December 15, 2005 – Here is the latest from Burnaby:

Night #3: Wednesday December 13, 2005

Day three of the SixDay and with the Bs resting it was time for the C riders to show up and have a go. Seven brave souls took to the track, some in their very first race ever. The pack was as polarized as you could get, with two young women and five old guys battling it out over four races. The Points Race was the first up and it turned out to be a very competitive field with six of the seven riders gaining points. Unfortunately young Rachel Canning, all of 16, who was using one of our rental bikes was horribly undergeared and lost a lap. The race went to Brian Wong who consistently scored points in all five sprints.

Next up was the Retro Kilo and with no aero equipment to be used world record times were safe for the night. The times on the night were surprisingly fast however and just like in world level competition the anchor could be seen coming out for every rider. With under eight seconds separating first and seventh the crowd got into the excitement and cheered each rider on. The last rider, Stuart Lynne, made it even more unbelievable when he came within ( ) that much of beating early race leader Wong and lost out by 4/100 of a second. Third up was the Unknown Distance race and as lady luck would have it both ladies were in great position for the final coming across the line just behind Stuart and Steve Crowe. The smile on Rachel’s face could be seen from the back row of the packed house as she collected points in only her third race on the track. The Scratch race was last for these tiring competitors and taking a page out of her ’03 National Junior Points Race, Lisa Tasa planned her move and exploded from the pack with just two laps remaining. With tired legs, the pack took their time to react but react they finally did and Lisa held onto fourth with Stuart taking their last race of the night. Thursday will conclude their Omnium race.

The A group’s Madison race might be all but wrapped up with the Symmetrics duo holding a commanding lead on laps but the Individual Omnium is heating up with veteran rider and race director Scott Laliberte being chased by both Symmetrics racers and Calgarian Ryan McKenzie. The racing proved to be very tactical last night with the Burnaby invented Miss & Out to Scratch race first off. The boys in yellow controlled the race perfectly and Meier attacked at the right moment to pull out the win. Next was the ever simple Scratch race. But with points on the line and many tired legs in the group, the pack shattered. Three riders took to the front and with Scott being sandwiched between the Symmetrics duo it looked like a victory for one of the young guns. Somehow Laliberte did match both racer’s moves and came out with the victory. Last race of the night was the Point-a-Lap and as confusion rained regarding lapping the field and cash from the crowd on the line the win went to a well thought out move by Ryan McKenzie.

Group A Miss and Out to Scratch
1 Christian Meier
2 Scott Laliberte
3 Ryan Mckenzie
4 Marsh Cooper
5 Murray Solem
6 Andrew George
7 Mandy Poitras
8 Jimmy Lingwood
9 John Perkins
10 Philippe Abbott
11 Attila Fritz
12 Gordon Ross
13 Luis Bernhardt
14 Jeff Ain

Group A Scratch Race
1 Scott Laliberte
2 Marsh Cooper
3 Christian Meier
4 Ryan Mckenzie
5 John Perkins
6 Mandy Poitras

Group A Point-a-Lap
1 Ryan Mckenzie 12
2 Gordon Ross 10
3 John Perkins 2
4 Scott Laliberte 1

Group A Madison
1 Christian Meier 15
Marsh Cooper
2 Ryan Mckenzie 8 (-4 laps)
Philippe Abbott
3 Scott Laliberte 7 (-4 laps)
Murray Solem
4 Luis Bernhardt 1 (-5 laps)
Andrew George
5 Jeff Ain 2 (-6 laps)
Gordon Ross
6 Adrian Hegyvary 0 (-11 laps)
Jimmy Lingwood

Group A Individual Omnium Standings (after 7 events)
Scott Laliberte 28
Ryan Mckenzie 21
Christian Meier 18
Marsh Cooper 18
John Perkins 8
Adrian Hegyvary 7
Murray Solem 6
Gordon Ross 4
Philippe Abbott 1


Group C Points Race
1 Brian Wong 17
2 Steve Crowe 13
3 Stuart Lynne 13
4 Doug Preston 6
5 Rob Mcmurtry 3
6 Lisa Tasa 3
7 Rachel Canning -20

Group C Retro Kilo
1 Brian Wong 01:25.91
2 Stuart Lynne 01:25.95
3 Steve Crowe 01:26.09
4 Rob Mcmurtry 01:28.15
5 Lisa Tasa 01:29.22
6 Doug Preston 01:32.62
7 Rachel Canning 01:33.44

Group C Unknown Distance
1 Stuart Lynne
2 Steve Crowe
3 Rachel Canning
4 Lisa Tasa
5 Rob Mcmurtry
6 Doug Preston

Group C Scratch
1 Stuart Lynne
2 Steve Crowe
3 Doug Preston
4 Lisa Tasa
5 Rachel Canning
6 Rob Mcmurtry

Group C Omnium Standings (after 4 events)
1 Stuart Lynne 19
2 Steve Crowe 15
3 Doug Preston 5
4 Lisa Tasa 5
5 Rachel Canning 4
6 Rob Mcmurtry 4

Night #2: Tuesday December 13, 2005

Looking up from the infield on Monday night, most racers were surprised and excited to see as many spectators in the stands as the first night. Last night they were even more excited, mostly thanks in part to the stint on City TV’s Breakfast Television. Luckily the crowds were not disappointed as they were treated to some fantastic racing in the B group and a some dominating racing in the A group.

