February 6/08 3:17 am - Forest City Velodrome News: Winter Nationals, University Challenge Results

Posted by Editoress on 02/6/08
 

FCV Winter Nationals 2008
Courtesy Rob Good

Final preparation is going on at the Forest City Velodrome for the annual fitness test for Ontario Track riders. The 2008 Winter Nationals starts this Friday evening at 7pm. 3 riders have entered the Junior Men's category from British Columbia, The FCV and our members are hosting the boys who are coming east for the first time.

The FCV will be using the Professional starting gate that was purchased in 2007 as part of a Club fund-raiser and with the help of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Friday Night will also be a fund-raiser for the FCV Elite Women and Cycle 4 MS, a portion of the gate and 50/50 draw will go to the purchase of Team cycling Kits for the upcoming season.

The race order will see the Masters, Cadets (U17), Elite and Junior Women (U19) will compete in their 500m events. Once the 500m efforts are complete the Elite men and Junior Boys (U19) will contest the "Kilo" which will be their first event in the 5 event Overall competition.

The second event of the night will be a Points race, this type of event has the riders sprinting for points throughout the race. The winner of the event is the rider who accumulates the most points during the race. The racing will be hot and heavy as all the riders will be coming into the weekend on fresh legs.

Saturday at 9am is a special "Parents Only" Track 1 "Learn to Ride"..... the parents will find out who tough racing and training on the high banks of the FCV really is. Should be a fun 2 hour session.

Racing resumes at Noon for the Cadets, Junior Women who will contest a 2km individual time trial. At 1:30 the Masters, Elite Women and Junior Men will have their 3km Individual time trial, followed by the Elite Men with their 4 km Time trial beginning at 4pm.

The evening session begins at 7pm on Saturday night with Sprint qualifications, Endurance race and sprint competition. Their will be a new format for the sprint tournament, it will be posted on Friday night. If time permits the final event of the night will be a Madison.

The entry for all the races over the weekend is $20.00. Any rider wanting to enter 1 or 2 events can do so but will pay the regular entry fee.

Adult admission is $10.00 per day or $15 for a weekend pass, Seniors $5.00 per day, with Kids always "Free"

Omnium Format 5 Events combined

Kilo/500m, 1 Lap TT,
2/3km TT, 100 lap Scratch & Points Race
(5 events)

Registration $20.00

Weekend Schedule

Friday February 8th

3pm -6:40pm
Open Track (Training, Warm-up, Skills Development)

3pm - 7pm
Competition Registration

7:00pm - 8:30pm
Kilo ITT Men & Juniors - 500m Cadet, Women, Masters
[race order - Men, Juniors, Women, Cadet, Masters]

8:45pm - 10pm
Points Race (100 laps Men and Juniors)
(all categories) [60 laps others Categories]

Saturday February 9th

11am - Noon
Open Track & Registration

Noon - 5pm
2/3km Time Trial - Junior, Women, Masters, Men

6:45pm Flying Lap - plus Qualifying for Sprint Tourney

All Categories


"Special Sprint Tournament" (Sat. Night)

Evening Session

7pm
Scratch Race: Qualifying Heats (if necessary)

Cadet, Jr Women Scratch Race 60 Laps (Separate Race)

Sprint - Finals (all Categories)

Women & Masters Scratch Race - 60 Laps

Sprint - Finals

Senior & Junior Men Scratch Race - 100 Laps

Sprint Finals (all Categories)

9:30pm Awards

Rules for Omnium
1. Points awarded on finishing results
2. Sprint Tournaments - New Format
3. If you do not start an event last place points.
4. Trophies to top 5 in each Category (10 starters)

Spectators
Wrist Band Policy in Effect
Weekend Admission $15.00 Wrist Band (Sr. $10.00)
Session Admission $10.00 Seniors $5.00


University of Western Ontario Dominates Women's Competition
Courtesy Rob Good

A total of 31 racers took to the boards at the Forest City Velodrome in London on Saturday night. 18 of the riders had less than 4 hours of experience at the 138 metre Velodrome. The inexperience did not stop the action and speed of the bicycle racers.

7 Universities from Ontario and 1 American University (Michigan State) took to the high banks of the FCV. The competition was split into 3 different events and the racers combined the results to determine the eventual winning riders in Men's and Women's Categories.

Event organizer, Naomi Chermak indicated "the total number of riders was more than 3 times larger than our first event in 2007. With 11 women participating in the Challenge, it shows that fantastic growth is happening with Cycling in Ontario". We are already planning the 2009 event with more Universities and more riders participating.

The women form UWO had the most experience and had home field advantage during the competition. Joanna Wiersma set fast time in all 3 events to win the overall women's event. New comers Amy Biskaborn, Lisa Perlmutter and Dina Ridha all from UWO swept the top 4 positions with another new racer, Amy Armstrong from Brock U, rounding out the top 5 positions.

On the men's side, the results were much different with McMaster U sweeping the top 2 positions with Steve Meyer and Vince DeJong battling for the top over all results. Meyer won over DeJong by 1 point with a 3rd place finish in the final event of the night. 3 different Universities battled for 3rd position in the final event of the evening. Final results were Scott Lundy (UWO) in 3rd, 4th place going to Cody Brown (Michigan State) and 5th position Charlie Dumas (Laurentian).

The Forest City Velodrome hosts the Winter Nationals the weekend of Feb 8th and 9th, all categories will be in action. Racing begins at 7pm on Friday Night.