Rollapaluza IX-Mas
Pics here.
Rollapaluza made a triumphant return to the Waterloo Action Centre with one of their biggest races ever! 250 spectators and 59 racers! we think that’s a record, we’re checking back over the results sheets of the last few years to check.
Competitors could not have been keener, for the first time in Rollapaluza history eager racers were queuing up outside the door 30 minutes before our advertised starting time, possibly due to the freebies on offer for the first forty competitors
There were so many racers we had to extend qualifying to beyond 9 o’clock and after this invidual time-trial stage of the event a clear (and confident) favourite had emerged in the (huge) shape of Lee Povey, a well known track racer from Brighton.
In the ladies qualifying Sarah looked like the hot favourite, yet both her and Lee were to be later knocked out by riders much lower down the initial qualifying rankings.
As is usual, the men’s first round followed the form book except in the case of Brendan who had initially not qualified, so hit the bar instead, he was called in to replace the mysterious Eddie who had disappeared after qualifying fourth fastest, amazingly he knocked out Martin, who qualified four places ahead of him.
There was a major upset in the quarter finals in a David and Goliath match between the “Brighton Giant” Lee Povey and the diminutive Scarlett who overcame the fastest qualifier Lee by one of the smallest margins we’ve ever seen, setting the fastest time of the night so far with 20.58…..all that specific training paid off.
Scarlett went on to beat London’s fastest courier Jos in the semis and mark Burgess dispensed with Michael Lynch in what was to be the eventual fasted time of the night, 20.30 seconds….Simon Jackson’s record remains for now, and a happy looking Simon was in the audience….
In the Ladies semi, Charlene lopped a massive 2.5 seconds off her qualifying time to knockout the fastest qualifier Sarah and Chandra knocked out Agata.
So to the finals….Charlene continued her run and beat Chandra to the title, despite having won roller races before Charlene was as pleased and excited as ever and happily sprayed the crowd with Champagne…..she took home a brand new Timbuk2 bag courtesy of Brixton Cycles.
Both the men’s finalists had improved steadily as the night went on so it was anyone’s guess as to who might take it, continuing the Rollapaluza tradition, we neglected to mention to the finalists that they would be racing over 1000m until just before they were due to start…..Scarlett looked to have it until about 200 to go when experienced trackie Mark launched a final sprint thanks to Lee’s coaching tips….he blazed past Scarlett in the closing stages to take the title and the first prize of a PAC ultimate bag emblazoned with the legend: “Rollapaluza winner 2007″
Qualifying times below….
A Massive thanks to all the staff, especially those trapped behind the bar and freezing on the door!
Much appreciation to our major sponsors without their continued support of grass-roots cycling, it would be difficult to put these kind of events on:
Mosquito
Rapha
Condor
Brixton Cycles
PAc Bags
and also to our prize sponsors:
Fresh Tripe
Tour de Ville
Smeear
Archies Gro-bags
And thanks to the Deadley Treadleys for their continuing musical role in Rollapaluza plus all the LFGSS djs:
Jono
Slamm
Teenslain
J:Miah
The Living Graham Bond
Steve McColl
Male qualifying:
pos Name Age Time lfgss forum name
1 Lee Povey 34 20.7
2 jos da boss 21.17 jos
3 mark burgess 24 21.46 marki_b
4 eddy 37 21.62 john lewis
5 michael lynch 28 21.72 hael
6 Nelly 33 22.02
7 sam day 33 22.17 sam
8 Andy 26 22.28
9 Scarlett 34 22.31 bmmf
10 adam stone 27 22.46 DT00AAS
11 phil aspden 42 22.48
12 tim remowdem 27 22.58 matt tmy
13 martin duke 31 22.64
14 peter georgallou 22.84 bobcat magraw
15 Ben Marsh 25 22.92 666ninjas
16 buffy 41 22.95 Buffalo Bill
17 brendan mcnamee 33 22.95 skoota
18 sebastian seeley 18 22.98
19 aidan 21 23.02 aidan
20 dave corrigan 24 23.06
21 Robin Wilkinson 28 23.14 lucky 7
22 john mack 31 23.2 ma3k
23 Matt Ashton 29 23.2 mashton
24 flatlander 36 23.26
25 robb meertens 33 23.28 slamm
26 fenboy 23 23.28
27 ray abley 34 23.32
28 craig jackson 24 23.39
29 jim 32 23.45 mouse
30 Ben Broomfield 24 23.61 photoben
31 david kitchen 33 23.76
32 Brett Wilding 30 23.81 brett
33 johnny wilkinson 38 23.92
34 jonathan greenwald 31 24.02
35 tommy 27 24.06 tommy the brick
36 James Chilcott 23 24.24
37 Stuart Birnie 28 24.58 hippy
38 anselm 28 24.62
39 daniel bregler 32 24.98 danzel
40 gabriel 36 25.14
41 Jack Thurston 34 25.42
42 kieron yates 41 25.46
43 Dave tAppy 32 25.53 dt
44 overdrive 38 25.59
45 csaba 25 25.68
46 mark hunt 27 25.75
47 dogsballs 31 25.9 dogsballs
48 Matthew Stone 29 26.06 ddm
49 marco vittur 25 26.53 pepperoni
50 mark nicholls 27 28.04
51 andre 31 28.18 doca
52 gary smith 36
Female Qualifying:
pos Name Time
1 sarah cole 26.65 hops
2 chandra 27.45
3 agata 27.58
4 charlene 27.95
5 Nemone Metaxas 28.17
6 Tanya 28.89
7 saira greenwald