November 18/07 10:06 am - Forest City Velodrome Devo Weekend

Posted by Editoress on 11/18/07
 

Forest City Velodrome Devo Weekend - Final Report
Courtesy Rob Good

What a weekend of racing! The Devo weekend was that and much more. More Cadets than expected and we had to spilt the category.... when was the last time we had to do that in Ontario... especially on the track? We had an under-14 and a 15 year old category, 12 women racing during the weekend and a very competitive Junior field.

The results have been posted, so we don't have to go over the entire weekend..... however..... there were 4 highlights of the weekend and stories need to be told.

In the Elite 3000 metre Time Trial (it's only November) Vince Dejong (Brantford) set a new FCV record for that distance in a time of 3.43.28. DeJong, who uses the Velodrome to maintain his fitness throughout the year, smashed the 3000 metre time standard by two seconds in his effort on Saturday.

In the Junior division, newcomer Ryan Aitcheson set a new mark for 16 year olds for 3000 metres in a time of 3:45.98.... this time is just a fraction off the Junior record set last season by Steve Meyer who has moved up to Espoir.

How do you spell "Cadets"? Well, you would think you would spell it "Chaos", however, the kids, who for the most part just started riding in the last two months, rode very well with hardly an incident..... if you left out the problem of trying to go too slow as they were starting the first lap of three of six sprint heats on Friday night. Once the kids figured out that staying on their bikes was the better solution than having a Keystone Cops moment, "you know who you are" the racing was fast, safe and clean.

The last area of a very successful weekend involved the Women Racers, who fought as hard as the men in each of the races they participated in. Twelve Ladies took to the track in all divisions and performed very well in all events. The Elite Women's division had six women competing, The Juniors had as much fun with another half dozen taking to the boards.

In large part, this is attributed to the CCA mandating that the Juniors have to hit a 2000 metre standard to attend the World Championships in 2008.

The FCV looks forward to the next three months as fitness increases and the Winter Nationals get closer. The date for the Nationals is February 8th, 9th & 10th.

Racing continues on Saturday November 24th and Sunday Nov. 25th....... when the Americans invade the Forest City Velodrome. The Can-Am Challenge is this weekend. Racing starts on Saturday at 7pm..... on Sunday racing starts at Noon.

More information can be found at www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca;.

Full day 3 results to follow.