By Bayley Simpson
Track Provincials:
Day 1: Track provincials this year was a very important event for me as a a junior with it being the Junior World Track Championship Trials. First up for trials was the 3km pursuit which is used as the main deciding factor for the athletes. The time standard you needed to meet to qualify for Worlds was 3:30.790 (same as last year). Last year I made a slight error (involving foam pads), and finished just outside of the time standard which made me very hungry to meet or beat the standard this year. It was a stressful lead up to the 3km IP, with this deciding whether or not I would get another chance to go to Junior Worlds which was the main goal of the season, but with the new U23 NextGen program being announced, it definitely added some extra pressure! I went out on the schedule Rob and I had agreed to and ended up with a new personal best time of 3:26.2 and was very pleased. A ride worth mentioning even though he isn’t part of our team, was by my friend Evan Burtnik from Alberta. Evan rode to a 3:20 which last year would have qualified him for the gold medal ride at Worlds! So with this good form we are on early in the season, I’m looking forward to seeing what we can all do later in the year. Later that day was the next event of the trials the Scratch race. It was a fairly relaxed race, with a few riders attempting to get away, but nothing really stuck till about 10 to go when I attacked and was joined by Evan and Jordan Jones of NCCH. The three of us ended up staying away with myself taking the win attacking with a little over a lap to go.
Day 2: Was a very long day for everyone, after having been up late the night before and having to be at the track for 9 am the next morning for the sprint tournament. Myself, not doing the sprints, showed up later in the day, went for a road ride with Cam Mason and then returned to race our Points race around 7 pm. This was an 80 lap points race and I was very happy with how it went. The start of the race Cam and another rider were off the front for a good number of laps and took top sprint points and I would collect the next best from the rest of the field. After the 40 laps to go sprint, I continued solo, with no response from the field,and lapped the field four laps later. After that I won the 20 to go and 10 to go sprints and rolled in with the group in the last sprint. With that I finished in first, Cam in second, and Jake Allaire in third.
Day 3: This was a very fun day, with trials having been completed, it was just a fun day of track racing. Starting off with the Kilo I again set a new PB with a 1:06.6. Next up was two rounds of the Keirin (my first ever) where I was able to take the win! Then the last events of the day were the Team Sprint and Team Pursuits. In the Team Sprint it was Ian Currie, Cam Mason, and myself taking the win over the NCCH team in the finals. It was Ian, Cam, Robert, and myself taking on the NCCH Elite mens team in the Team Pursuit. Both teams went out to catch one another and both blew up huge, but we were able to pull it back together and win by 5 seconds!
All in all a great weekend for Kallisto-FCV p/b Toyo Tires taking the majority of the medals in the Cadet and Junior fields!
Track Provincials:
Day 1: Track provincials this year was a very important event for me as a a junior with it being the Junior World Track Championship Trials. First up for trials was the 3km pursuit which is used as the main deciding factor for the athletes. The time standard you needed to meet to qualify for Worlds was 3:30.790 (same as last year). Last year I made a slight error (involving foam pads), and finished just outside of the time standard which made me very hungry to meet or beat the standard this year. It was a stressful lead up to the 3km IP, with this deciding whether or not I would get another chance to go to Junior Worlds which was the main goal of the season, but with the new U23 NextGen program being announced, it definitely added some extra pressure! I went out on the schedule Rob and I had agreed to and ended up with a new personal best time of 3:26.2 and was very pleased. A ride worth mentioning even though he isn’t part of our team, was by my friend Evan Burtnik from Alberta. Evan rode to a 3:20 which last year would have qualified him for the gold medal ride at Worlds! So with this good form we are on early in the season, I’m looking forward to seeing what we can all do later in the year. Later that day was the next event of the trials the Scratch race. It was a fairly relaxed race, with a few riders attempting to get away, but nothing really stuck till about 10 to go when I attacked and was joined by Evan and Jordan Jones of NCCH. The three of us ended up staying away with myself taking the win attacking with a little over a lap to go.
Day 2: Was a very long day for everyone, after having been up late the night before and having to be at the track for 9 am the next morning for the sprint tournament. Myself, not doing the sprints, showed up later in the day, went for a road ride with Cam Mason and then returned to race our Points race around 7 pm. This was an 80 lap points race and I was very happy with how it went. The start of the race Cam and another rider were off the front for a good number of laps and took top sprint points and I would collect the next best from the rest of the field. After the 40 laps to go sprint, I continued solo, with no response from the field,and lapped the field four laps later. After that I won the 20 to go and 10 to go sprints and rolled in with the group in the last sprint. With that I finished in first, Cam in second, and Jake Allaire in third.
Day 3: This was a very fun day, with trials having been completed, it was just a fun day of track racing. Starting off with the Kilo I again set a new PB with a 1:06.6. Next up was two rounds of the Keirin (my first ever) where I was able to take the win! Then the last events of the day were the Team Sprint and Team Pursuits. In the Team Sprint it was Ian Currie, Cam Mason, and myself taking the win over the NCCH team in the finals. It was Ian, Cam, Robert, and myself taking on the NCCH Elite mens team in the Team Pursuit. Both teams went out to catch one another and both blew up huge, but we were able to pull it back together and win by 5 seconds!
All in all a great weekend for Kallisto-FCV p/b Toyo Tires taking the majority of the medals in the Cadet and Junior fields!