January 3, 2007 — The Symmetrics Pro Cycling duo of Zach Bell and Svein Tuft opened a commanding nine point lead yesterday in the omnium on night one of the Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby. Adopting the Rocky Balboa approach to Madison tactics, the two relied heavily on their raw horsepower to ride on or off the front for most of the evening’s two feature madisons.

Their technique was not always perfect, in fact they probably missed more exchanges than any other team, but their continued ability to motor back on after any split and to continually put the rest of the field in difficulty was nothing short of impressive. Tuft has reportedly been battling a cold but he certainly seemed to show no ill effects of it last evening, as both he and partner Bell were able to drive a relentless pace.

While the yellow machine leads the charge, it’s too early to draw any overall conclusions as they were bested in two of three events by visiting teams.

The young American duo of Austin Carrol and Cody O’Reilly (both under 20 years old, they are the second and third youngest riders in the field after Junior wunder-kid Cody Cambell) provided an impressive display of speed and technique to win the Team Pursuit. They beat out Canada’s National Team of Martin Gilbert and Ryan McKenzie as the Team Pursuit was the evening’s opening race and served as a sort of prologue for the week’s competition.

Having already raced at the prestigious Ghent Six Day this year, the pair bring international experience to the event far beyond their years. Losing by just two tenths of a second the Canadian National team was left wondering what could have been, had Gilbert not had to race on a borrowed bike after his did not make his flight from Quebec.

Hungarian/American teammates Adrian Hegevary and Danial Harm (Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann) scored an upset win in the evening’s third event ahead of the Bell/Turt freight train, showing why both riders are current national champions in their respective countries.

Other Race Notes:

– The evening was also the beginning of the A Invitational Sprint Competition, run as a round robin, spectators will get to see all of the competitors paired off against each other at some point during the event.

– Matt Chater managed to fit riding the sprint rounds in between second place finishes in both the A men’s elimination to scratch, and the A men’s Madison, and beat his Fast Twitch teammate Keith Bruneau, in two extremely close rides.

– Cam MacKinnon, fresh from training under Martin Barras, defeated fellow Albertan Joel Regimbald in two straight rides.

– In a pairing of two of the newst names in Canadian sprinting, Felix Haspel defeated JetFuel’s Jamie Shankland in two straight rides.

– Possibly the most anticipated ride of the evening however was between Junior prodigy Monique Sullivan and masters multiple national champion Andy George. Despite most of George’s extend family heckling him from the sidelines, George was able to take out the first ride, but succumbed to Sullivan’s impressive speed and power in the second.

– The sprint action continued with two Chariot heats won by Cam McKinnon over veteran tactician Bruneau and the young Haspel.

– Gina grain served notice to those in attendance that she is rapidly coming back into form after a rocky start to her track campaign. Grain dominated the B fields points race, showing superior speed to take a commanding lead in the points 23-11 over Ontario’s Dave Byer.

– Byer has the B’s omnium lead, having also placed second in the B scratch race after his late race breakaway was caught by a flying Alex Pope in the last straight.

– In the two A events of the evening Scott Laliberte was the dominant rider, wining the elimination to scratch over jack-of-all trades Chater and teaming up with perennial partner Murray Solem to win the Madison over the Fast Twitch Cycling pairing of Chatter and Glen Barr (who aside from racing spend much of the evening running around helping with organizing the event).

Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby – Day 1 Results

Group B – 20 Lap Scratch

1. Alex Pope
2. Dave Byer
3. Matt Potma
4. Gina Grain
5. Mike Rothengatter
6. Adam Schwind
7. Jason Burch
8. Gerry Van Gaans

Group A – Elimination to Scratch (50% to 15 laps)

1. Scott Laliberte 10
2. Matt Chater 9
3. Brian Nelson 8
4. Jeff Ain 7
5. Keith Bruneau 6
6. Felix Haspel 5
7. Murray Solem 4
8. Glenn Barr 3
9. Rene Regimbald 2
10. Nathan MacDonald 1
11. Julian Base
12. Andrew George
13. Chris Reid
14. Brett Walker
15. Jonathan Gormick

