November 9/05 12:44 pm - Burnaby Velodrome Racing this Weekend, Forest City Velodrome Update and Upcoming Race Info

Posted by Editoress on 11/9/05
 

Burnaby Velodrome Race Series Vancouver (Nov 12th -13th)

The race schedule is now up and online. Please note that racing starts Saturday morning, not Friday night, as Friday November 11th is Remembrance Day.

On Saturday, Registration opens at 8 am (to 9 am), the Track is available for warm up starting at 9 am with competitions beginning at 10 am.

On Sunday the Track is available for warm up starting at 8 am to 8:50 am with competitions beginning at 9 am.

For the complete schedule for the weekend is available at the Burnaby Velodrome website www.burnabyvelodrome.ca.

Forest City Velodrome

The Forest City Velodrome has been open for 6 months and I thought everyone should know just how we are doing.

The Velodrome opened in late April, our website was up and running, the site has had 1.4 million hits with 15,000 unique visitors. The volunteers were ready and the cycling community was waiting to get on the track. In the first couple of months, our volunteers were teaching many new riders how to rider a Velodrome. Quite a task when you consider most Velodromes do not have a banking of 50 degrees. The 138m distance around the track, is now starting to show the importance of a safe riding environment.

We spent the summer refining our teaching skills and coming up with innovative ways of bringing the Track Experience to as many recreational riders as we could. As of today I'm proud to say we have 99 paid members of the Forest City Velodrome Association. This number is 3 times more than my best forecasts. Our New riding schedule as of Monday November 14th will reflect the fact that 85% of our members are recreational riders on the track. Only 6 hours a week is devoted to racing, all of the rest of the ride time is for our recreational members.

Our racers have been putting on very entertaining races on Saturday nights since we opened our doors. All racers do not pay an entry fee to race. Our paying spectators have made it possible to expand our Velo-Kids program and our soon to be introduced Junior Olympic Development Program, with Former National Team Athletes doing the Coaching for our Juniors and Espoirs. Albert and my goal has been to produce 3 National cycling team athletes in the next 5 years. This is only the beginning.

Ontario cycling had it's first 6 Day bike race in 35 years. The 6 Day in October had a lot of spectators and over $3,100 in prizes for the racers, not bad for our first attempt. The second 6 Day is coming up in Mid-December. Our first Swap meet is being planned for Saturday December 3rd - 10am - 2pm.

As you can tell I have mentioned nothing about finances. To date we are doing very well and have enough money in the bank to carry us well into March of 2006. Another exciting local program involves The City of London and the Velodrome. We are going to introduce up to 160 of London's youth with our facility in the next few months. Our Trillium Grant is still being assessed we should know more information in the coming weeks.

Up coming events at the Velodrome: Racing continues November 12th & November 19th O-Cup #2 & London Italian Festival

In closing I wanted to thank all the Velodrome Volunteers for their hard work in the first 6 months. We all are looking forward to a very busy Winter Season at the Forest City Velodrome. For more information go to our website at www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca

Yours in Sport
rg

Events for Saturday November 12th

1. Rider Introduction

2. Flying Lap (Open, Junior & Women) - Maximum 10 Riders Official Record 8.17 seconds - (Zach Bell)

3. London Track League Handicap 3 Lap Heats

4. Nas-Track Madison Team Race 15 Minutes ˆ 1 sprints

5. London Track League Italian Pursuit

6. Nas-Track - All Madison riders Miss & Out (Devil)

7. London Track League Velo-Kids & Italian Pursuit Finals

8. Nas-Track - Bavarian (Top 6 for points)

9. London Track League Handicap Final

10. NAS-TRACK - Madison Team Race ( 200 Laps ) 30 Minute Madison with Sprints and Primes


Track O-Cup #2

November 19th - London Italian Festival

Forest City Velodrome, London

Race Entry Fee $20.00 (all events)

Racing 2pm

Velo-Kids - Elite: Out of Province Racers Welcome
3 Events - Pursuits, Keirin or Sprints, Points Race

Event Schedule

2pm - 3pm
Pursuit - 1km Velo-Kids, 3km Women, Juniors & Masters. 4km Senior Men

3pm - 5pm
2 Rounds of Keirin or Sprint Heats

7pm - 9pm
Points Race, Keirin or Sprint Finals, Non-O-Cup Races: Handicaps, Italian Pursuit, Nas-Track Madison Team Race


Points System to be used for the O-Cup Track Series 2005-06

1st - 10pts, 2nd - 9pts, 3rd - 8pts, 4th - 7pts, 5th - 6pts
All other Finishers 5pts

Riders may drop their 4 worst race finishes during the Series
O-Cup Track Series runs every month until June 2006 with 3 Events per month.