September 10, 2004 – Hello members of the Burnaby Velodrome Club! If our mailing and membership lists are correct, there about 350 of you receiving this email. We had a great 2003/2004 season and introduced a lot of people to the sport of track cycling. We’re looking forward to another great season and wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what’s been going on this summer and what to look forward to this Fall. This Newsletter is a quick attempt to cover some of the excitement that’s happening at the track…

* Lori-Ann in Athens
* Poitras and Cooper at Worlds
* Improvements have started
* Facts & figures
* Many hands make light work…
* Mark your calendars


Lori-Ann wins in Athens

We may as well start at the top. Edmonton’s Lori-Ann Muenzer had a great
summer representing Canada at the World Track Cycling Championships in
Melbourne where she won a Bronze Medal in the Women’s Sprint. She then went
on to win one of Canada’s three Gold Medals at the Olympics in Athens in the
Women’s Sprint, beating her Australian and Russian competitors handily on
the way. While Edmonton is Lori-Ann’s hometown and training centre, she used
Burnaby this Winter/Spring season to sharpen her skills and speed against
some of the men at our January and May race events, prior to Worlds and the
Olympics. We shared in the excitement of Lori Ann’s win and were happy to
have helped her along the way.

Related links:

CBC’s In-depth profile:
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/indepth/muenzer/

Lori-Ann at Burnaby in January:
http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/images/bvcjan04/images/20059.jpg
http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/images/bvcjan04/images/20060.jpg
http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/images/bvcjan04/images/20081.jpg

Poitras and Cooper
Lori-Ann wasn’t the only Burnaby Velodrome athlete to attend the World Track
Cycling Championships this year: Mandy Poitras attended the Worlds in
Melbourne and junior rider Naomi Cooper attended the Jr Worlds at North
America’s second indoor velodrome in Los Angeles. Mandy won a Silver Medal
in the Women’s Scratch Race, beating defending world champ Olga Slyusareva
in the process.

Naomi Cooper’s first international track competition was at the newly
constructed ADT Event Center in Carson California. Naomi rode the Points
Race and finished 15th. Knowing her “never say die” style, Naomi will be a
force to be reckoned with in the years to come and it was great to see her
represent Canada at the Jr Worlds.

Related Links:
UCI’s World Track Championships Results:
http://www.uci.ch/track.asp?1stlevelid=C&level2=0&level1=2

Naomi in action:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/jul04/juniorworlds04/?id=women_points_rac
e/5495-Start-of-20K

Mandy in action:
http://www.bcf.uk.com/gallery/2004/Track_Worlds/Womens_Scratch/Womens_Scratch.ht
ml

To note, also competing at Jr. Track Worlds was Renee Duprel’s Rad Racing
Team from Washington state. Renee and her team used Burnaby as a training
facility this spring in preparation for racing on the new 250m track in Los
Angeles. http://www.radracingnw.org

Making upgrades to our home

In March of 2004, the Burnaby Velodrome Club was awarded a matching funds
grant by the Province of BC and the Government of Canada to upgrades to the
Harry Jerome Sport Centre. These changes have already started, with
construction happening this summer. First up is the replacement of the
air-lock doors in the building. Over time we’ll move onto other items to
make the building more heat and light efficient, better for spectators, and
more useful all around. Our capital project will continue over the next 2
years as we make upgrades, scheduled around off-season times to minimize
disruption.

A busy year

As was mentioned, last year was a busy one for the BVC. Outside of Olympic
Gold Medals and World Championship performances by some of our elite
athletes, here’s some other facts about last year’s accomplishments:

Number of Race Series Events: 3

May 2004 http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/bvc3_may04.html
Jan 2004 http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/bvc2_jan04.html
Nov 2003 http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/bvc1_nov03.html

Host of the BC Provincial Track Champs – June 2004
http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/bcchamps_june04.html

Total Number of 2003/2004 riders: ~360

Rental Bikes in 2002/2003: 3
Rental Bikes in 2003/2004: 15

Medals at Canadian Track Nats by Burnaby Riders: 12