Do the Madison - Burnaby Race Report

I survived the Burnaby MayDays spring challenge, splinter-free!

Three days and four sessions, with about 12 races total, and almost all were Madisons. I paired up with Victoria OA teammate Emile, who was pretty new to Madisons, let alone racing in Burnaby. Needless to say, the first night was pretty rough, and tho both of us were as fit as anyone else there, a series of missed exchanges and other mishaps resulted in us being about 9 laps down the first night.

However, as the weekend progressed, we improved our team skills, and finished 14 laps down from the leaders (2nd was 4 laps, 3rd was 5 laps, and the next two teams 6 laps down) so had we the practice we have now, we would have been competitive.

As a testament of our strengths, there were two 'individual' events, a Madison Flying 200m where we got 3rd or 4th, and a Handicap Scratch race, where Emile nipped me at the line, but we finished 3rd and 4th.

There were two individual bunch races, a Scratch where i finished 11th (i forget where Emile was, but in the Top 5 i believe), and a Miss'n'Out where i dropped out first, E finished around 7th i believe. I chose to slack in the M'nO thinking there was a Points race, but it got dropped from the schedule. =(

I was pretty choked by the lack of individual events, in hindsight i would have chosen to race as a 'B' instead -- they had mostly bunch races, and they were very exciting, and a fast field with the top Juniors and Women in Canada. Not to mention they got to race twice as much, since they had qualifiers for each event due to huge numbers.

It was cool to see all my Burnaby pals, and meet some of the Ontario folks - it looks like track new-comer Lisa Perlmutter is going to be a very strong track racer, some suggested a la Gina Grain. (No pressure!)

My photos located here, with a slideshow below, and click here, here and here for Roland's.


Also have more RideCam shots (up to 16!) - click here for local action.

A quick note on my Argon18 track bike: LOVE IT!!! It fits me SO WELL, and feels solid and fast, i'm totally stoked to be riding it, i couldn't be happier.

Noisy out!

From 2008-05-13 - ...