Brunswick Cycling Club

Here is my report of the Victorian Junior Track Championship events over the last 2 weekends from the JM15 point of view.

It all started at Maryborough for my first Christmas carnival this year, I was at a respectable fitness and was racing fairly well but not at peak yet, I only placed once throughout the day.

The next day it was another very hot one in Bendigo, I didn’t race well in either of the scratch races but I pushed hard in the handicap heat and also the final sitting on a very high speed and cadence throughout the race. Last of all was Shepparton which was also very hot, I thought I raced pretty well in this carnival and placed in every race except the handicap.

All in all the carnivals were good training for the Junior State Scratch race titles coming up which was a two day carnival in Echuca-Moama the following weekend.

We arrived the day before so I could be fresh for racing the next day. The first days racing was very hot with not much wind about and the heat was in the mid to high 40s, I placed in all the races today except the handicap but still haven’t won one yet.

On the second day and the first event up was the Victorian Scratch Race Championship which was over 5km and the conditions were much the same as the day before, very hot. I thought I raced it pretty well and ended up third in a close finish for the top three places with Braeden Dean (Bendigo) winning and Jack Hickey (Carnegie Caulfield) second.

Although a very good early break with quite a few laps to go by Jay Castles from Shepparton almost paid off, no one really wanted to chase and it was only the last half lap he was over taken. There were a few more races during the day, two of which I won, the progressive points score and the flying lap challenge.

Over the weekend I was happy with my effort but still wasn’t at prime performance but it was up there.

I also raced the Hawthorn Criteriums the following Wednesday and had been promoted from D grade after winning one to C grade and placed third so I knew I was in getting in good shape.

That next weekend was the Victorian Junior State Titles at DISC for the time trial, sprints, pursuit and points race championships. The first day was the 500m time trial and the sprints.

The time trial was up first and I was feeling pretty good after a good warm up and had a good race to finish in a time of 38.058 which is a PB and put me in third position and the Bronze medal. Brunswick riders Christian Molina had a good ride for a time of 40.008, Bryce Holloway also rode well to get 40.178, James Pane was not far back with 42.073 and Thomas Slattery rode it in 43.092.

I was happy with my time but felt I had a little bit left at the end; Jack was second with Braeden winning in 37.295.

Next up was the flying 200m qualifying for the sprints, I qualified 3rd in a time of 12.773, I was .2 seconds down from the second place of Jack Hickey and another .2 seconds from the fastest time of Braeden Dean. I thought I got my entry wrong so it resulted in possibly not the best time I could have accomplished but it was enough to put me in the quarter finals against an opponent I knew I could beat which I did.

Brunswick was again well represented with Bryce Holloway getting 13.809; Christian not far back in 13.904, James got 14.269 and Thomas very close in 14.319

So on to the semi final and I was up against Jack, I raced tactically well and won in 2 straight races which put me through to the final and gold medal ride off against Braeden. I didn’t race as smart as the semi-finals so lost them both although I tried to give myself every chance, I was still pretty happy to claim the silver medal.
Brunswick was again well represented with the next best Bryce Holloway getting 13.809, Christian not far back in 13.904, James got 14.269 and Thomas very close in 14.319

The Sunday I knew would be a hard day, first up I had the individual 2km pursuit. I warmed up well and rode a PB in a time of 2:44:501 which qualified me 3rd again and that put me into the bronze medal ride off against Jonathon Dent (Blackburn). The next best Brunswick rider was James on 2.53.409, Bryce on 2.54.428 and Christian on 2.58.414.

I cooled down and waited until it was time for the finals, I warmed up well again and then raced against Jonathon and beat him by two seconds and bettered my time by two seconds to 2:42:895. Braeden and Jack raced a close final with Braeden just coming out on top for gold.

I was happy with my times and was looking forward to the next race which was the 10km points score, 40 laps of DISC and 4 sprints at 30, 20, 10, and 0. I can usually read these races pretty well but could have done a bit better, there were a lot of attacks but Jack proved a bit stronger than I had anticipated and he went on to win, I won the last sprint to finish second overall for my second silver of the championships, James had a great ride to claim 4th place, Bryce, Christian and Thomas didn’t feature in the points.

The highlight after racing finished is that I was named in the Victorian Junior Track team to race at the National Junior Track Championships in March here in Melbourne at DISC.

Thank you to my sponsors and everyone that has helped me along the way so far.

This entry was posted by L. Hood on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Reports, Track.