January 5, 2007 (Burnaby BC) — The Canadian Team of Ryan McKenzie and Martin Gilbert saw their overall omnium hopes evaporate last night when McKenzie and Svein Tuft collided coming towards the home stretch. Tuft seemed to mistime his exchange and rode into the back of McKenzie who had just completed his exchange and was riding on relief.

Luckily for the Symmetrics team, they were a lap up on the rest of the field at this stage in the race. Both Bell and Gilbert were left to fend for themselves for several laps as KcKenzie and Tuft rushed to rejoin the race. The debacle cost both team a lap and put the Canadian team out of contention for the night at least.

True to form Tuft shrugged off the effects of the crash and he and Bell combined to retake a hard-fought-for lap.

At the end of the night it was a one-two finish for the Symmetrics team, as the LA-bound pairing of Evans and Meier outscored the Cofidis duo of Williams and Farrar to finish second.

It should be noted that not only were McKenzie and Tuft not hurt by the crash, both riders seemed largely unfazed by it. An occasional slide across the boards is part of the job description when track racing is your occupation.

The remainder of the Elite schedule saw the Elite Madison riders split, and combine with half of each of the A pairings, to race two separate 60-lap points races. A good number of A’s declined the chance to race with the Elites as the races had no bearing on their omnium, but several had a go at it, and all of the A’s finished their heats – though most several laps down.

The event had an American flavour as California’s Austin Carrol won the first heat over McKenzie and Tuft, while Washington rider Tyler Farrar won the second heat over Zach Bell and Dan Harm.

In the omnium, Symmetrics now has a commanding 4-lap lead over the Cofidis pairing and the rest of the field.

Invitational 500
Pan-Am Champs gold medallist, Cam MacKinnon, won the invitational 500 ahead of former World Cup teamer Matt Chater and young Albertan Felix Haspel. National Kilo 2006 champion Matt Barlee is still suffering the effects of a lung infection that saw him in hospital over the holidays and finished off the podium in fifth.

A Group
Jeff Ain won the 40-lap snowball race, the only race counting that evening towards to A omnium, in commanding fashion with 287 points to second place Brett Walker’s 163. The race was not without contention however as there was some confusion as to what constituted the field near the end of the race as the bunch had exploded – only the rider leading on the same lap counts to score points (if you lap the field in this event, you are effectively just at the back again).

The judges upheld Ain’s win in the end, and with it he moves into the lead of the A’s omnium.

B Group
The sole race for the night for the B’s was a long 100-lap points race. In the end two riders made separate attacks that stole laps on the field. Western Washinton’s Adam Schwind, who stole a lap first, combined this with consistent sprinting to edge out junior rider Matt Potma. Potma’s late race lap was impressive, though at times his muscular frame seemed to risk overpowering his bike handling. More impressively still, he followed it up by counter-attacking straight through to snag late race points and nearly topple Schwind from the top of the podium.

Gina Grain rounded out the podium in third place. Grain seemed to focus on a strategy that largely ignored following the lapping riders and instead focusing on the sprints. With his win Schwind consolidated his omnium lead.

Race Notes

– Night two also saw a variety of junior and C grade racing. It’s great to see so many new riders coming out to race on the track. The large C group seemed well balanced, with aggressive racing that was also surprisingly safe and controlled. The quality of this racing is probably testimony to the record turn outs the track has had this year at their Learn to Ride programs.

– Women’s racing begins tonight at the track, and if the quality of the women racing with the B’s is any indication, it should be entertaining to watch. The women racing in the B field have all been factors in the racing so far, and no less than four riders scored points last evening. Look for Grain to have her hands full dealing with the Alberta trio of Laura McKenzie, Jenny Trew and Steph Roorda.

– While Trew and McKenzie (formerly Yoisten) are well known to those that follow the Canadian track scene, Roorda has been the surprise of the week. The young Albertan, who now lives in Victoria to attend school, has been an aggressive fixture racing at the front all week, attacking whenever the opportunity has presented itself (several times she has spent several laps chasing back on, only to attack a few laps later).

