May 13/10 12:56 pm - Pan Am Track Championships - CCA Day 2 report

Posted by Editoress on 05/13/10
 

The track in Aguascalientes [Mexico] appears to be fast, with Pan American records being set in almost every event.   World Records have also been broken by American Sarah Hammer in the Individual Pursuit (3:22.269) and with her teammates in the Team Pursuit (3:19.569).

The second day of competition had the Canadians competing in four events on the track.  Joseph Veloce and Stephane Cossette competed in the Keirin. Joseph advanced to the second round by winning his heat, while Stephane blew his second tire of the meet and had to go through the repechage. He was third in his rep but the Canadian coach successfully filed a protest as the Argentinean rider passed the derny; so a re-ride was contested at the start of the afternoon session, but the result was the same for Stephane. Joseph raced in the second round where some very dodgy riding by several riders prevented the Canadian from moving in to the final, and raced in the 7-12 final where he rode a smart ride to claim 8th.

Remi Pelltier-Roy, excited to be competing in his first international track race, and Mark MacDonald contested the men’s 15 kilometre Scratch Race final. Mark has been sick all week and put in a very solid ride to gain confidence for tomorrow's team pursuit, placing 20th. Remi commented “this was the fastest race I have ever done”, but he handled himself admirably, getting in a few moves to finish 15th.

Monique Sullivan, Laura Brown, and Steph Roorda qualified fourth in the morning for the Women’s Team Pursuit, in a time of 3:29.8, and faced Colombia in the bronze medal match. Monique was transformed into an endurance rider for the day [Tara Whitten is missing with a broken elbow] and put in an excellent ride in the morning qualifier and in the bronze medal final. The Canadians, however, could not match the Colombians' speed, but did post a faster ride of 4:29.2 to claim fourth place.

The riders who were not racing, including Travis Smith, rode rollers in preparation for the next day of competition.  “I had a rest day to reset and get ready for the Kilo, It’s been about a year since my last Kilo so I’m really excited to go out there and try to better my Canadian record that I set at the Pan Ams last year.  I just rode the rollers and did some small starts in my aerobars to make sure they are ok, but all this prep started to make me nervous as I have some big goals I want to hit!”  Travis has also mentioned that he has his sights set on breaking Curt Harnett’s 200 meter Canadian Record that was set in 1995 when he races on Friday.

Day 2 results

The events the Canadians will be contesting on May 13th are:

Kilo:  Travis Smith and Stephane Cossette

Sprint:  Monique Sullivan

Team Pursuit:  Mark MacDonald, Daniele Defranceschi, Jean-Michel Lachance, Remi Pelltier-Roy

Scratch Race:  Laura Brown and Steph Roorda

Report courtesy CCA