Track Provincials Race Report

This past weekend featured some spectacularly fast racing including a top time of 11.16 for the flying 200 (yowsers). Jeff Bakel from Juventus won all of the power events by a convincing margin while Trevor Gunderson from TCR (I believe) took the endurance events.

I ended up with a bunch of personal bests and some decent placing for the power events. The opening flying 200m at 13.01 was a personal best for me, though I was hoping to break the 13sec barrier. Following this I was taught a valuable lesson in sprinting tactics by fellow cbtl member Cole Murphy as he schooled me by rubbing me up into the rail and then leaving me coughing in his wake. I took fifth place overall in the sprint tournament by jumping early and holding a sizable gap in the 5 - 8 sprint final over 3 other racers (including Mark Mcconnell, who schooled me at Bikes on Broadway) .

The pursuit (4km time trial) and kilo (1km time trial) were both personal bests based on them being my first time doing them. I learnt the value of areo gear and will be investing in some nicer track equipment next year. In the scratch race (10km first person wins) race I managed to keep in the race against some pretty fast dudes and only got lapped about 50 meters from the finish line. The race itself had incredible surges from 40kph - 60kph. Yours truly was inches from giving up a couple times but lulls in the pack pace allowed me to either rest or catch back on. I am extremely happy with my results from the scratch race.

The final race for me was the keirin (2 km total, but 1.4km behind a motorbike, it leaves us going at 50km per hour). In the semi-finals, I jumped early and was only caught about 100m before the line. I ended up with a third place finish good enough to qualify for the finals.

The finals were a different event with Jeff Bakel jumping with 450m to go and crushing the pace. With the pace so high, I was unable to come around my wheel until the final few meters before the line where I nipped him for 5th place overall.

All in all a good tough weekend of playing with the big boys. I now know where I need to be for next year and will be redoubling my training so that next year it's not just personal bests and 5th place finishes I can be proud of.

David In A Keirin from David Morgantini on Vimeo.