August 9/05 10:10 am - Forst City Velodrome: Report and Photos

Posted by Editoress on 08/9/05
 

Forest City Velodrome London ON

Photos

After a short summer break the racers at the Indoor Track in London Ontario were back on the boards putting up some very fast times.

In the first event Taylor Martin (Hamilton) set fast time in the Flying Lap Competition in a time of 8.74 seconds. Just off the track record set in May. The record prize pool now goes to $110.00 for next weeks racing. New comer to the Velodrome Jean Bertrand (Bermuda) crossed the line in 8.97 seconds, not bad for his first attempt. Other notable improvements were Kelly Henry (Brantford), John Murray (London) & Jeff Cook (London) who all set personal best times on the night.

The Keirin Competition was fast & furious, with 3 different winners on the night. We used a pace bike to bring the riders up to speed, before the sprint began. The comments from the spectators was that the competition was different from the regular racing that we see every week. The winners of the Keirins were Marc Goveia, 3 time Canadian Track Champion in 2005, along with Taylor Martin & Jean Bertrand in his first night of racing. Jean has the speed, now we just have to get him track time to improve his skills & confidence.

With the spectator response, we will be holding many more Keirin Competitions in the months to come.

In other racing action the London Track League put on some very spirited races with many riders coming in for the first wins of the year. Eddy Pol hammered off the front in the Scratch race to take the victory early in the evening. Vince DeJong, Brian Kelly, Kelly Hendry, & Jeff Cook were all winners in the Sprint and scratch races throughout the night.

In the Youth Division, 15 year old Victor DeJong ( younger brother to Vince) did a great ride in his flying lap at 11.68 seconds more than 2 seconds better than his time of 3 weeks ago. Victor just graduated from our Learn to Ride program and should be racing with the L.T.L. in 2 weeks with a little more time on the track developing his skills & confidence. 7 year old crowd pleaser, Harry Gledhill from Hamilton almost made it on to the track during his flying lap ( he can get on the straight aways) improved his time by 1/2 a second down to 15.91 seconds. The third rider Billy Rodniki, 10 years old did a lap in 14.92 seconds, an improvement of over 1 second from his last visit. These kids are examples of what can be done in a short period of time with the youth of London coming out to the track & getting involved with the Velodrome.

We are looking for more youngsters to get involved with our learn to ride programs.

Racing continues next Saturday, August 13th at 7pm.

For more information: www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca

We have expanded our riding times 6 days a week, with a new noon hour ride on Wednesdays. Sunday rides will start in September.

See you at the track.

rg