Group B – Feature 60 Lap Points Race (Results, Omnium Points)

1. Gina Grain 23, 10
2. Dave Byer 11, 9
3. Adam Schwind 10, 8
4. Matt Potma 8, 7
5. Gerry Van Gaans 6, 6
6. Jason Burch 5, 5
7. Ansellmo Rossellio 2, 4
8. Alex Pope 3
9. Louis Bernhard 2
10. Steph Roorda 1

Group A – 60 Lap Madison, 4 Sprints

1. Integrale (Scott Laliberte, Murray Solem) 12
2. PVL FT#2 (Glenn Barr, Matt Chater) 10
3. First Rate Mortgage (Brian Nelson, Brett Walker) 9
4. Escape Velocity (Jeff Ain, Chris Reid) 6
5. Masi Adobe (Jonathan Gormick, Nathan MacDonald) 1
6. Blue (Julian Base, Rene Regimbald) 6, -1 lap
7. Fast Twitch (Keith Bruneau, Andrew George) -2 laps

Invitational Match Sprints

Matt Chat 2 rides to 0
Keith Bruneau

Joel Regimbald
Cam McKinnon 2 rides to 0

Felix Haspel 2 rides to 0
Jamie Shankland

Monique Sullivan 1 win
Andy George 1 win

Invitational 2 Lap Chariot Races

Final
1. Cam McKinnon
2. Keith Bruneau
3. Felix Haspel
4. Joel Regimbald

Minor Final
5. Matt Chater
6. Jamie Shankland
7. Monique Sullivan

2 km Madison Pursuit

1. US National (Carrol/ O’Reilly) 2:16.24, 10 points
2. Canadian National (McKenzie/Gilbert) 2:16:48, 9
3. Symmetrics Yellow (Bell/ Tuft) 2:17:38, points
4. Symmetrics Red (Evans/Meier) 2:19.54, 7
5. Cofidis (Farrar/Williams) 2:19:04, 6
5. Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann (Hegevary/Harm) 2:21.35, 5
7. dEVo (Cambell/Cooper) 2:22:17, 4

Elite Men’s Madison #1 (60 laps)

1. Zach Bell/Svein Tuft (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team), 15 pts
2. Ryan MacKenzie (Volkswagen Trek)/Martin Gilbert (Kelly Benefit Strategies), 9
3. Tyler Farrar (Cofidis), 8
4. Cam Evans */Christian Meier * (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team), 5
5. Adrian Hegevary/Daniel Harm (Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann), 4
6. Austin Carroll/Cody O’Reilly (USA National Track Team), 2
7. Marsh Cooper * (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team)/Cody Campbell (Escape Velocity / DEVO), 1

*U23

Elite Men’s Madison #2 (60 laps)

1. Adrian Hegevary/Daniel Harm (Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann), 10 pts
2. .Zach Bell/Svein Tuft (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team), 9
3. Austin Carroll/Cody O’Reilly (USA National Track Team), 9
4. Tyler Farrar (Cofidis), 7
5. Ryan MacKenzie (Volkswagen Trek)/Martin Gilbert (Kelly Benefit Strategies), 5
6. Cam Evans */Christian Meier * (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team), 4
7. Marsh Cooper * (Symmetrics Pro Cycling Team)/Cody Campbell (Escape Velocity / DEVO), 0

Elite Madison Omnium

Symmetrics Yellow (Zach Bell, Svein Tuft) 32 points
Canadian National (Ryan McKenzie, Martin Gilbert) 23
Cofidis (Kenny Williams, Tyler Farrar) 21
US National (Austin Carroll, Cody O’Reilly 21
Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann (Adrian Hegevary, Daniel Harm) 19
Symmetrics Red (Cam Evans, Christian Meier) 16
dEVo (Cody Campbell, Marsh Cooper) 5