Luo claims women’s ITT nationals but men’s elite race washed out
May 9, 2017
Singapore’s best racers against the clock gathered at the Seletar North Link circuit on Sunday for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Time Trial Championships, and while most of the new national ITT champions were determined, none were crowned and the main contest for the Men’s Open was cancelled as a short but violent storm swept through the venue late in the morning.
Singapore’s best racers against the clock gathered at the Seletar North Link circuit on Sunday for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Championships, and while most of the new national ITT champions were found, none were crowned as a short but violent storm swept through the area forcing the cancellation of the Men’s Open race and the postponement of the awards ceremony.
The Women’s Open contest was also affected, being called off mid-race as the storm fired out barbs of lightning directly above the racecourse. But with all of the women having completed three laps of the 6.25km circuit out of a scheduled four before the cancellation, the decision was made to settle the contest on the times at the three-quarter mark, with Luo Yiwei (Singapore NTS) emerging as the new national champion.
Luo, the reigning 2016 Singapore road race national champion, recorded a time of 29 minutes and 20 seconds for the 18.75km distance, which gave her the title by 33 seconds from fellow national team rider Serene Lee (Bike n Bites). Jeynelle Lee will complete the podium when the awards ceremony eventually takes place, as she finished third a further 30 seconds back.
There was no sign of the drama to come as the cyclists and supporters began to gather for the 7:30am start of the race. Blue skies and hardly a breath of air made it a perfect day for time trialling, and the atmosphere was festive as the various clubs and teams erected their tents alongside the final corner of the circuit, the perfect viewing position.
Slippery time trial bikes, many adorned with disc wheels, and a selection of other aero bling were on display as the excitement built over who would be crowned national champions.
Up for grabs across both genders were titles in Youths (12 and under), Juniors A (17-18), Juniors B (13-16), Masters (35-44), Super Masters (45-54) and Veterans (55+), as well as the blue ribbon Men’s and Women’s Open.
Aside from the Youths (two laps) and the Men’s Open (five laps), all the other competitors faced four laps of the loop, for a total of 25km.
A 10-strong contingent of riders from the Singapore Para Cycling Federation also took to the course for a two-lap contest.
The start/finish line was on the upslope of the bridge that spans the Punggol River, but once each rider was up and over the short incline, the elbow-shaped course was flat and fast for the next 5km, with just the far U-turn requiring the touching of brakes.
Singapore’s best racers against the clock gathered at the Seletar North Link circuit on Sunday for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Time Trial Championships, and while most of the new national ITT champions were determined, none were crowned and the main contest for the Men’s Open was cancelled as a short but violent storm swept through the venue late in the morning.
Singapore’s best racers against the clock gathered at the Seletar North Link circuit on Sunday for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Championships, and while most of the new national ITT champions were found, none were crowned as a short but violent storm swept through the area forcing the cancellation of the Men’s Open race and the postponement of the awards ceremony.
The Women’s Open contest was also affected, being called off mid-race as the storm fired out barbs of lightning directly above the racecourse. But with all of the women having completed three laps of the 6.25km circuit out of a scheduled four before the cancellation, the decision was made to settle the contest on the times at the three-quarter mark, with Luo Yiwei (Singapore NTS) emerging as the new national champion.
Luo, the reigning 2016 Singapore road race national champion, recorded a time of 29 minutes and 20 seconds for the 18.75km distance, which gave her the title by 33 seconds from fellow national team rider Serene Lee (Bike n Bites). Jeynelle Lee will complete the podium when the awards ceremony eventually takes place, as she finished third a further 30 seconds back.
There was no sign of the drama to come as the cyclists and supporters began to gather for the 7:30am start of the race. Blue skies and hardly a breath of air made it a perfect day for time trialling, and the atmosphere was festive as the various clubs and teams erected their tents alongside the final corner of the circuit, the perfect viewing position.
Slippery time trial bikes, many adorned with disc wheels, and a selection of other aero bling were on display as the excitement built over who would be crowned national champions.
Up for grabs across both genders were titles in Youths (12 and under), Juniors A (17-18), Juniors B (13-16), Masters (35-44), Super Masters (45-54) and Veterans (55+), as well as the blue ribbon Men’s and Women’s Open.
Aside from the Youths (two laps) and the Men’s Open (five laps), all the other competitors faced four laps of the loop, for a total of 25km.
A 10-strong contingent of riders from the Singapore Para Cycling Federation also took to the course for a two-lap contest.
The start/finish line was on the upslope of the bridge that spans the Punggol River, but once each rider was up and over the short incline, the elbow-shaped course was flat and fast for the next 5km, with just the far U-turn requiring the touching of brakes.
The return upslope of the bridge at the 5.6km mark brought the speeds down again, and then the riders were faced with the only real technical section of the circuit, in the shape of the second U-turn, which came at the bottom of the downslope.
Various levels of handling skills were on full display as the riders negotiated the 180-degree turn at speed. While the best flew round the corner with aplomb, many sensibly hit the brakes and gingerly maneuvered their less-than-nimble TT rigs around; but quite a few riders misjudged the speed and skill required to handle the hurdle, emitting many oohs and aahs from the riders and supporters in the team tents.
The racing
The early action saw the youngsters take centre stage, and all eyes were on defending Juniors A champion Firoz Loh to see if he could repeat. The 17-year-old Team West Coast Racing rider did so with ease, covering the 25km in a time of 37:23. That equated to an average speed of 40kph, which is quite impressive on a course featuring eight U-turns. Loh's winning margin was some 2 minutes from the runner-up Curtis Tan (Guerciotti Racing Team), with Arfan Faisal (Team Awano) finishing in third place just 5 seconds back from Tan.
The Juniors B race saw another sterling winning performance with young Jared Wong (30Forty Cycling Team) covering the 25km in 40:02, a speedy split for a youngster. Malcolm Tan (U Cycling Team) finished some 90 seconds back in third, while Henry Wong (Team Seasucker) will occupy the final podium spot.
Alas, only one female Junior took to the race field for the ITT nationals yesterday, but Ashley Jenna Lui (Cycleworx) has already shown in the past year that she’s one of the strongest female cyclists of any age in Singapore, so there was no sheen taken from her title by the lack of competition.
The action then moved onto the adults with the Masters contests across both genders. Some 34 men were on the start list for the four-lap battle against the clock, set off at one-minute intervals. Time trials are known as the “race of truth” as it’s just man (or woman) and machine against the clock, and over point-to-point course there’s no way for the competitors to tell how they are going against the rest of the field. Catching the rider in front (or being caught from behind!!) can give some indication of progress, but generally it’s unknown until the end.
Multi-lap courses like for Sunday's race, though, allow the riders the chance to see where they stand against their rivals by taking note of their relative positions when they pass each other going in different directions.
Various levels of handling skills were on full display as the riders negotiated the 180-degree turn at speed. While the best flew round the corner with aplomb, many sensibly hit the brakes and gingerly maneuvered their less-than-nimble TT rigs around; but quite a few riders misjudged the speed and skill required to handle the hurdle, emitting many oohs and aahs from the riders and supporters in the team tents.
The racing
The early action saw the youngsters take centre stage, and all eyes were on defending Juniors A champion Firoz Loh to see if he could repeat. The 17-year-old Team West Coast Racing rider did so with ease, covering the 25km in a time of 37:23. That equated to an average speed of 40kph, which is quite impressive on a course featuring eight U-turns. Loh's winning margin was some 2 minutes from the runner-up Curtis Tan (Guerciotti Racing Team), with Arfan Faisal (Team Awano) finishing in third place just 5 seconds back from Tan.
The Juniors B race saw another sterling winning performance with young Jared Wong (30Forty Cycling Team) covering the 25km in 40:02, a speedy split for a youngster. Malcolm Tan (U Cycling Team) finished some 90 seconds back in third, while Henry Wong (Team Seasucker) will occupy the final podium spot.
Alas, only one female Junior took to the race field for the ITT nationals yesterday, but Ashley Jenna Lui (Cycleworx) has already shown in the past year that she’s one of the strongest female cyclists of any age in Singapore, so there was no sheen taken from her title by the lack of competition.
The action then moved onto the adults with the Masters contests across both genders. Some 34 men were on the start list for the four-lap battle against the clock, set off at one-minute intervals. Time trials are known as the “race of truth” as it’s just man (or woman) and machine against the clock, and over point-to-point course there’s no way for the competitors to tell how they are going against the rest of the field. Catching the rider in front (or being caught from behind!!) can give some indication of progress, but generally it’s unknown until the end.
Multi-lap courses like for Sunday's race, though, allow the riders the chance to see where they stand against their rivals by taking note of their relative positions when they pass each other going in different directions.
