August 21, 2005 — It was another scorching hot day yesterday at the Ron Marat Memorial American Velodrome Challenge in Victoria, BC and more provincial titles were won.

Steven Alfred of California took gold in the senior men’s Sprint but the provincial title went to Matt Barley of Victoria, British Columbia who placed second. Keith Bruneau, Barley’s coach and race organizer, said it was impressive racing by both athletes. “With one lap to go Matt attacked and had a 20 meter gap, but by turn three Steven was closing the gap. Within 10 meters of the finish line Steven closed it to take the win. It was the most amazing kick I’ve ever seen.”

Barley had his revenge when his team won the Olympic sprint and Alfred’s team took second. The team consisting of Bruneau, Barley and Chater were no strangers to one another since they won silver at the National Championships earlier this year in Calgary. Barley also took bronze in the kilo with a time of 1.07 minutes, an impressive time for someone who only started racing a year ago.

In 2001, Barley bought a road bike and started cycling for fun but in May of last year someone suggested he should try track cycling. He went out and loved it. “I loved the exhilarating scary fun side to the sport” said Barley who was a competitive downhill skier until the age of eighteen when he had career ending crash. Eight operations and many years later Barley is now focused on going fast again, but this time in cycling. He got third in the Kilo this year at the National Championships and placed bronze in the Sprint event. He has catapulted onto the Canadian track scene and his sights are already on Bejing in 2008! Barley is making a name for himself, on and off the track — “princess” is what they’ve endearingly nick-named him off the track but beware he is likely to catch anyone who dares call him that!!

In the senior women’s races Sarah Kirby of Victoria, British Columbia has shown that she can do it all and has placed in the top three of every event she’s entered. Yesterday she won the senior women’s Points Race in convincing style by winning every sprint. Then since she wasn’t tired she raced on two Olympic Sprint teams. Auna-Brit Carter-Erikson of Calgary won the Women’s Keirin and Moriah MacGregor of Vancouver won the Women’s Individual Pursuit. Amidst these top senior women racers was a Lisa Tasa of Victoria who despite being a junior rider held her own, and is an up and comer in the coming years.

In the open Madison event, a race renown for being like a crash derby, had a few close calls but luckily no crashes. Scott Laliberte of Port Moody and Derek McMaster of Saskatchewan, were the ones to beat and despite good attempts they won by a convincing margin. The more exciting part of the race was the contest for second place. In the end, two teams tied on points and it came down to more logistical calculations. In the final results, Andy George and Luis Bernhardt of Burnaby took second and Scott Allen of New Zealand and Chris Reid of Victoria took third.

More official results to come- stay tuned!!