‘Wangaratta’s World on Wheels…Part 1’ by KB Hill

 

A solitary figure, pedalling furiously, peels off lap after lap in the gathering dusk at the Wangaratta Showgrounds, seemingly on a road to nowhere…….

Nowhere ?………..

Five years later, at some unearthly hour, hundreds, maybe thousands of locals sit glued to their TV sets, as Australia’s ‘Awesome Foursome’ clinch the Teams Pursuit Gold Medal at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984.

The curly-haired ‘baby’ of the group, who has partnered Michael Grenda, Michael Turtur and Kevin Nichols to a famous victory, later sends a teary “cheerio to everyone in Wang”……

***

 

In this, the first of a two-part series, ‘On Reflection’ has taken on the job of assessing Wangaratta’s finest cyclists…..

It’s a huge task, and will surely prompt criticism, but there is no doubt that DEAN WOODS is at the head of the list……..

Woods began racing at the age of 10……In his first race he fell, but was plonked back on his bike and rode to victory. He revealed his obvious potential when he won gold at the World Junior championships in New Zealand.

On his return, he was contacted by Australian coach Charlie Walsh and invited to join his program….This was the first formal coaching he received.

Woods was a dominant cyclist in the ‘80s and ‘90s…..He narrowly missed a bronze medal in the 4000m Individual Pursuit at Los Angeles and two years later, aged 20, won Gold Medals in the Individual and Teams Pursuit, and silver in the 20km scratch race at the Commonwealth Games.

He won silver and bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics…..When he retired, Woods was the only Australian athlete to have won an Olympic Gold, a Commonwealth Games Gold (3), and a World Championship Gold Medal (3)…….He won 20 National Titles.

But one of his proudest achievements came in 1990 when he rode from scratch to smash the race record in the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic by more than 25 minutes.

The ‘Warrnambool’ tests most seasoned road riders. For Dean Woods, a track specialist, to achieve that feat, then finish first and fastest three years later, was downright amazing.

 

 

 

 

The great Dean Woods

 

***

 

The career of GLENN CLARKE ran almost parallel to that of Woods, his Olympic team-mate at Los Angeles in 1984.

In fact, it was pure bad luck that he wasn’t a part of the Teams Pursuit Medal win. He caught a cold during their preparation for the event and suggested to coach Walsh that he may be a bit below his top.

Although he’d sacrificed his chances of Gold he managed to produce a world-class ride in the 50km Points Score event. Clarke was two laps up on the field in the final and looking a big chance for a spot on the podium.

However, he was caught unawares when a break from the bunch was made, and he finished a highly creditable fifth.

Glenn Clarke’s cycling career began when he started delivering newspapers around the streets of Wangaratta. His bike eventually broke down and with his ‘paper-money’ he procured a second-hand bike for $65.

Within a couple of years he’d been awarded the Russell Mockridge ‘Oscar’ as Victoria’s best all-round cyclist, and a brilliant career was ignited.

Clarke shared Gold with Dean Woods, Brett Dutton and Wayne McCarney in the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games and was a prominent member of the Australian team until he turned pro in 1987.

He rode for an English team for several years, won a National Criterium title, and achieved one of his biggest thrills when he returned home to win the Wangaratta Wheelrace before an adoring home crowd in 1990.

 

DAMIAN McDONALD was one of a number of local cyclists inspired by the deeds of Woods and Clarke.

A larger-than-life character, he followed his brother Dean into cycling and proved a raging success. An AIS Scholarship holder, his strong ride in the 1995 World Championships in Colombia enabled Australia to qualify for the Teams Time Trial at the Atlanta Olympics the following year. He also rode in the 221km men’s Individual Road race.

He was a reserve for the four-man pursuit team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and picked up Gold at the ‘94 Commonwealth Games as part of the Road Time-Trial team.

Damian McDonald was an outstanding tour rider with a tenacious attitude, and was very much a stalwart of the Giant AIS team during the nineties. He also won Gold in the inaugural Malaysian Tour of Langkawi in 1996.

He was one of three people killed in a collision and explosion in Melbourne’s Burnley Tunnel in 2007.

 

Damian McDonald

 

 

Local stalwart Pat Toohey guided DEAN McDONALD in the direction of the bike game. He went for a ride with the veteran, liked it and was hooked.

Dean first attracted attention when he won the National Junior 40km title in 1983, aged 16, took out the National Junior 100km title two years later; then represented Australia at the Oceania Games in Tahiti.

He had been chosen to wear the Green and Gold in two of Japan’s major road races in 1986 and spent 7 months in Paris riding for the French team Aubervilliers.

He finished second in the National 5000m Individual pursuit in 1989 but rocketed to prominence when he took out the Australian 200km road championship in Launceston in 1990.

At this stage Dean McDonald was half-way through his plumbing apprenticeship, so he made the decision that cycling should take second-place to his business career.

He and a mate, Steve O’Brien, took the plunge and went into business – as McDonald-O’Brien – in 1998.

Seven weeks later, tragedy struck when he fell off a roof and suffered severe spinal injuries which were destined to leave him wheel-chair bound for the remainder of his life.

 

***

 

BARRY BURNS spent 13 months fighting in the Vietnam War and came home with his body intact and his mind shattered. He spent 11 years in and out of psychiatric wards as he battled frustration, aggression and, very nearly, the will to live.

He had been a keen cyclist in his younger days and, in desperation, a doctor suggested he climb back on the bike as a form of therapy.

So at 31 he began a punishing regime which entailed riding 1000km a week, ultimately enabling him to match it with the best young riders of the day.

