Guide to the Winter Season and Club Championship
This Winter Season Guide will hopefully be useful to those new to the club, and those not so new!
The Winter program generally starts after Anzac Day with the Soldier's Honour Handicap road race, and then continues with a series of road based events including time trials, scratch road races and handicap road races. The Winter Season also includes criteriums at Nundah with a later start time of 7:15am and Timed Road Races at Lakeside Park. Individual Time Trials are held on the Woongoolba couse and road races on our Elimbah, Somerset Dam and Pine Dam courses. The racing season then wraps up with the Annual Presentation function at the Clubhouse in November. All members are encouraged to participate in these Winter Events.
Scratch Road Race - A 'scratch' race means all riders in the same grade start together.
Handicap Road Race - Small groups of riders leave at intervals of a few minutes - the slowest riders first, and the fastest last. The idea is that everyone should have the same chance of winning the race. The race distances are typically 60Km for higher grades and 30Km for lower grades. Our handicapping team spend many hours trying to get the balance right - entering early and providing detailed rider form information is much appreciated!
Individual Time Trial - riders ride solo and race only against the clock. Riders leave at 30 second intervals. Time trial bikes and helmets are permitted but not essential.
Perpetual Trophy Events
The winners of three of these winter events are awarded perpetual trophies and their name is engraved on the trophy. The winner also gets to keep a smaller individual trophy. The events are:
- The "Soldiers Honour" (around Pine Dam)
- "Frank Papp Memorial" (Elimbah)
- The “Eric Hawkins Memorial Criterium” for A graders at Nundah
Perpetual Aggregrate Trophy
A perpetual trophy is always awarded to the club rider who scores the most number of aggregrate points over the season. The winner also gets a cheque to the value of double of their aggregate points. Throughout the season points are allocated for results in most events and a Perpetual Aggregate trophy awarded at the end of the season to the rider with the highest points aggregate. As well as getting points for placing in events, points are awarded for starting and finishing, fastest times, first unplaced lady etc. The points are weighted to give more incentive to the higher grades to compensate for competition from visiting riders. It is thus a trophy that rewards results and consistency.
Perpetual Aggregate Trophy point system:
For Criteriums, ITT & Graded Road races (Including Interclub races):-
Points are awarded for actual placegetters on the following basis.
A Grade - First - 20, Second - 12, Third - 8, Fourth - 6
B Grade - First - 15, Second – 10 , Third - 7, Fourth - 5
C Grade - First - 12, Second – 9 , Third - 6 , Fourth - 4
D/E Grade - First - 10, Second - 7 , Third – 5 , Fourth - 3
Points are also awarded for:
Start an event - 1 point
Finish an event - 1 point
First unplaced lady - 3 points.
Fastest Time in a Handicap event - 5 points.
Fulfil rostered duty at an event - 2 points
There are only Start/Finish points awarded for Club Champ events.
There must be more than 8 starters in an event for place points to be awarded.
Start/Finish points at Interclub events (i.e. 1 and 1)
If a rider contests an event in a grade lower than his nominal grade and places, the rider will be awarded the place points value for the lower grade.
In the Soldiers Honour Handicap where all grades are in the same event, place points were allocated
on "A Grade" basis (i.e. 20, 12, 8, 6, F/t 5, 1st unplaced Lady – 3)
At events (e.g. Elimbah) where there are two divisions, Div 1 points were as per A grade
and Div 2 as per D grade.
Note that the Winter Points score for the Perpetual Aggregate Trophy is different to the 6 monthly points used for grading.
Club Championship
The Club Championships are held over three events, a Criterium, a Time Trial and a Road race.
The Club Championship events are conducted in 3 events, Road Race, Time Trial and Criterium and in each of the current club grades i.e. A Grade, B Grade etc. (January 2020) As such, they do not form part of the Winter Aggregate point score, but are scored on the following basis in each of the three events. Junior club championships are the exception as they are conducted in Age divisions for U9, U11, U13 and U15, U17. Male and Female riders start together but seperate points are awarded.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medallions are awarded for each discipline and a special Hamilton Wheelers Jersey is awarded in each category to the rider who accumulates most points over the three events.
Riders will remain in their grades for the whole championship unless absolutely necessary - if riders move up a grade they will carry half their points over.
Club Championship Points
1st 10 + Gold Medal
2nd 6 + Silver Medal
3rd 4 + Bronze Medal
Start 1
Finish 1
Peform roster duty at Club Championship event 2pts
Commissaire at club Championship event 4 pts (2018 AGM)
A special Club Champions jersey is awarded to the rider in each category with the highest aggregate points and who has competed in all of the three club championship events. There must be more than one rider, in each championship event (Feb 2019), in the category for a jersey to be awarded. In the event if a tie, the winner is determined by the greater number of highest places. If required after this the ITT time will decide the winner. (Sept 2021)
Primary Club members only are eligible for Club Championship points. Add On members may participate and may receive podium recognition only. (June 2023)
Special Notes Winter Events
To allow the events to start on time and to run efficiently it is important that you arrive at least 30 minutes before the event starting time. If the event is a Handicap entries are to completed prior to the event (typically the Thursday night before) to give the Handicapper a chance to formulate the fields. Do not just turn up 5 minutes prior to start time as the handicapper has a special "loading” for such eventualities. It is important to be present at the Commissaire briefing prior to all races as failure to be there will mean exclusion from the event.
As many events are run on open public roads it is essential that all riders observe the road rules. For Hamilton to conduct these events we must apply for (and be granted) a Police permit to do so. Do not ride more than two abreast (even if the pack has grown in size as bunches catch slower riders) and show courtesy to other road users. We have been issued a warning regarding this aspect of our races by the Police who issue the permits. Please do not be the one who causes these permits to be withdrawn. Hamilton Wheelers have been conducting events on some road circuits for many years but as the population has grown we find that these roads now carry a lot more traffic than in past years and bring with it the need to be more diligent in regards to safety and avoiding public condemnation. This has caused us to hold some road events on Sunday mornings when vehicular traffic is less.
Here are some maps of the various circuits we use.
Who can enter?
All of our races are open to visiting riders except the Club Championship events, the Soldiers Honour race at Pine Dam and any special interclub races.