February 23, 2012 (London, ON) – For the 12th time this winter a packed infield had the officials on their toes to keep the 2012 Clif Bar Youth Championships at the Forest City Velodrome in London Ontario, running smoothly and on time.  45 Under 19 racers were on hand to compete in 4 categories for the youth championships and Junior Pan Am Trials.

You could cut the tension with a knife on Saturday afternoon, the racers were preparing to do battle in fun and competitive environment to see who was going to go home with the very prestigious medals for reaching the podium.

The Competition was a 3 event Omnium (2x 500m) and a Flying lap.  the riders were split into 4 Categories, Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 Girls and Under 17 Boys.

How the racing unfolded:

Under 13 Clif Bar Youth Championship
In the first of the 3 events for the youngest racers, Nathan Andreola (Woodstock) finished second to David Perez (London) in the opening event (Standing 500m TT) however, over the remaining two events Andreola (9 years old) came home with the quickest flying lap (11.35) and fastest 500m of the meet (49.72) in his age group.  Rounding out the podium were Ian Doell (Toronto), Julia Tiba (London) and Griffin Lytle (Buffalo).
It was neat to see nine young racers coming to the FCV and having a great time competing in this Youth Championship.

Under 15 – Clif Bar Youth Championship
Six very competitive young men took to the starting line to contest their 3 event Omnium.  The racing was very competitive in this category as a tie breaker would have to be used to determine the eventual winner.  In event #1, Lucas Taylor (London) managed to come out on top of the event with a .01 advantage over Fonz Vandenbroek (Springfield) who had to settle for second.  Spencer Virtue (Windsor) held on to third position after 1 event.

In the flying lap, Taylor the local London speedster was the only rider to break the 10 second barrier in the second event, Taylor went 9.92 with Vandenbroek (10.13 and Virtue (10.39) for third.  This category would come down to the third event to determine the overall champion, The 500m TT was an event Lucas Taylor would like to forget as he skipped his front wheel in the opening 30m and could not make a comeback in the later half of the race and had to settle for 3rd (43.71) to Vandenbroek’s winning time of 43.31…. Virtue had a solid ride (43.63) to nail down 3rd overall.

The tie breaker was the total time for all 3 events and the late slip by Taylor handed the over all win to Fonz Vandenbroek by less than .23 very competitive division.  rounding out the podium in 4th position was Logan McIntyre (Teeterville) and Sam Carson (London) in 5th.

Under 17 girls – Clif Bar Youth Championship
Five young ladies came to the roll around in this very competitive category.  the ages of the girls ranged from 14 – 17 and the racers had a wide variety of experience on the board at the Forest City Velodrome.  14 year old Keltie Campbell (Ottawa), took the opening 500m (43.15) the quickest time of the meet in this category.  Kartherine Marentette (London) followed closely for second (43.31) and another 14 year old Claudia Newdick (Cambridge) had a solid ride for third (43.52).  This category was to be the most competitive division of the day.

In event #2 the flying lap, had Marentette break the 10 second barrier (9.66).  New rider Sarah Fonger (Strathroy) had an outstanding time of 9.93 seconds to move into 3rd overall after 2 events.  Newdick was the most consistent with another 3rd place finish in the flying lap (10.15).  Campbell slid back to 4th and was never able to mount a comeback in the third event.

Riding at the FCV for less than 2 weeks, Sarah Fonger surprised everyone with an outstanding ride in the second 500m TT of the afternoon.  Fonger improved her time by 1/2 a second while everyone else was getting tired and slowed down from the first ride.  Marentette closed the deal and took the top step on the podium with a time of 44.02 and Claudia Newdick followed in third in a time of 44.35.  Rounding out the podium was Keltie Campbell and Emily Fonger (Strathroy).

Under 17 boys – Clif Bar Youth Championships
For the second year in a row, Connor Byway (Ottawa) dominates the FCV Youth Championships.  Last summer, Byway won all events in the Provincial Championships, and again he repeats this very difficult achievement.  The 14 year old from Ottawa was the only rider to go under thirty Nine seconds (38.61) in the opening 500m and backed up the performance with a 39.02 in the second 500m.  Connor also had an outstanding effort in the Flying lap (9.01) to win the overall U17 Omnium with 3 straight wins.

The “Battle Royal” was on for the remaining spots on the podium,  this seesaw match up had the next 4 riders swooping the finishing positions in each event.  Derek Gee (Ottawa), Dawson Lucier (Hamilton), Jesse Schultz (Hamilton) and Cam Mason (London) took turns posting the quickest times behind Byway to determine the final positions on the podium.

In the second event the 138m flying lap had Cam Mason (London) had a very strong lap and nailed down 2nd with Lucier and Gee coming in 3rd and 4th in the very quick event.  The race order was set and the final event standing 500m would spell disaster for the young Mason as he would finish 6th and take himself out of the running for second place on the podium, he would wind up 5th on the day.

The pressure was starting to build with 3 riders now competing for the top of the podium, next up Jesse Schultz had a good ride in the final 500m however, the fatigue was beginning to show as Schultz slowed from his first ride and had to settle for 4th over all.  Now it was Lucier’s turn to light up the boards in his final effort of the afternoon. Dawson Lucier would lay down the 3rd best time in this round.  All he could do was to watch Derek Gee during his final effort in this the deciding event of the afternoon.  Gee laid down the second best time (40.51) to finish just behind Byway and take silver after 3 events.  Lucier – Bronze, Schultz – 4th and Mason 5th.

The FCV would like to thank all the volunteers and parents for helping out to make the 2012 Clif Bar Youth Championships a success.  Also the FCV would like to encourage all cyclists to thank the retail stores where you purchase Cliff Bars…. the word will get back to the distributor and this will allow them to increase their commitment to track cycling for the 2013 Youth Championships.

For more information about the Forest City Velodrome and Track cycling, please click HERE.

The next race at the FCV is Saturday night February 25th at 7pm….. Sprinters will take center stage, with a multi division sprint series.  Also included will be the FCV youth racers, plus endurance races and madison’s.

See you on the boards.

Full results HERE.