My last win in A-grade? Whilst cleaning up I stumbled over some personalcycling nostalgia from 1989

I'm obviously not working today, am I? Whilst digging through the archeological treasure trove known as my "house" I stumbled over this clipping from the SMH, 21st October 1989. In one yellowed scrap of ye old newspaper clipping we see results for the Commonwealth Bank Cycling Classic, Dulwich Hill Club track at Camperdown and Bankstown Club track at Tempe. Matt Bazzano (now of Shimano Australia) is leading the lost and long-lamented Bank Tour of NSW and southern Queensland, and there are some other interesting names sprinkled here and there, especially if you were a Sydney-based bike racer in the '80s and '90s. For a moment I thought 'Nate Reiss' was a mispelled Nathan Rees, until I remembered there was a US rider by that name who came out here for the Bank Tour. And Nathan's best years were in the future, anyway.

Of course Camperdown velodrome is long gone, like Nathan's Premiership, although Tempe remains intact. (Ironically my old club crit races were - and still are - at Heffron Park in new State Premier Keneally's seat. And the current Premier is a decent bike commuter, too. There's always a link if you try hard enough.)

And then there's me, outsprinting Jose Rodriquez and Peter Clayton in the A-grade 20 lapper on a Wednesday night. For the record, I hit out just at the bell, 'round the outside and jumped 'em, leading all the way to the line 330m later. I even kicked again at 100m to go, just to say 'too late guys'. Couldn't do it now, trust me. Future World Track champ Sean Eadie was probably racing in the under 19 (what we called 'Junior') division at the time.

That could have been my last A-grade win. Allow me a moment of quiet reflection on that, please. 1989? Gee, it feels like yesterday.

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