Whether that had much effect in the Men’s Master’s field is unknown, but the final result was a close run thing, with David Kendall (Integrated Riding Racing) winning the race by just nine seconds from Michael Naert (Matador Racing). Kendall’s wining time for the 25km was 35:49. Finishing third and taking the title of national champion as the fastest Singaporean was Varian Tan.
The Women’s Masters race was won by Andrea Ferschl (Anza Cycling), whose winning time of 39:48 would have stood up well against the leading lights in Women’s Open race later in the morning. Ferschl faced just one other rider, Esther Chua (Cycleworx), with the Singaporean taking the title of national champion.
Onto the Super Masters, and a very popular champion was found in the Men’s race in the form of that well-known figure of Singapore cycling Kenneth Tan (Cycleworx). Missing from the racing scene for a number of years, Tan announced his comeback as part of the Cycleworx squad that finished third in the Masters division of the OCBC Cycle Team Time Trial Championships last month.
He backed that performance up on Sunday by covering the 25km in a time of 36:59 to emerge as top dog from the field of 19 riders and assume the mantle of national champion. The runner-up was Hish Scarff (Allied World Champion System) finished 11 seconds back, with Alan Grant (Specialized Roval Mavericks) a further 7 seconds behind in third.
Five ladies contested the Women’s Super Masters race, with Lynette Ngo (Team Cycledelic) recording a resounding victory and the national champions crown with a time of 42:04. The runner-up was Ruth Stubbs (Anza Cycling), with her teammate Megan Kinder in third.
Ian McDonald (Joyriders) took the men’s Veterans race from Michael Tan, with the Singaporean Tan taking the national title.
The skies then darkened as the elite women men took to the racecourse and the threat of rain or worse hung in the sky. The black clouds held their ammunition back for the first 10 minutes or so of the men’s race, but first light rain, then a downpour hit the course, complete with swirling winds.
These weather conditions alone would not have been enough to bring the cancellation of the racing, but when thunder and lightning began arriving overhead simultaneously, the decision to call off the contest was the correct one for the commissaries to make.
The storm passed over within 30 minutes or so, but with the road closure only secured until 1pm, and no chance of securing an ad-hoc extension, thoughts of restarting the Men’s Open race over a shorter distance were soon dashed.
The Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF) have stated their intention to restage the event at a later date, but the costs and bureaucratic hurdles associated with closing roads in Singapore for bike races is notoriously difficult so it wouldn’t be a total surprise if this doesn’t happen any time soon, if at all. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
Full results from the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road ITT Championships can be found by clicking on this link.
The long arm of the law
Weather issues aside, the ITT national champs were a success, although some of the officiating from the race commissaries raised a few eyebrows.
Strict rules pertaining to bikes and equipment are applied in UCI-sanctioned events such as the Singapore national championships, and a number of riders discovered their bikes fell foul of the regulations while in the start pen on Sunday. This resulted in a few mad scrambles to adjust aerobar and saddle positions, and some riders couldn't get the fixes done in time, leaving them allowed to ride but ineligible for a ranking. But to be fair to the commissaries, the regulations were posted on the event website for weeks beforehand and every rider had an opportunity to have their bikes checked during the race collection process at the SCF offices the day before the race.
But other decisions such as telling one rider he couldn’t race because his socks didn’t cover his ankles seemed a bit extreme. Yet while that rule was strictly applied, another competitor was let off with a warning and allowed to race after being told the dimensions of his aero water bottle were slightly outwith the allowed margins. While the latter seems like a case of common sense flexibility, surely a consistent approach to “trivial” matters is required.
These weather conditions alone would not have been enough to bring the cancellation of the racing, but when thunder and lightning began arriving overhead simultaneously, the decision to call off the contest was the correct one for the commissaries to make.
The storm passed over within 30 minutes or so, but with the road closure only secured until 1pm, and no chance of securing an ad-hoc extension, thoughts of restarting the Men’s Open race over a shorter distance were soon dashed.
The Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF) have stated their intention to restage the event at a later date, but the costs and bureaucratic hurdles associated with closing roads in Singapore for bike races is notoriously difficult so it wouldn’t be a total surprise if this doesn’t happen any time soon, if at all. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
Full results from the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road ITT Championships can be found by clicking on this link.
The long arm of the law
Weather issues aside, the ITT national champs were a success, although some of the officiating from the race commissaries raised a few eyebrows.
