December 19/05 9:10 am - Burnaby Six Day

Posted by Editor on 12/19/05
 

Burnaby Six Day - Day 6
Courtesy Scott Laliberte

The final evening of the Burnaby SixDay had plenty of drama and excitement. As was told to me on Thursday evening by Lorne Atkinson, this was the first complete Six Day race in British Columbia in 70 years and the first in Canada in almost 40 years (Ed. Note: there have been Six Day races at the London Velodrome). I honestly had no idea of the timeline from the last SixDay in B.C. and Canada when I started this but now have even more desire to elevate the status of this race and hopefully make it become a yearly fixture.

Saturday's racing hopefully saw some history in the making as no less than 12 young riders took to the Track, many of them were 14 years old and brand new to track. The Junior racing was divided into two groups with both groups seeing some exceptional racing. First race of the night, even with the faster riders being limited by gearing, brought home the fact that there had to be separation of the groups. The now "seasoned" Junior quartet of Cody Campbell, Nathan MacDonald, Michael Rothengatter, and Naomi Cooper took the lions share of the points in the Points Race and finished in that order. New rider Rachel Canning rode a brilliant race staying on the same lap as the four riders and finished with two points to boot.

In the A Scratch race, Adrian Johnson from Victoria broke into the top three finishing right behind Cody and Nathan, while the B group saw the Schwingboth twins Tavis and Jacob taking turns attacking Rachel (been there myself Rachel) who held on for a valiant second place. Retro Kilo times were fast all around considering most of these riders had never practiced a standing start, even Jacob set down a fast time considering he pulled his wheel on the third lap.

The night still had plenty racing for these youngsters and the Point-a-Lap was next up. A well timed attack by Nathan assured him of the win in the A group while Tavis again showed his speed taking most of the laps in the Bs. Most of the newer riders to the track, namely Elliot Abear, Kyle Jasper, Chris Esterzy (who's name was wrongly pronounced all night, but who shrugged it off saying he did not have the heart to say anything), and Matt Whelan all found the racing to be taxiing but still loved the experience. As some of them were Downhill Mountain bikers, they found the constant pedaling and the small seats to be the biggest issues of the night as from my perspective their bike handling skills definitely not an issue.

The last race of the night was for all the marbles so to say. The Giant Track frame was up for grabs in the Handicap race. Exploding from the middle group with 3 laps remaining, Mike Rothengatter held off a fast closing back group to cross the line first and win the frame. As he stood and received the frame his smile could be seen from ear to ear and then some.

The A Madison and Omniums also wrapped up on Saturday night. Some last night speed saw Ryan McKenzie hold off the Symmetrics duo of Marsh Cooper and Christian Meier, who kept attacking the Calgarian over the final three Omnium events. Ryan managed to hold of the yellow clad Marsh by two points with Christian finishing in third with myself, Scott Laliberte, falling down to fourth. Rounding out the top six on the Omnium was Murray Solem and John Perkins. In the final night of the Madison, Symmetrics again showed their speed by taking their sixth Madison event and winning the event by 19 laps over second place finishers Laliberte and Solem. Calgarians McKenzie and Abbott were three laps farther back with Luis Bernhardt and Andy George the only other team to finish the six nights of racing.

I would like to take this moment to thank all the volunteers that helped make this a successful event and notify everyone to look towards next year when this event will be back, bigger and better.
Scott Laliberte
Event Organizer

Junior Night

Group A Snowball
1 Ryan Mckenzie 122 points
2 Murray Solem 80
3 Marsh Cooper 69
4 Christian Meier 62
5 Mandy Poitras 59
6 Philippe Abbott 24
7 Jeff Ain 21
8 John Perkins 15
9 Andrew George 13

Group A Points Race
1 Christian Meier 52 points
2 Marsh Cooper 36
3 Murray Solem 26
4 John Perkins 21
5 Ryan Mckenzie 12
6 Mandy Poitras 4
7 Scott Laliberte 3
8 Andrew George 1

Group A Scratch Race
1 Marsh Cooper
2 Ryan Mckenzie
3 John Perkins
4 Christian Meier
5 Philippe Abbott
6 Mandy Poitras

Group A Madison
1 Christian Meier / Marsh Cooper 13 points
2 Ryan Mckenzie / Philippe Abbott 11 (-4 laps)
3 Scott Laliberte / Murray Solem 5(-4 laps)
4 Luis Bernhardt / Andrew George 4 (-5 laps)

Group A Individual Omnium
1 Ryan Mckenzie 41 points
2 Marsh Cooper 39
3 Christian Meier 35
4 Scott Laliberte 30
5 Murray Solem 17
6 John Perkins 13
7 Adrian Hegyvary 7
8 Gordon Ross 4
9 Philippe Abbott 4

Group A Madison Omnium
1 Christian Meier / Marsh Cooper 161 points
2 Scott Laliberte / Murray Solem 84 (-19 laps)
3 Ryan Mckenzie / Philippe Abbott 107 (-22 laps)
4 Luis Bernhardt / Andrew George 16 (-33 laps)

Junior Points Race
1 Cody Campbell 75 points
2 Nathan MacDonald 69
3 Michael Rothengatter 44
4 Naomi Cooper 41
5 Rachel Canning 2
6 Tavis Schwingboth -18

Junior A Scratch Race
1 Cody Campbell
2 Nathan MacDonald
3 Adrian Johnson
4 Naomi Cooper
5 Michael Rothengatter

Junior B Scratch Race
1 Tavis Schwingboth
2 Rachel Canning
3 Jacob Schwingboth
4 Elliott Abear
5 Kyle Jasper
6 Chris Esterzy
7 Matt Whelan

Junior A Retro Kilo
1 Nathan MacDonald 01:18.72
2 Cody Campbell 01:19.29
3 Adrian Johnson 01:20.99
4 Michael Rothengatter 01:23.57
5 Naomi Cooper 01:29.29

Junior B Retro Kilo
1 Tavis Schwingboth 01:30.75
2 Rachel Canning 01:30.82
3 Elliott Abear 01:32.26
4 Jacob Schwingboth 01:33.62
5 Chris Esterzy 01:41.56
6 Kyle Jasper 01:42.00
7 Matt Whelan 01:47.68

Junior A Point-a-Lap
1 Nathan MacDonald 8 points
2 Naomi Cooper 1
3 Michael Rothengatter 1
4 Cody Campbell
5 Adrian Johnson

Junior B Point-a-Lap
1 Tavis Schwingboth 6
2 Rachel Canning 3
3 Jacob Schwingboth 1
4 Elliott Abear
5 Kyle Jasper
6 Chris Esterzy
7 Matt Whelan

Junior Handicap Race
1 Michael Rothengatter
2 Naomi Cooper
3 Adrian Johnson
4 Nathan MacDonald
5 Cody Campbell
6 Kyle Jasper
7 Elliott Abear
8 Jacob Schwingboth
9 Tavis Schwingboth
10 Rachel Canning
11 Chris Esterzy
12 Matt Whelan