I took the skin off my knuckles changing chain rings and cogs, and have permanent black outlines around my nails, but the TS junior team, me included, had a blast in the winter version of the summer track beach scene at provincials.
The occasion was the Cycling BC Youth Track Camp, Nov 11-13. Seven TS juniors/youth riders attended the sold-out camp: Evan, Liam, David, Duncan, Alex, Brenna, and Farisha. Nancy Fletcher (Alex's mum) and I organized, drove, coached, wrenched, and chaperoned.
Most of the riders were pretty tentative about going. Brenna had real doubts Thursday night about even riding, never mind the racing that was included in the camp.
And once there, Evan fell on the apron on his very first half lap (no injuries), having not seen the small lip up onto the cote d'azur (the transition lane between the flat infield and the track proper) and Farisha stopped, a little pale, after a lap, convinced her back tire was slipping, from the same lip. Inauspicious start.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon: "You know, I completely forgot about the banking and was just thinking about racing. This is stock footage, but you couldn’t tell our riders from these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tu5X2bc ... r_embedded
Full credit to the track coaches. I've seen racing at the track before, but it was my first time riding this track. But most impressive was the level of organization and coaching at the camp. Jeremie Storie, a national level coach who works for the Burnaby Velodrome Club, Cycling BC Provincial Coach Jeff Ain, and Rachel Canning were the coaches.
The ~35 riders were divided into three groups by confidence and experience. Then from Friday at 10 am to 5, and Saturday 9:30 to 1, the track was never empty for more than a minute as the groups rotated through, doing progressively more involved drills. While our newbies learned about the 30 kph minimum (sounds fast but it's not hard to do), how to move up and down the track, the rules and etiquette, the elite group of provincial team juniors plus 4 or 5 from Alberta provincial team, learned Madison, from complete newby to a very competitive race on Saturday. Including two national team level junior girls from Alberta who got it faster than the boys. I sat in on Jeremy’s sessions, and though I raced Madison at a national level myself, I thought his progressions were better than anything I’d seen.
Our group will learn Madison when they go back for a camp in December.
In the bigger picture, something big also clicked in each of the riders about bike racing.
Brenna has been a bit of a careful racer, economizing and measuring out her efforts. She turned into a Roland-would-be-proud attacking monster, coming up with race strategies to get teammates clear and up in the standings. And even better than Roland the attack-early-and-often one trick pony, ☺ she now has a varied arsenal. For e.g., She let a 19 year old from Saskatchewan attacker get a half lap clear, then jumped hard from fourth wheel, got clear and up to the leader, worked with her to hold off the bunch, then attacked for the solo win. Another time, the Alex and Brenna went to the front, and just hammered until they got clear and stayed away. A third time, Brenna sent Alex off the front, then let the chasers burn some matches for 6 laps, before she jumped hard across to Alex, rested up a bit, started working, they pulled away, and then lead out Alex for the win. (And this was their idea: I was off doing something else and missed the first half of the race- she wanted Alex to get the first place points for the overall to get clear of third place who had been one point behind. ) Another time Alex and Brenna lapped the field, then tried to get Farisha clear for another. (She got stuck in traffic. )
Evan is the first ever TS junior to go under 13 seconds for a flying 200, 12.7. He placed well in several bunch sprints, met the provincial coach and made his ambitions known. He’s been invited to attend a January national team selection camp for the Junior Pan American Track Championships in late spring.
David is the newest to bunch racing, and spent lots of time closing gaps. But he read his category (youth men) better than me, realizing that he, Logan and Duncan were noticeably stronger than the rest, and rather than wait for the split to happen in front of him when a weaker rider cracked, tried going round to be up with the stronger riders. Several times it didn’t work, but in one scratch race Logan and Duncan got away. But David managed to bridge a half lap gap, and join them in time for the finish. (For reference, Logan has been training and racing as a mtb racer for two seasons +, and Duncan does Mt Doug repeats for fun. David has little other background training.)
Liam, besides the colourful observation about scratch races, and despite a cold and hacking cough that kept him and his sleeping neighbour (me) awake half the night, showed some talent for match sprinting. He (and Evan) got bumped up out of youth into C. In the match sprint, he qualified 3rd fastest, and narrowly lost his first round to an experienced sprinter. Provincial coach Jeff Ain gave him several how to’s: on this track going from the front is better, so ride low, and well in front of the opponent, it means he can’t dive under you. And, when you go, about 250 metres to go, don’t do a max effort, wind it up, so the opponent can’t take a run at you. It’s called a razor, and is a gradual acceleration all the way to the line.
Well I can hardly remember it well enough to type it, never mind do it. But come time for the final for bronze, Liam rode low, looking back the whole time at his opponent high on the banking, and when his opponent jumped, he accelerated, though it looked anemic to me. I was thinking the sleepless night had finished him off. But he went a little faster, then a little faster, then faster again. And despite his opponent jumping off the banking, he never got closer than two lengths behind. Jeff told me with a grin: “That was text book!” Malcolm sensitively commented, “He’s way better than you ever were.” ☹
Farisha rode well despite being off the bike for a several weeks, and despite not having the acceleration of the rest, still qualified 4th best in the flying 200 when she could wind it up. But the best part was seeing her going from backing off when someone came by close above her, and leaving a hole for them, to matching their speed and holding her place in the line.
Alex, is not much of an analyst yet of cycling. She just likes to go hard, such as in the solo break before Brenna joined her. In her sprint qualifier she completely blew the banking with 1½ to go by inadvertently swinging up and letting both opponents under her. But then she proceeded to ride back around them in the final two bankings to win by half a length. Especially tough on a track where it’s hard to come around one, she beat two. Scary power and grit. And in the sprint final, she powered around Brenna for the win, again in a banking, which is remarkable considering how well Brenna is going and likes to think about her racing.
And Duncan Never-say-die Grant lost five or six successive sprints to Logan Simonson, 3 by by half a wheel, after catching up and coming around the hard way. Duncan also had a great moment after he'd been gapped by an early attacker, and left for dead, chasing half a lap down. His chase didn't look all that inspired for several laps, but with a lap to go Duncan started rapidly reeling him in and came along side at the line. He told me later, his experience in the pursuit at provincials where he rode a schedule (ie controlled start, negative splits), suggested he might be better off to be patient, and then finish fast, especially as the break rider had gone out very hard and early. It's not a strategy that had even occurred to me in a bunch race, but it was a thrilling finish.
Will post results when they are.
Thank yous
- Nancy Fletcher for driving and chaperoning the girls
To parents for shopping and cooking microwave meals so we saved on budget, time and nutrition challenges with restaurant meals.
To Evan who actually did his own shopping for our Friday lunch, and didn’t get his parents to do it.
To Geoff Wong and Accent Inns Burnaby for three of the four room nights complimantary as part of their Tripleshot sponsorshop.
To Keith Bruneau, Roland Rabien, Jim Pauly and GVVA for the loan of track bikes. Malcolm Faulkner for the good deal he gave Brenna on buying her bike.
To Brad Head who loaned me a pair of jewel-like Phil Wood wheels so I could ride a bit.
To Burnby Velodrome Club and Cycling BC for the very comprehensive camp for only $50 each.
To supportive families. I certainly didn’t get much raking done this weekend.
Easier for them to figure out the exact word count and when it happened than to read. 
