February 11/08 9:17 am - FCV Winter Nationals Report & Results

Posted by Editor on 02/11/08
 

FCV Winter Nationals - London, Ontario
Report courtesy Rob Good

What a weekend of racing at the Forest City Velodrome in London Ontario! The 138m indoor bicycle track in south London hosted a very successful Winter Nationals competition that included bicycle racers from across Canada and the United States.

All six divisions completed the five events Omnium Series of races before three00 enthusiastic spectators over the weekend. The highlight of the night was the fact that 11 Cadet racers all under 15 years old, battled each other for the win in the endurance race on Saturday night. With three riders in contention for the overall win, the young racers attacked each other. In the final sprint Jason King (Oakville) nipped Alex Cataford (Ottawa) and Daniel MacKenzie-Picot (London) to the finishline. The Kids had a "Blast" as this was their first real test of multiple rider competition.

Up until now the most riders on the track at one time was 6. The numbers of youth racing is a product the FCV's development program that is helped with a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the grant allows the Velodrome to keep the costs for parents to a minimum. These racers will see each other in the coming weeks and the racing action for these youngsters will be at an even higher level.

In the women's division we had to split the ladies according to the age so that everyone would be able to compete on a level playing field. The top position on the podium changed hands four times in the Elite women's category. The eventual winner, Heather Logan (Guelph) came from behind after the first event to win the two of the five events on her way to the top step on the Podium. Amy Biskaborn, Lisa Perlmutter, Amy Armstrong and Karine Cote Montreal) rounded the top five positions.

The Junior women had a solid battle for the second, third and fourth positions in the final standings. The clear winner in the division was Stephanie Bester (London) who won four of five events and came second in the fifth. In this division a total of six young ladies all under 17 years old competed and achieved no fewer than 12 personal best performances were turned in during the two days of racing. Sarah McKenzie-Picot (London) took second just nipping her sister Emily by the slimmest of margins in the overall standings. Krista Ruby, Ashley Barson and Amberly Berman rounded out the top six positions. With all these young racers coming to the Velodrome they are building their cycling skills and having a great time doing it.

The Juniors and Elite men's divisions were hotly contested during the two days of racing action. The three junior riders from the Burnaby Velodrome in Vancouver, put on a clinic during the two long mass start races. The three riders rode as a team and opened holes for each other and basically made life difficult for the rest of the Junior field who had to continually chase down and close gaps over the weekend.

Local racer Allan Leparskas said, "the FCV riders will have to learn how to protect teammates and work more as a team in the future". A very good lesson learned by all. Jacob Schwingbath (Burnaby) and Logan Cornell (Kingston) duked it out all weekend for the overall win with Schwingbath coming out on top.

The Elite men had to deal with the 16 year old Junior Ryan Aitcheson from Kitchener who was riding up a category for experience and to put pressure on the FCV regulars who had to contend with aggressive Junior. In the end, after setting fast time in the Kilo and Individual three kilometre time trial, Aitcheson had to settle for the second spot on the podium behind eventual winner Vince DeJong (Brantford).

DeJong said, on several occasions during the two endurance events "I was on the rivet trying to hold Ryan's wheel, we train together so I knew he was strong but I really had to dig deep to win the Winter Nationals this year". DeJong went on saying, "It's great to see the young riders coming up to challenge the more experienced riders at the Velodrome, we will look for Ryan to keep improving leading into the summer season". Ryan Nye (Buffalo) finished in third during the weekend.

In the final division, the Masters put on a great show for the spectators. In the final event of the weekend a prime (cash) was put up by a spectator to make the riders suffer more during the endurance event ..... and suffer they did, as Chris Vlemmix (London) charged over the wilting Mike Renneboog (Delhi) in the final five metres to claim the cash prize, in third was London's Lorne Falkenstein.

58 riders registered for the weekend competition with all riders looking forward to the Provincial Track Championships in May. The Forest City Velodrome is a Not for Profit Association run by a dedicated group of Volunteers.

The next race is Saturday night February 23rd. "Festa Itallianna", the Italian community fund-raiser, begins at 7pm. All of the regular racers will be in attendance with a "Special Feature" which will be announced in the next few days.

For more information.... www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca

Final overall standings

Elite Men
1. Vince DeJong
2. Ryan Aitcheson
3. Ryan Nye
4. Ryan Crawford
5. Garnett Abbey
6. Enrico Triani
7. Michael Luther
DNF. Jamie Russell
DNF. Stephen Meyer
DNF. Bermuda

Elite Women
1. Heather Logan
2. Amy Biskaborn
3. Karine Cote (Quebec)
4. Lisa Perlmutter
5. Amy Armstrong
DNF. Dina Ridha
DNF. Joanna Wiersma
DNF. Stephanie Bester

Junior Men
1. Jacob Schwingbath
2. Logan Cornell
3. Trevor Damen
4. Curtis June (Vancouver)
5. John Carden
6. Allan Leparskas
6. Ben Calburn (Vancouver)
7. Matteo Del-Cin
9. Alex McCallum

Junior Women
1. Stephanie Bester
2. Sarah McKenzie-Picot
3. Emily McKenzie-Picot
4. Krista Ruby
5. Ashley Barson
6. Amberley Berman

Cadet Men
1. Jason King
2. Alex Cataford
3. Daniel McKenzie-Picot
4. Trevor Dickensen
4. Kyle Rupay
6. Kristopher Ovsenek
7. Ryan Damen
8. Drew Welsh

Masters
1. Mike Renneboog
2. Lorne Falkenstein
3. Chris Vlemmix
4. Brian Szklarczuk
5. Joe Brennan
6. Brian Kelly
7. Conrad Mrowiec
DNF. Rob Rupay
DNF. Julien Shea

Individual race results

Elite men

Elite women

Junior men

Junior women

Cadet men

Masters