The Bs started the night off with a Points Race and once again Recycled Cycles rider Daniel “show some” Harm was out collecting points. It wasn’t a total runaway as no less than 10 riders collected points in this race. The final looked almost sewn up nearing the end of the race however until youth and daringness took over. Nathan MacDonald flew from the middle of the pack taking the five points available for that sprint and proceeded to lap the main field. His 25 points was just enough to edge out Daniel and young Cody Campbell in third. Next up for this pack was the always painful Snowball. The first handful of laps saw Cody, Chris Anstee and Adrian Johnson trading off and collecting laps. Being a race with no easy laps yet no all out sprints this is most definitely a race that never lets up, however David Schneider, BC’s VP of road and track, took advantage of a slight lull in the pace and slid off the front to gain valuable mid race points entrenching himself in an almost unbeatable lead. That is until Daniel broke the pack open again, caught and passed David and accumulated points after points, putting the lead out of reach.

The Unknown Distance race was next for this group and as this is an event of complete luck, with an awe lot of incredible timing ;), any rider with a bit of gambler in their blood took their chance off the front, hoping, praying, pleading for the bell to be rung. When it finally was Anselmo “drive me to Vegas” Rossiello showed his fast turn of speed and held off Masters World Champion Chris Anstee, Daniel, Andy White and Cody in that order. The last race of the night was set aside for the B group, and why not? It wasn’t like they had not raced hard or long enough over the last two nights! The Point-a-Lap was last on the schedule and as this was a 45 lap race and we only have 33 points accounted for, then I would assume there were plenty of tired legs that needed to pull out. The brave who did finish and collected laps were speedsters Laura Yoisten, and the usual crew of Anselmo, Andy, Nathan and race winner Daniel. A good hard night of racing for the Bs who are most likely looking forward to their night off tonight.

The same cannot be said for the A racers, night two of racing and four to go with no end in the pain and suffering in sight. Marsh Cooper is not a lucky man in the sense of “finding winning tickets on the sidewalk” lucky. This kid goes out and makes his own luck. With rested legs, Marsh split from the pack early and opened a huge 3/4 of a lap gap in the As Unknown Distance. As this race does not favor riders lapping the field, Marsh just maintained his lead and waited for the bell to ring. When it did, race organizer Scott Laliberte just managed to be at the front of the pack and held off the fast field for second place.

Next up was the Point-a-Lap and tired legs from two nights of hard racing were evident. Five riders lapped the pack, which was pulled, leaving the finishing five to collect all the points. Again Marsh won, with teammate Christian Meier, Washington rider Adrian Hegyvary, Calgarian Ryan McKenzie, and local boy John Perkins finishing in that order. The 150 lap Madison was last for these riders, and after a rather tame first night of slinging, Tuesday’s affair was anything but. Symmetrics took an early aggressive approach to the event and quickly went on the attack, the pack shattered and racers spent the next hundred and so laps being show a textbook display of speed and precision by the two young pros.

Group A Unknown Distance
1 Marsh Cooper
2 Scott Laliberte
3 Adrian Hegyvary
4 Ryan Mckenzie
5 Christian Meier
6 Murray Solem
7 John Perkins

Group A Point-a-Lap
1 Marsh Cooper
2 Christian Meier
3 Adrian Hegyvary
4 Ryan Mckenzie
5 John Perkins

Group A Madison
1 Christian Meier 19
Marsh Cooper
2 Scott Laliberte 9 (-6 laps)
Murray Solem
3 Ryan Mckenzie 14 (-10 laps)
Philippe Abbott
4 Adrian Hegyvary 13 (-15 laps)
Jimmy Lingwood
5 Jeff Ain 0 (-15 laps)
Gordon Ross
6 Luis Bernhardt 0 (-15 laps)
Andrew George


Group B Points Race
1 Nathan MacDonald 25
2 Daniel Harm 22
3 Cody Campbell 14
4 Andy White 10
5 Claire Cameron 5
6 Anselmo Rossiello 5
7 Paul Craig 4
8 Brenda Pennell 4
9 Albert Souza 4
10 Chiron Kantakis 0
11 David Schneider 0
12 Laura Yoisten -16
13 Lucas Fennell -20
14 Naomi Cooper -20
15 David Kosick -20
16 Adrian Johnson -40
DNF Christopher Anstee

Group B Snowball
1 Daniel Harm 477
2 David Schneider 98
3 Adrian Johnson 37
4 Christopher Anstee 13
5 Cody Campbell 5
6 Lucas Fennell 0
7 Andy White 0
8 Brenda Pennell 0
9 Laura Yoisten 0

Group B Unknown Distance
1 Anselmo Rossiello
2 Christopher Anstee
3 Daniel Harm
4 Andy White
5 Cody Campbell

Group B Point-a-Lap
1 Daniel Harm 21
2 Nathan MacDonald 6
3 Andy White 4
4 Anselmo Rossiello 1
5 Laura Yoisten 1