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Cycling legends inspire new masters

May 13, 2021 BY

Historic: Brian Long, Sharon Boyd, Steven Crowe, Michael Lewis, Peter Lamb and Richard Buckwell at the completion of the first Buckwell-Long Handicap. Photo: SUPPLIED

THE inaugural Buckwell-Long Handicap was staged on Saturday, 8 May on a circuit west of Meredith, jointly hosted by the Geelong & Surf Coast Cycling Club and Eureka Cycling, and co-hosted with Colac Veterans Cycling Club.

The race was created to celebrate the contributions that Richard Buckwell and Brian Long have made to cycling in Victoria. The pair have a collective 137 years involvement with cycling.

The race attracted a field of 60 riders, with many long-time friends and racing foes travelling to participate and reminisce.

Long was born and raised in Ballarat where he rode with Sebastopol Cycling Club as a junior in the mid-1940s and quickly became a professional racing cyclist.

Buckwell moved to Ballarat in the mid-1950s. Upon visiting local bike shop Super Elliotts in search of information about local clubs, he was steered in the direction of Ballarat Cycling Club.

This was all before the clubs united to become what is now the Ballarat Sebastopol Cycling Club.

While their early racing years were in Ballarat, each man moved to Geelong and built cycling legacies.

Buckwell was involved with cycling administration since the 1960s and Long only now surpassing the number of sashes he has won with years of age he has attained.

The paper simply does not have enough pages to recount the stories these two legends of Victorian cycling have to tell.

The Buckwell-Long handicap race was dominated by the 21-minute group, which swept all before them.

Eureka Cycling members Peter Lamb, Steven Crowe and Michael Lewis filled the trifecta. The men are new to masters racing, having only just taken out AusCycling licences during the summer and sharing just a dozen road cycling races between the three of them.

Another new Eureka member – Sharon Boyd – collected the women fastest time prize. Boyd has made an impressive start to her road racing career which also began this past summer.

Visiting rider Matthew Sherwin collected the men fastest time prize.

Buckwell-Long Hcp, 64 Km at Meredith results – 1st – Peter Lamb, Eureka (21 min), 2nd – Steven Crowe, Eureka (21 min), 3rd – Michael Lewis, Eureka (21 min), 4th – Marcus Coppock, GSCC (21 min), 5th – Jim Burzacott, GSCC (21 min), 6th – David Braille, Footscray (21 min), 7th – Tony Peach, GSCC (21 min), 8th – Roger McMillan, Eureka (28 min), 9th – Peter Wright, Manning Valley, NSW (28 min), 10th – Gary Blick, GSCC (21 min)

Women fastest time – Sharon Boyd, Eureka (14m 30s) in 1h 54m 50s ave. 33.9kph

Men Fastest Time – Matthew Sherwin, Caulfield-Carnegie (Scratch) in 1h 33m 50s ave. 40.9kph

 

-BY DEAN WELLS