January 4, 2007 (Burnaby, B.C.) — Zach Bell stomped his authority on the field at night two of the Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby yesterday. Bell stormed the field in the 60-lap points race, biding his time by not contesting any of the early sprints before unleashing a devastating attack in the second half of the race. Bell managed to lap a hard-charging field, driven by Tour de L’Avenir stage winner Tyler Farrar, in under five laps (less than a kilometre). Winning the fifth of six sprints meant all Bell had to do in the last 10 laps was finish in the field.

The battle for the rest of the podium was extremely close. Ryan McKenzie led the race after the half way mark, winning the second and fourth sprints with impressive speed, before fading near the end of the race. Martin Gilbert came to McKenzie’s rescue towing him back on, helping ensure McKenzie preserved his important omnium points, and very nearly his place on the podium.

Despite these efforts it was Cofidis rider Tyler Farrar who came closest to Bell, barely edging out a raging Marsh Cooper. Cooper could have been forgiven this week had he chose to sit in the back and try and find some form, as he recently returned from over a month in Africa doing agricultural development work. Always game to have a go, Cooper attacked late in the race, dangling off the front for more laps than seemed probably to snag maximum points in one of the final sprints, and tie Farrar on points.

The collegiate wrestling/ultimate fighting combo of Bell and Tuft took the Madison race into their own hands, double-lapping the field to leave no doubts as to who the dominant pairing has been so far at this year’s event. The Cofidis duo of Farrar and Pacific North Western legend, Kenny Williams, finished second ahead of the Symmetrics Red team.

The Canadian National Team pairing of Gilbert and McKenzie got a chance to show off their impressive speed and sound technique by winning the Kilometre Time Trial event. McKenzie, a former Canadian junior kilo record holder, used his fast start to open the pairing to an early lead that they never relinquished.

Symmetrics padded their omnium lead by a further ten points last night, but several teams are emerging who may be able to challenge that lead on the remaining four nights. Cofidis in particular seem to be gaining momentum that could build through the week. This isn’t that surprising given that Farrar told a group on the infield last night that prior to Tuesday, the last time he had been on his track bike was the 2003 US National Championships.

A Group

Jeff Ain (Escape Velocity) won a hard fought A group points race in gritty fashion. Ain contested both the early breakaway and featured in nearly every sprint to beat out Scott Laliberte and American Brian Nelson for the win.

Ain’s performance put him into a tie with A Group Omnium leader Laliberte going into night three.

Tying on points was a theme of the evening as the A Madison also went to a count-back. In the end the Fast Twitch pairing of Glenn Barr (winning at the race he also helped organized) and Matt Chater took out the win over the pairing of Laliberte and Solem, with the First Rate Mortgage team a single point off in third.

B Group

Gina Grain continued her winning way of the week to beat Western Washington rider Adam Schwind in the points race.

Schwind took vengeance later in the evening in the crash marred Snowball event, beating Grain by an impressive 129 points to 75, with Alex Pope rounding out the podium.

The B Omnium is shaping up to be a battle between Grain and Schwind as third place rider Dave Byer plans on riding with the A’s this evening.

Wednesday was also the first of the B madisons, probably one of the few madison’s ever held in which 30% of the field was female. The B’s defied the pundits in this event by riding a safe and entertaining race that at no time looked “sketchy” or that “they’re all going to die” as many on the infield had predicted.

A group of three teams quickly formed at the front, and in the end it was the Ontario pairing of Shankland and Byer (who come from the Madison obsessed Forest City Track), breaking away from a hard-charging Coastal Team. Savvy veteran Louis Bernhard and Team Giant’s Jenny Trew finished in third.

Race Notes:

Zach Bell commented last night on the how different this track season is shaping up from last. While last year Bell’s participation at the Worlds was uncertain until his pursuit at the late season Sydney World Cup, this year Bell’s strong performances in the first two stops will give him the luxury of being able to train through the L.A. event, in an effort to arrive at Worlds and Pan Ams in top form. Bell will ride just team pursuit and points in L.A., moving aside to allow teammate Tuft to ride the individual pursuit.

Both Symmetrics Red teammates are wearing skinsuits that say “Meier” across the back, confusing at least one set of spectators in the stands. It is testament to this event that there are spectators on hand to be confused. There were more fans in the stands on night two than on the first evening, and with the addition of a beer garden this weekend, the Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby atmosphere is developing nicely.

Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby — Day 2 Results

Elite

100 Lap Madison

1. Symmetrics Yellow (Bell/Tuft), 12 points
2. Cofidis (Williams/Farrar) 15 points -2 laps
3. Symmetrics Red (Evans/Meier) 11 points -2 laps
4. US National (Carroll/O’Reilly) 9 points -2 laps
5. Canadian National (McKenzie/Gilbert) 6 points –2laps
6. Rubicon Hagens/Berman (Hegyary/Harm) –2 laps
7. dEVo (Cambell/Cooper) –2 laps

60 Lap Points Race

1. Zach Bell, 25 points
2. Tyler Farrar, 12 points
3. Marsh Cooper, 12 points
4. Ryan McKenzie, 11 points
5. Daniel Harm, 5 points
6. Svein Tuft , 4 points
7. Christian Meier, 4 points
8. Cody O’Reilly, 3 points
9. Martin Gilbert, 3 points
10. Austin Carrol, 3 points
11. Cody Campbell, 2 points
12. Cam Evans, 2 points
13. Kenny Williams, 0
14. Adrian Hegyvary, 0

Flying Kilo

1. Canadian National (Gilbert/McKenzie), 63.89
2. Symmetrics Yellow (Bell/Tuft), 64.03
3. US National (Carrol/O’Reilly), 64.21
4. Cofidis (Farrar/Williams), 64.81
5. Rubicon Hagens/Berman (Harm/Hegyvary), 65.3
6. Symmetrics Red, (Evans/Meie) 66.24
7. dEVo, (Cambell/Cooper) 73.3

Omnium Standings after Night 2

1. Symmetrics Yellow (Bell/Tuft), 75 points
2. Cofidis (Farrar/Williams), 55
3. Canadian National (Gilbert, McKenzie), 52
4. US National (Carrol, O’Reilly), 46
5. Symmetrics Red (Evans, Meier), 39
6. Rubicon Hagens/Berman (Hegyvary/Harm), 16
7. dEVo (Cambell/Cooper), 21

A Group

80 Lap Points Race

1. Jeff Ain, 21 points
2. Scott Laliberte, 18
3. Brian Nelson, 14
4. Murray Solem, 11
5. Matt Chater, 10
6. Andrew George, 5
7. John Tolkamp, 5
8. Chris Reid, 2
9. Brett Walker, 0
10. Jonathan Gormick

60 Lap Madison

1. Fast Twitch#2 (Barr/Chater), 12
2. Integrale (Laliberte/Solem), 12
3. First Rate Mortgage (Nelson/Walker), 11
4. Escape Velocity (Ain/Reid), 2
5. Masi Adobe (Gormick/MacDonald), 2 -1lap
6. Fast Twitch (Bruneau/George), 5 -2laps

Omnium

1. Scott Laliberte, 22pts
2. Jeff Ain, 22
3. Brian Nelson, 18
4. Matt Chater, 17
5. Murray Solem, 15
6. Andrew George, 7
7. John Tolkamp, 6
8. Chris Reid, 5
9. Glenn Barr, 5
10. Brett Walker, 4
11. Keith Bruneau, 4
12. Felix Haspel, 3
13. Jonathan Gormick, 3
14. Joel Regimbald, 2
15. Nathan MacDonald, 1
16. Julian Base, 0

B Group

80 lap Pts race

1. Gina Grain, 18 points
2. Adam Schwind, 16
3. Matt Potma, 10
4. Gerry Van Gaans, 9
5. Dave Byer, 8
6. Louis Bernhard, 5
7. Laura McKenzie, 1
8. Alex Pope, 0
9. Jason Burch, 0
10. Ansellmo Rossellio, 0, -1lap
11. Mike Rothengatter, 12, -1lap
12. Stuart Lynne, 5, -1lap
13. Jenny Trew, 0, -2laps
14. Steph Roorda, 3, -1lap
15. Steve ?, -2laps
16.Claire Cameron, 0, -2laps

40 Lap Madison

1. Jet Fuel (Byer/Shankland), 10
2. Coastal, (Rossellio/?), 6
3. Gregg Cycle (Bernhard/Trew), 4
4. Escape Velocity (?), 1 (-2laps)
5. dEVo, (Canning/Cameron) 1 (-2laps)

25 Lap Snowball

1. Adam Schwind, 129pts
2. Gina Grain, 75
3. Alex Pope, 36
4. Jason Burch, 31
5. Mike Rothengatter, 21
6. Laura McKenzie, 21
7. Brian Wong, 18
8. Dave Kozic, 1

Omnium

1. Gina Grain, 25
2. Adam Schwind, 20
5. Dave Byer, 17
3. Matt Potma, 17
4. Gerry Van Gaans, 15
6. Louis Bernhard, 9
9. Jason Burch, 9
8. Alex Pope, 8
7. Laura McKenzie, 6