2008 Provincial Championships!

Sorry for the lack of communication, i've been uber-busy both organizing and racing at events!!

First up is the BC Track Provincial Championships! It was a small group of riders, my main threats being Julian Base from Whistler, and locals Bob Cameron and teammate Emile DeRosnay, racing over three days with the regular assortment of championship events.

Main highlights were medaling in four events: Madison, Kilo, Keirin and Omnium (which is a combination of five events: the 200m, kilo, pursuit, scratch and points races).

The Madison was especially cool, with Rachel Canning as my partner, we both rode our butts off, and she towed me along to earn a medal!

From 2008-06-22 - ...

There we are in the midst of an exchange. Note that as she drops in, she'd be going about 30kph, and i'd be coming in below at about 50kph, and in the exchange i transfer my speed to her, and then slow up, and wait for her to pass again, and reverse the exchange, and then i'm back in for some action. =)

The Kilo was pretty straight-forward, rode a 1'17"86, which is a PB, behind Julian and Emile by about a second and a half, Emile took the gold, yay for getting OA on two Podium spots!

The Keirin was a hoot, i got into 2nd position, with a lap to go Julian sprinted off, i charged after, and was looking at Silver until Glenn edged up beside me, and snubbed me at the line!! Ahh well, i couldn't be beat by a better guy. =)

From 2008-06-22 - ...

The Points race was a brutal affair, Julian, Emile and Mike Laxdal managed to break off the front and i got caught behind, and spent about 30 laps chasing with Glenn and Bob Cameron..Bob had cracked, and Glenn was doing very strong pulls, i was not too much of a hindrance, but we couldn't seem to close the gap...always about a 1/4 lap behind..they must have been trucking too..so frustrating!!

The Omnium worked out well for me, i got the 2nd fastest 200m time (12.818, another PB, not bad after two days of racing my butt off!), and finished 3rd in all the other events, for my final Bronze.

OA did well, Emile got a couple golds, Gillian put on some strong performances, winning several of the Women's events (tho her only competitor was Rachel, but she still rode well in the bunches in which she was placed). Jan Tize, a new OA Vic member, also put on a lot of strong performances, but crashed out with a broken collarbone. Kevin won the Citizen Omnium racing quite well at his first major track event!

A collection of photos from the event can be found here. Also, a funny random video i made based on an Oak Bay Bikes group ride: