February 13/11 17:26 pm - Forest City Velodrome Winter Series - Report & Results

Posted by Editoress on 02/13/11
 

The winter series continued at the Forest City Velodrome on Saturday night with a full field of eager racers waiting to compete on the 138m indoor velodrome in London, Ontario. Many of the racers are testing their fitness to see how much work still has to be done leading into the spring road season.

The Invita-FCV Junior team continues to show good fitness, with 15 year old Will Simonds winning the Scratch and Points races in the A Division to kick off his night of racing. After the Points Race, that Simonds dominated with 32 points, the youngster indicated that he was super motivated after watching the 190 kilometre Thor Espresso Bar Marathon last weekend, where Ryan Aitcheson (Panther Racing) and Remi Pelletier-Roy (Garneau) battled the entire race to see who was going to come out in first place.

"My goal for 2011 is to earn a spot on the Junior Pan Am team that will be going to Argentina. We have been training very hard and I know we can get faster and I can be more aggressive during the sprint competitions," said Simonds. In the Sprint tournament Simonds was knocked out in the second round.

The women had a solid night of racing, with Sara Rasmussen (Hamilton Cycling Club) lapping the field in the endurance event and winning the Unknown Distance and Sprint tournament. Nine women were entered in the evenings events. This division is the fastest growing group at the FCV.

The Sprint tournament was split into three separate divisions, in the B division Brian Dalton (Team London) outlasted Candice Vermeulen (Invita-FCV) to score a victory.

The A tournament came down to a battle of 16 year olds again, with Daniel McKenzie-Picot (Coachchris.ca) and Kris Ovsenek (Invita-FCV) locking horns for the eighth time during the Winter Series of races. The five lap final was another technical sprint, neither rider not wanting to give an inch. The two Juniors train together every week, know each other's moves intimately. The speed of these two Juniors is very even, so the racing always comes down to who can attack at the correct moment to gain the advantage.

This final was no exception; the two sprinters watched each other for the first two laps and, with just over three to go, the speed slowed dramatically. Neither rider was going to tip his strategy but, in a blink of an eye, Ovsenek attacked under McKenzie-Picot as the riders were coming to the line with two laps to go.

Ovsenek gained five bike lengths on his initial attack and carried the advantage to the line for the win. To give you an idea of how even these riders are, the last lap by both riders was over 60.489 kph, and they completed the last lap of a very long night of racing in 8.213 seconds .... an outstanding performance by both kids.

The final event of the night had the youth racers finishing their day of racing with a series of Handicap races. The winners of the different ability groups were Joel Atkins (West Quebec Wheelers), Aleksa Despinie (Hamilton), Nathon Finch (Exeter), Lucas Taylor (London), and Logan Mcintyre (Teeterville). Mcintyre also won the endurance race for the youth racers in a very solid sprint at the end to go over Chris Merentette (London).

The next racing action at the FCV is Saturday, March 5th at 3:00 pm. The FCV Youth Championships will see riders hit the boards in a three event Omnium. Eight categories of youth racing will be featured, and all divisions will have medals for the top five finishers, with separate divisions for Boys and Girls. The categories include U13, U15, U17 and U19. The youth races are open to any rider under the age of 19. A pizza party will follow the racing action, with a set of carbon wheels will be won at the end of the night.

Full results

For more information on all the programs going on at the FCV, visit www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca

Report courtesy Rob Good