Strict rules pertaining to bikes and equipment are applied in UCI-sanctioned events such as the Singapore national championships, and a number of riders discovered their bikes fell foul of the regulations while in the start pen on Sunday. This resulted in a few mad scrambles to adjust aerobar and saddle positions, and some riders couldn't get the fixes done in time, leaving them allowed to ride but ineligible for a ranking. But to be fair to the commissaries, the regulations were posted on the event website for weeks beforehand and every rider had an opportunity to have their bikes checked during the race collection process at the SCF offices the day before the race.
But other decisions such as telling one rider he couldn’t race because his socks didn’t cover his ankles seemed a bit extreme. Yet while that rule was strictly applied, another competitor was let off with a warning and allowed to race after being told the dimensions of his aero water bottle were slightly outwith the allowed margins. While the latter seems like a case of common sense flexibility, surely a consistent approach to “trivial” matters is required.
But other decisions such as telling one rider he couldn’t race because his socks didn’t cover his ankles seemed a bit extreme. Yet while that rule was strictly applied, another competitor was let off with a warning and allowed to race after being told the dimensions of his aero water bottle were slightly outwith the allowed margins. While the latter seems like a case of common sense flexibility, surely a consistent approach to “trivial” matters is required.
Another issue related to the event timing also spoiled some riders’ days. The entire race program had started 10 minutes late and an official announcement to that affect was made. But when those lost 10 minutes were subsequently recovered and the decision made to put the program back on schedule, some riders were out warming up and so unaware, and subsequently missed their start times. Rather than being shown some flexibility, those riders had their results recorded from their original start times, rather than when they actually rolled out of the gate.
It is each rider’s responsibility to make sure they are on time, and a prudent approach would be to report to the start pen early, but to be penalised for an on-the-fly decision seems harsh.
Next up, the Nationals road race
National champs racing returns to the Seletar “arena” on May 21, with the mass-start 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Race Championships. The same 6.25km circuit will be used, with the Men’s Open field facing 12 laps (or 75km) of action, while the Women’s Open riders will race over 10 laps.
The Juniors A, Masters, Super Masters and Veterans contests will be short-and-sharp, four-lap affairs.
Let’s hope Singapore’s road racing community responds in big numbers. That only 130 cyclists registered for last Sunday's ITT nationals was relatively disappointing, especially considering that over 330 people took part in the recent OCBC Cycle Team Time Trial event.
Not helping participation numbers at the ITT was the fact that another cycling race was taking part in Singapore on Sunday morning, the TriFactor Bike. While the Singapore road cycling scene is in a fairly healthy state, it’s not big enough yet that it can sustain two races on the same day.
A significant number of regular racers from some of Singapore’s best-known cycling clubs opted for the unsanctioned and let’s face it, rather quirky, TriFactor Bike rather than the prestigious national championship event. Let’s hope they return to the fold for the road race nationals.
Registration for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Race Championships remains open until May 15. For full details and to register, visit the event website at dirtraction.com.
Another issue related to the event timing also spoiled some riders’ days. The entire race program had started 10 minutes late and an official announcement to that affect was made. But when those lost 10 minutes were subsequently recovered and the decision made to put the program back on schedule, some riders were out warming up and so unaware, and subsequently missed their start times. Rather than being shown some flexibility, those riders had their results recorded from their original start times, rather than when they actually rolled out of the gate.
It is each rider’s responsibility to make sure they are on time, and a prudent approach would be to report to the start pen early, but to be penalised for an on-the-fly decision seems harsh.
Next up, the Nationals road race
National champs racing returns to the Seletar “arena” on May 21, with the mass-start 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Race Championships. The same 6.25km circuit will be used, with the Men’s Open field facing 12 laps (or 75km) of action, while the Women’s Open riders will race over 10 laps.
The Juniors A, Masters, Super Masters and Veterans contests will be short-and-sharp, four-lap affairs.
Let’s hope Singapore’s road racing community responds in big numbers. That only 130 cyclists registered for last Sunday's ITT nationals was relatively disappointing, especially considering that over 330 people took part in the recent OCBC Cycle Team Time Trial event.
Not helping participation numbers at the ITT was the fact that another cycling race was taking part in Singapore on Sunday morning, the TriFactor Bike. While the Singapore road cycling scene is in a fairly healthy state, it’s not big enough yet that it can sustain two races on the same day.
A significant number of regular racers from some of Singapore’s best-known cycling clubs opted for the unsanctioned and let’s face it, rather quirky, TriFactor Bike rather than the prestigious national championship event. Let’s hope they return to the fold for the road race nationals.
Registration for the 2017 OCBC Cycle National Road Race Championships remains open until May 15. For full details and to register, visit the event website at dirtraction.com.