Youth Track Nationals Fri-Sun April 13-15

[Lister Farrar]

Six TS youth members and alumnae of the youth program are gearing up for the national championships and Junior Worlds selection event this weekend.

Riders include Casey Garrison, Riley Pickrell,, Sarah Van Dam, Megan Barnes, Connor Bosenberg, and Aedan Crocker.

Junior worlds selection looks interesting as both Riley and Sarah are already hitting the standards times in training, on the burnaby track which is 5-7 seconds slower than Milton. The others have also been hitting personal bests all winter.

Most took part in the Teams of BC training camps, a partnership of Cycling BC and the clubs around the province with riders interested in nationals. The program consisted of five 2-day camps at Burnaby, from Decmeber to April, with 4 2 hour sessions. Most out of town riders stayed with billets from Vancouver clubs to keep costs down and get to know other kids who race. About 20 riders from around the province took part.

Cycling BC provided the funding for the track rental, registration, and the services of provincial road and track coach Richard Wooles. Escape Velocity Devo provided club head coach Tim Sherstobitoff (ex-national team rider) and Laura Brown (national team pursuit team, Red Devils (Kelowna) Chris Rubuliak and Trevor Haaheim, TAG Keith Bruneau, and TS yours truly.

Stay tuned for news and results here.

[Lister Farrar]

Considering the event hasn’t even started yet, it’s been a pretty exciting two days here in Milton. All the 18 bc riders hitting pbs in training. Riley Pickrell did 10.55 for 200, and his two teammates Ethan Ogrodniczuk and Tyler Davie also sub 11 for the first time. They are the cdn record holders in u17, and experienced folks think this is the first time 3 riders under 11 seconds have ridden together in team sprint. And all first year u19s. They have been a team since the first year of the teams of bc program started in 2016, when they weren’t even sure they liked track. Guess training together helps.

Sarah hit a big new Pb of 11.7, more than a second faster than her previous Milton Pb. Casey Garrison took 5/10s off, a large jump. Connor Bosenberg, who was scared of the track in December, continues to chop time off, taking 4/10ths yesterday and another 2:10ths today, without looking like he’s going full out. And getting close to second year teammates.

Alumnae Megan and Aedan didn’t ride with the rest of the bc group, so I don’t have any updates.

Live coverage starts tomorrow at 12:30 eastern time. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tCPE_WDLeQA

[mfarnham]

Good luck to all!

Martin

[Lister Farrar]

Update coming. Lots of medals, pbs, fun rides. Very long day yesterday.