November 9/09 13:17 pm - National Track Camp Final Report

Posted by Editoress on 11/9/09
 

National Track Camp Final Report - Burnaby, BC

The November 2-6 National Track Team camp at the Burnaby Velodrome concluded with a double session on Friday, with the majority of riders sticking around for the Burnaby Velodrome Club's Friday Nights Under the Dome race series. Consequentially, fields in most categories were at or close to their maximums, and racing was fast and furious. Strong performances were seen in the B's by all the young riders at the camp, led local 16 year old Kyle Buckosky and 15 year old Alex Pinard from Montreal; as well as 17 year old Vancouver Island's Craig Logan, who carried the Olympic Torch a few days earlier, showing very well. The A's were dominated by National Team pool riders Mike "t-shirt" Sidic, who lapped the field solo in the Points race, with Jake Schwingboth, Tim Sherstobitoff and recently moved westward Daniele DeFrancesci also showing excellent speed.  Thursday had been a day off with no track time, but two road rides were run, with a dozen riders convening in the Fraser Valley, and the remainder in small groups in Vancouver for a somewhat wet and very windy but gentle two to three hour road recovery ride.

Riders who had attended several previous camps were quite surprised at the level of some of the young riders, and all the new young riders came away with valuable experience training and racing with and against some of the top National Team pool riders.  Véronique Drapeau-Zgoralski, a junior from Quebec, enjoyed her time at the camp and thought it "was great to train with some riders that compete at international level, it makes you realize it is possible. We did many exercises to practice our skills, speed, starts, sprints... The camp was a great source of motivation for this winter and it helped me to improve."

In total there were twenty four riders at the camp with two 15 year olds, three 16 year olds, five 17 year olds, and two 18 year olds. This group will represent the National Team pool in the years to come. The next National Team Track project is the second round of the World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, where Canada will be represented by Travis Smith, fresh off fourth and sixth place finishes in the Sprint and Keirin at the Perth Grand Prix.  Making his World Cup debut will be first year senior Jacob Schwingboth.

Courtesy CCA