Monastory: Maryborough Womens Madison

On Saturday December 29 the first ever womens madison - in Australia, and perhaps even the world - was held at the Maryborough velodrome, situated a 1.5hour drive north west of Melbourne in country Victoria. Introducing a womens madison to Victorian racing had been talked about for some time, but until now no one had been brave enough to put it on the track program. Despite the positive response from females interested in the event, the concept raised concerns by some of the 'old school' cycle folk who believed the madison was far too dangerous and risque for the women, the promoters, and the sport. Luckily, support was drawn from Laurie Norris, the Victorian womens handicapper; the Carisbrook Lions Club, promoter of the Maryborough track carnivals; and the CycleSport Victoria Womens Committee. This year the Maryborough track carnival was held for the first time over two days, enabling the opportunity for women racing at the carnival and interested in participating to secure a partner before the cut off time. Seven teams lined up at the start for a 45 lap madison.

I was one who arrived at Maryborough without a partner, and spent the first track carnival day asking riders if they would team up with me. One rider who took me seriously was an U19 sprinter from South Australia named Annette Edmonson. I knew her palmares - multiple Australian junior champion and most recently, Oceania champion including the open womens Kierin. She had also kicked my butt in the races to date with her powerful surge. I finally convinced her and her parents that the race would be a great experience, and 'Nette' and I spent some time practising hand slings at the end of the first day of racing. She had never tried hand slings before, and by the end of the short session we were whooping and carrying on as we threw each other in. She was a quick learner with a natural instinct for racing.

The organisers and race commissaires were putting a lot on the line. Should the event be successful, it would pave the way for future racing opportunities for women and secure a new race format into the calendar in which women could target, similar to calendar events such as the Bendigo madison for the men. However, should the event be a disaster, there would presumably be calls for reviews to womens cycling and questions to those who had backed the event. It came as no surprise then that the event included two pre-race briefings and modifications to the rules to ensure everything would go as smoothly as possible. The biggest rule change was a ban on hand slings and hip slings. That news came as frustrating to the four teams which had practised and were comfortable with using them, but it was considered unfair and dangerous particularly amongst teams without the experience and confidence to execute them. The chief commissaire also enlisted me as a bit of a policeman in the pack, making sure everyone was doing the right thing and looking out for each other. I kept my eyes peeled all the time, but everyone was pretty well behaved, the only impact was me talking way more than I should have in the intense heat and getting a dry mouth!

In local madisons it is common to start the event 'under control' - ie, no attacking for a set number of laps, until (hopefully) the field settles down. This was also applied for the women's format. However the lack of pace created an opportunity for a touch of wheels and there was an early fall involving two riders. Both were fine, but they took a significant amount of time to clear themselves from the track. This enabled a lot more opportunities to practice exchanges under control (riders were told to continue riding without any lap deduction until official racing resumed), but extended the time out on the track causing unnecessary dehydration in the dry heat. It was so hot and we just wanted to race!

Finally it was game on.
Our plan was simple - me do the driving, save Nette's legs (which meant for me an immediate swing up to the fence to minimise her time in the race), and make sure we threw her in at each bell lap. Apart from the first sprint which was a total stuff up due to our lap counting, which forced me to sprint instead (getting us a 2nd), we executed the plan perfectly. We won every other sprint, lapped the field (along with two other teams), covered attacks and drove the pace. It was hot hard work, requiring full and constant concentration, which left me pretty stuffed at the end. Just like a madison really.

It wasn't without competition though. Eventual second place getters, the young and impressive 'Uno' team of Carly McCoombe and Kendelle Hodges covered everything, drove hard in the break and weren't afraid to attack - particularly after a sprint. The third place Terry Hammond Cycles pairing of Laine Hammond and Thomay Michaltsis were extremely crafty and hung on to everything, riding as if madisons were the most natural things in the world. Riders participating just for the experience may have dropped a lap but soon learnt from the benefits of riding smart regardless of lap status, and contested sprints with gusto.

Nette and I loved every minute of it. It was a pleasure to work with someone who could apply her race brain so effortlessly to a new race format. Given my lack of strength and slow recovery from being so sick recently I wasn't as strong as I could have been. But we rode smart and looked after each other to ensure the win. I also convinced her to wear my Team Type 1 kit as our madison team uniform. She was very proud to, as one of her male training partners is also type one (James Glasspool, also from South Australia).

Riding a madison without hand or hip slings removed one of the benefits of having a partner in the race - energy conservation. In our race, it was vital that riders coming in off the fence matched the speed of the race as they would receive no assistance from the 'sling' to bring them up to pace. This became taxing, particularly if the pace was misjudged but also from having to accelerate and decelerate much harder than in the traditional version. In future events, the introduction of hand slings will be welcomed by all. I know there will be a bunch of women confident to raise the bar in this event.

Despite the intense heat, everyone in attendance watched the entire race which isn't considered normal for womens racing or for an event covering such a distance. We received a lot of feedback from a wide range of people about how exciting it was to watch us in action. Being conscious of trying to keep womens racing positive, this was really pleasing for me to hear.

The event created history but it wasn't the only significant breakthrough for womens cycling: the race came with prizemoney equal to that of the mens madison (unheard of in cycling, specifically track cycling!) PLUS a set of cookware (given my use of such things we thought it best if Nette's mum secured that one), as well as a couple of bottles of wine which went to our water feeders and infield mechanic support. But most of all, the win meant we were part of history and hopefully the start of more track racing opportunities for females in Victoria and beyond.

With special thanks to everyone who made this possible: Carisbrook Lions Club, CycleSport Victoria, the CSV Womens Committee, all the Maryborough commissaires, officials and volunteers, to all the riders who were willing to have a go and were prepared to race smart and hard, and to my partner, Annette Edmonson. What a legend!

Monique Hanley
2007 Maryborough womens madison winner!

Images:
Simon's new girlfriend was one who hit the deck when the race was under control: