August 29, 2011 (Victoria BC) – The BC Provincial Development track camp continued at the Commonwealth Legacy Velodrome in Victoria BC this past Friday with a morning session with both the youth and Elite riders going through some activation drills to ready themselves for the racing that night.

Friday evening saw nearly all the youth riders from the camp race in the C and B groups of the regular league racing. Nigel Ellsay and his sister Gillian were very prominent in the results for the C’s taking top honors for men and women. In addition there was Friday Nights Under the Lights racing from 8:30 until 10:30 for the A’s and B’s where Elite rider and camp participant Mike Rothengatter taking the lion’s share of the victories and the overall for the session.

After the races Mike said “The past week of Cycling BC’s training camp in Victoria has been a great experience. We were able to take advantage of the Commonwealth legacy velodrome’s motor bike, and put our training to work at their weekly friday racing. A huge thank you to all the supporters of Cycling BC for making this camp happen.”

Saturday morning dawned with another spectacular day and at 10 AM it was no rest for the wicked as the youth were back at it. The day was a heavy load with some standing starts, a points race simulation drill, the dreaded whistle drill, and finishing up with some skill work riding a coned obstacle course.

While there were tired  legs all around at the end of the day, Alex Grant from Victoria had enough energy to comment, ” I had an amazing time at the track camp! I learned so much and got much more comfortable with the idea of not having any brakes. I met great people and the coaches were excellent. Thank you to all the supporters of Cycling BC for helping make this camp happen!”

The final day of the camp was a time to review the past week and on work on some team pursuit drills in preparation for the upcoming Provincial Championships. Riders were put into teams of three and four and did a standing start effort as well as several flying efforts. Elite rider Gillian Carleton said “This camp was an opportunity to practice all aspects of high performance training, from motorpacing to standing starts. A big thanks to Cycling BC and its partners for giving us the chance to get some very valuable track experience!”

Look for all these youth riders to be the track stars of the future for Canada. There were two twelve year old riders with the oldest rider at the youth camp being seventeen. James Grant, 14, from the Comox Valley said, “I had a great time at the camp and am thankful that I got to have some more experience on the track with riders close to my age, I usually have to race adults on the road).  It helped me to make up my mind about racing track provincials.  Jeremy and Tim made the camp great because they worked us pretty hard but made it fun at the same time.  Thanks to the supporters from Cycling BC for providing this opportunity for junior cyclists.”

It is the tremedous effort provided by volunteers at the GVVA, parents, sponsors and supporters of Cycling BC that help make these facilities and initiatives possible to sustain development for cycling in our province.

Mark Grant 12 Thanks for doing the camp.  I had a great time and I hope you do it next year.  The drill I liked the most was the Team Pursuit.   I am glad that the supporters of Cycling BC allowed the camp to happen.

Andrew – The camp was a blast, lots of riding and fun drills that definitely improved my skills on the track.  The local Friday night race was a great intro to track racing and I’m looking forward to doing more races this winter.  Thanks to Cycling BC and their supporters for making this camp possible!