20 riders present in its opening two weeks.
There were no A-graders at race two and The Riv labelled the club report this week, ‘No A-grade, no problem’.
“It really is that way,” C-grade rider Dobeli said.
“The rest of us in the other grades are happy to do the same racing anyway because it’s good for numbers and it’s all local and always in the same place.”
The place, a track behind Moama Anglican Grammar, was built by Murray River Council.
It provides the club with flexibility in how it runs races.
“We would be one of the very few clubs in Victoria and NSW with our own criterium track,” Dobeli said.
“We can block the driveway and then we've got an off-road track we can race on, so we’re pretty lucky with that.”
The president started to sound a bit like a concreter when describing the “beautiful, smooth bitumen” that wraps around for 700m.
In A and B-grade they’re curling around for a lap every 30 to 45 seconds — down in D-grade it’s closer to a minute.
But you don’t have to be into competition to get involved.
Or even ride at the velodrome.
“There are regular bunches through the week, pretty much every day just doing training rides,” Dobeli said.
“On Saturday and Sunday we've got 20 to 30 people out riding and even the 6.15am midweek bunches can have 8 to 12 riders.”
Hopefully, for those early morning riders there are some summer-like temperatures around the corner.
“Warmer weather gets people up and about and excited to ride,” Dobeli said.
The club can easily provide more information for those interested in joining — whether competitively or to train.
Just message its Facebook page.
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