Over the next 10 years he became famous for his attacking style…… Burns won his first title in 1987, the NSW Road Championship….. then finished fifth in the inaugural ‘King of the Mountains Classic’.

The following year he contested the same event (from Wangaratta to Mt Buffalo) and this time broke from the main bunch, 21km from home, pulling away to win by 5 seconds.

His monumental performance to win the ‘Melbourne to Warrnambool’ road race from scratch – at the grand old age of 41 – was one of the event’s outstanding achievements…….But his effort in winning two stages of the ‘Sun Tour’ in the same year was also worthy of mention.

Burns represented Australia in the 1990 World Road Championships, but unfortunately, crashed during the event.

He spent the latter part of his career providing tutelage to young riders…..

 

‘Melbourne to Warrnambool’ winners: Graeme Daws,
Dean Woods, Barry Burns and Brendan McAuliffe

 

GRAEME DAWS was a 19-year-old, shy, introverted cycling fanatic when he rode into the sport’s history books.

Daws was used to spending long hours in the saddle and was a ‘sponge’ when regularly soaking up advice from the town’s veteran bikies.

But most of them would have quietly scoffed at his chances of winning the 1959 ‘Melbourne to Warrnambool’……

Undeterred, he took a month off work to prepare for the race and clocked more than 5,000 miles in pursuit of his dream.

Experiencing the extremities of weather that ‘The Warrnambool’ can concoct, Daws and three others rode the last 70 miles of the race on their own…….When they entered the city’s main thoroughfare, Raglan Parade, he sprinted to the line to take the coveted race by a bike-length.

Graeme Daws never again reached those heights, although he won a 3-day Benalla Ensign Tour, and a McMillan Memorial road race the following year.

But right up to the time of his death in 2008, aged 68, his daily ritual was a long ride on the back roads of his home town…….

 

Bespectacled JACK SOMMER was an Albury resident but rode under the banner of the Wangaratta Cycling Club for much of his career.

He finished fifth when his great friend Daws collected his ‘Warrnambool’, and was just 23 – and a relative novice – when he was handed the tough mark of 15 minutes the following year.

It was a crackerjack field and the conditions were typically bleak but he overcame fierce winds and two severe storms to prevail by half a wheel in a stirring finish.

Dutch-born Sommer later rode with some success in European six-day races and thrilled a large crowd when he stormed home to win the 1962 Wangaratta Wheelrace.

 

BRENDAN McAULIFFE attributes much of his success in cycling to his original coach, Barrie Burns.

“We’d climb into his green panelvan and head off to races……He was a terrific coach and, you know, never charged the nine of us who were in his ‘stable’, a cent….” he recalled.

Still not old enough to hold a driver’s licence, Brendan was inspired to head over to ride on the Continent after hearing his cousin’s stories of his experiences in Denmark and Belgium.

When he returned home he decided to set himself for the ‘Warrnambool’…… As a junior he was technically not permitted to ride in any event over 120km but was given a dispensation by the Chief Commissioner.

Eight of the previous nine winners of the race had ridden from scratch, but McAuliffe took advantage of his mark and overcame tiredness to sprint to the line and scoop up $5,000 as the winner of the prestigious Classic.

He used the prize-money to return overseas and contest several of the big races on the European circuit.

McAuliffe is now domiciled on the Gold Coast and is still involved in the bike industry……

 

IAN PETTS arrived upon cycling quite by accident. …..

“I left by old bike lying in the driveway of our house in Brashe Avenue……A really keen rider, Terry Sumner, who lived over the road, offered to fix it for me…..Then I had the temerity to ask if he had an old racing frame.”

“He said: ‘I have, and I’ll give it to you if you come down and have a ride with us’…….That got me going…..”

Petts enjoyed immediate success when he turned pro, and rode strongly at the prestigious Tasmanian Carnivals (Burnie and Latrobe) over Christmas/ New Year of 1977.

He then backed up to score one of the most sensational ever wins, as a mid-marker, in the Wangaratta Wheelrace, just pipping the highly-rated Laurie Vern and Chris Salisbury in the Final.

He rode competitively for another nine years, chalking up an impressive list of wins, including the Wagga and Dubbo Wheelraces, a Victorian Handicap title, and several other country successes.

He also finished a close second in his crack at the Bendigo Golden Mile.

 

Jack Sommer

 

 

ALAN ‘Pud’ VINCENT was a mad keen footballer before his attention turned to the bike game.

 

 

It became a lifelong passion. He was in a red-hot vein of form prior to achieving his greatest-ever win, the 1975 Wangaratta Wheelrace.

‘Pud’ had taken out the Echuca and Hamilton Wheelraces in the lead-up, then clinched three 1600m minor events at the Carnival.

He was bitterly disappointed when he could only finish fifth in his Wheelrace heat.

But he qualified for – and won – his semi and, riding from the 70m mark in the Final, withstood challenges from John Holgate and ex-world champion Gordon Johnson to win narrowly.

He topped off a dream six weeks by later winning the Burramine and Yarroweyah Wheelraces, and continued to ride with success for several years.

Like all sportsmen, bitten by the cycling bug, ‘Pud’ never lost his love of the sport and, now nudging 80, still relishes a ride around the city’s streets……….

 

Part 2 of ‘Wangaratta’s World on Wheels’ will appear next week.

 

This story appeared first on KB Hill’s website On Reflection and is used here with permission.
All photos sourced from KB Hill’s resources unless otherwise acknowledged.

To read more of KB Hill’s great stories on the Almanac, click HERE.

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