August 26, 2010 (Bromont, QC) – Riders awoke to rain in Bromont on the second day of competition which caused delays, delays, and more delays. A window of opportunity presented itself late in the afternoon and the young racers were called in to get ready to finish a shortened version of the Canadian Omnium. The U17 riders competed in the Scratch Race and Points Race, but not the individual pursuit which was dropped from the program.

The U17 women started the racing with a shortened Scratch race after the Individual Pursuit was dropped from the program and the race was shortened again as it began to spit. With 2 laps notice the women turned up the speed for a fast finish that saw Laurence Paquette (Quebec) win the third event in a row. Her teammate Marie-Eve Poisson was second and Ontario rider Bailin Xie was third. The points race was a hotly contested event with several attacks from the 7 entrants. Poisson finished 1st and Paquette was in 5th to tie them for the overall Omnium lead. It was the time in the 500 meters that broke the tie and Paquette won gold, Poisson silver, and Xia bronze.

Gatineau Lambert (Quebec) placed 4th in the first two events on the U17 men’s side and worked hard to win the Scratch race, but it was back to 4th in the Points Race to finish second overall. His teammate Marc Antoine Noel was equally consistent in the Omnium event by winning all but the Scratch and walking away with the Gold medal. In third place was Justin Mallet of the Atlantic Cycling Centre.

Scott Mulder (BC), who won the Junior Keirin in 2009, decided to compete in the team pursuit as a warm-up. His team rode to a bronze medal, with Ontario in second, and Quebec in first. Mulder returned to the track for the Keirin where he won his heat and the final in the exciting event over newcomers and Junior Pan American teammates Kris Ovsenek and Daniel McKenzie-Picot rounding out the podium.

The Junior men and women were back on track for the scratch and points race respectively. Both races were very aggressive and impressive with Frederic Poisson (Quebec), Alex Cataford (Ontario), and Kris Dahl (Alberta) finishing with Gold, Silver, and Bronze in the Scratch. The women, who also raced the Keirin, had the same three on the podium with Allison Beveridge (Alberta) winning two gold medals, Florence Laplante-Lamarche (Ontario) a silver in the Keirin and Bronze in the Points, and Veronique Drapeau-Zgoralski (Quebec) the opposite.

There were two elite events that took place, the Men’s Individual Pursuit and the Women’s Team Pursuit. Laura Brown (BC), Steph Roorda (BC), and Tara Whitten (AB) who have been racing and training together all year, have put in the work to made it look easy and won the event. Team B from BC was second and Specialized Mazda was third.

Zach Bell (BC), who hasn’t raced an Individual Pursuit in years became the Canadian Champion in a time of 4:45.285 after a slow first kilometre. Remi Pelletier-Roy (QC) was second in 4:50.407, and last year’s champion Charly Vives was third in 4:50.946.

Full results and the schedule for Aug. 26th may be found on the CCA website here.