January 16/11 16:43 pm - Sprinters Take Center Stage at FCV

Posted by Editor on 01/16/11
 

Despite the winter weather another outstanding night of racing at the FCV in London, Ontario.

The racing on Saturday night was hot with several riders coming in for a weekend of training at the Forest City Velodrome.

Junior sensation Alex Cataford was on hand to show the locals that he has been working hard to keep at the top of his game leading into the 2011 season. Cataford was part of the winning team that lapped the field in the "A" Madison, and just pipped 14 year old Will Simonds by a tire in the Miss and Out, won the Scratch Race, and made it to the semi-finals of the Sprint competition. Not bad for a night of training.

In other action the youth racers were entertaining as always .... Some close encounters of the wobbly kind. Everyone kept upright and the kids had a blast. Logan McIntyre and Lucas Taylor were the winners on the night.

A total of 27 sprint races during the evening meant that the Sprint Tournament was going to the toughest to win all season. All riders were seeded into a massive round robin style tournament, that had Juniors racing Seniors, Masters racing Cadets .... In the end, after 25 sprint heats, the top six riders battled it out in two Semi-Finals that, on any other night, could have been the event finale.

In Semi-Final #1, the Professor, Lorne Falkenstein (Cycles London), was up against Will Simonds (Invita-FCV) and Kristofer Ovensek (Invita-FCV). Falkenstein was the first to take command of the five lap semi by going immediately to the lead and marking the moves of the two Invita-FCV riders. Simonds tried to get over Ovensek to take a run at "the professor", however, Ovensek had other ideas and with two laps to go battled hard to stay on Falkenstein's elbow .... This pretty much sealed to the fate of the younger Simonds, who would finsh third. With one lap to go, Ovsenek attacked over the top. Falkenstein battled back but, in the end, just did not have enough for the 16 year old from London. Ovsenek moves on to the Sprint final.

In Semi-Final #2, the three riders who made to to this semi had gone through four rounds just to make it this far. Again, the Invita-FCV team placed two riders into this Semi, with Candice Vermeulen and Adrian George up against another London speedster, Daniel McKenzie-Picot (CoachChris.ca). In this sprint, George took an early lead and was controlling the event until Vermeulen attacked and McKenzie-Picot reacted to the 10 metre gap that Vermeulen squeezed out. That advantage lasted over two laps as the two Juniors started to close the distance, and with one to go McKenzie-Picot and George powered over the top on the very quick woman to seal the deal, with McKenzie-Picot advancing to the Sprint final. George was second and Vermeulen a very respectible third.

We have seen this picture before, with the two Juniors doing battle in Sprint B action at FCV. Daniel McKenzie-Picot took the advantage right from rider instructions, taking the pole position and not looking back. Ovsenek and M-P train with one another weekly, and each knows the other's moves, with the top speed of each rider about the same in training. This race was going to come down to who was going to be more aggressive during the opening two laps of the race.

M-P took the advantage from the opening whistle and had Ovsenek trying to get M-P to make a mistake, but Daniel was having none of that, and with three to go attacked at 80% effort. Ovsenek had to battle back from two bike lengths behind. On the bell lap M-P had Ovensek coming up over his hip, however, it was a little to late, and Daniel McKenzie-Picot won the very entertaining Sprints by half a wheel. Both riders saluted the crowd and congratulated each othe on a very fine night of racing.

Full results

Racing continues at the FCV on Saturday January 29th, with Tim Hortons "Always Fresh" Winter Nationals. Individual timed events begin at Noon, with mass start racing at 7:00 pm.

In other FCV news: the Thor Espresso Bar Velodrome Challenge has registration still open. All entries must be in before January 24th for the $2,500 to win event.

For updated FCV news: www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca