Burnaby Velodrome Fall Challenge 2007 - Friday night 1st and placed

First night of the BVC Fall Challenge.

I did two of the three races in the B group, the feature race - 30 lap scratch; and the final 5x10 Points race. I skipped the Miss-and-Out.

There was a huge field with 21 riders lining up in the B group. In the 30 lap scratch the pace was set high from the beginning. The average speed for the first 24 laps was 46kph. Everyone was duking it out at the front and pushing the pace with really no effective result as the race kept coming back together. More than a few laps where averaging over 52kph.


I didn't want to get involved and just hung out at the back.. At about lap 20 I started moving up the field. At lap 24 I went over the top with a big jump. Got a about a half a lap gap, rode past Alex Pope who had just spent more than a couple laps off the front to get the third sprint and just rode it out to the finish 1st. I was running out of gas on the last lap, but still had a reasonable lead, so moderated my speed a bit, still maintained about 5-6 bike gap over the 2nd place rider (I'll get his name and update later from the results.) Final race speed average was 46.4kph (47kph if neutral lap excluded.)

I skipped the Miss-and-out. With 21 riders that would have meant 18 sprints (21 riders down to 3) over 36 laps.. or a sprint every 45 seconds or thereabouts.... Which is just not something I'm good at and it would mean burning too many (18!) matches... which in turn would leave me with nothing for the final race, the 5x10 points race.

The points race again started out stupidly fast with everyone wanting to get to the front and take the sprint... I again retired to the back where it was much safer and a lot less work. Dave Kosick and I kept each other company at the back. The first sprint averaged 52kph over two laps.. The second 52kph over a little over one lap. The third sprint showed that the group was getting tired, only 50 for less than a full lap!


At that point I made my way up the field. And simply went over the top to easily take the fourth sprint, getting a big gap at the same time. Iona Wynter Parks (Team Colividis) bridged up to me over two laps. And then lead me around for about five laps. I went over her with two laps to go.

Not sure what my final placement was, I took 1st in 2 of the 5 sprints. I'll update this tomorrow once the official results are in.

These results where I think my best in two years of track racing. And doubly so as I was also the oldest rider on the track tonight. I don't think any of the A riders have anything to worry about though... :-)

Tomorrow night there is a 40 lap Tempo and 8x10 Points. They should be interesting.