Giant Bicycles 6 Days of Burnaby — Day 3 Results

Elite

120 Lap Madison

1. Symmetrics Yellow (Zach Bell/Svein Tuft), 24 (+1 lap)
2. Symmetrics Red (Cam Evans/Christian Meier), 20
3. Cofidis (Kenny Williams/Tyler Farrar), 16
4. US National (Austin Carroll/Cody O’Reilly), 6
5. Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann (Adrian Hegevary/Daniel Harm), 3
6. dEVo (Cody Campbell/Marsh Cooper), 0
7. Canadian National (Ryan McKenzie/Martin Gilbert), 16 (–1 lap)

60 Lap points Race #1

1. Austin Carroll, 16
2. Ryan McKenzie, 13
3. Svein Tuft, 10
4. Christian Meier, 7
5. Kenny Williams, 4
6. Cody Campbell, 3
7. Adrian Hegevary, 2
9. Jeff Ain, 0 (-1 lap)
10. Brian Nelson, 0 (-1 lap)
11. Jonathan Gormick, 0 (-2 laps)

60 Lap points Race #2

1. Tyler Farrar, 16
2. Zach Bell, 15
3. Dan Harm, 15
4. Cam Evans, 7
5. Cody O’Reilly, 5
6. Marsh Cooper, 4
7. Martin Gilbert, 2 (-1 lap)
8. Brett Walker, 2 (-1 lap)
9. Chris Reid, 0 (-2 laps)
10. Andy George, 0 (-2 laps)
11. Joel Regimbald, 0 (-4 laps)

Omnium

1. Symmetrics Yellow (Zach Bell/Svein Tuft), 121
2. Cofidis (Kenny Williams/Tyler Farrar), 94 (-4 laps)
3. Rubicon Haagnes/Bergmann (Adrian Hegevary/Daniel Harm), 54 (-4 laps)
4. Symmetrics Red (Cam Evans/Christian Meier), 77 (-4 laps)
5. US National (Austin Carroll/Cody O’Reilly), 75 (-4 laps)
6. Canadian National (Ryan McKenzie/Martin Gilbert), 86 (-5 laps)
7. dEVo (Cody Campbell/Marsh Cooper), 35 (-5 laps)

A Group

40 Lap Snowball

1. Jeff Ain, 287
2. Brett Walker, 163
3. Scott Laliberte, 134
4. Matt Chater, 70
5. Brian Nelson, 46
6. Nathan MacDonald, 45
7. Murray Solem, 42
8. John Tolkamp, 27
9. Andy George, 22
10. Glenn Barr, 18
11. Jonathan Gormick, 4
12. Chris Reid, 3

Invitational 500 m Pursuit

1. Cam MacKinnon, 34.46
2. Matt Chater, 35.16
3. Felix Haspel, 35.22
4. Keith Bruneau, 36.01
4. Matt Barlee, 35.46
5. Jamie Shankland, 36.39
6. Joel Regimbald, 37.10
7. Mike McCorkell, 38.25
8. Monique Sullivan, 38.58
9. Andy George, 39.22

B Group

Points Race

1. Adam Schwind, 39pts
2. Matt Potma, 30
3. Gina Grain, 22
4. Dave Byer, 17
5. Mike Rothengatter, 13
6. Stuart Lynne, 7
7. Jason Burch, 6
8. Alex Pope, 4
9. Ansellmo Rossellio, 4
10. Laura McKenzie, 3
11. Jenny Trew, 2
12. Steph Roorda, 1

B Omnium

1. Adam Schwind, 40pts
2. Gina Grain, 38
3. Matt Potma, 33
4. Dave Byer, 28
5. Jason Burch, 16
6. Gerry Van Gaans, 15
7. Alex Pope, 14
8. Mike Rothengatter, 12
9. Laura McKenzie, 10
10. Ansellmo Rossellio, 9
11. Stuart Lynne, 9
12. Louis Bernhard, 9
13. Jenny Trew, 1
14. Steph Roorda, 1
15. Doug Preston, 0
16. Dave Kosick, 0
17. Claire Cameron, 0
18. Steve (local rider), 0

C Group

25 Lap Scratch Race

1. Kevin Thorpe
2. Mike Rothengatter
3. Ian Fingler
4. Brian Wong
5. Mike Laxdale
6. Anthony

40 Lap Points Race

1. Kevin Thorpe, 12pts
2. Cam Thorpe, 11
3. Mike Rothengatter , 10
4. Anthony, 4
5. Darren, 2
6. Brian Wong, 2
7. Leo, 2
8. Ian Fingler, 1

Juniors

30 Lap Points Race

1. Monique Sullivan, 16
2. Kevin Thorpe, 9
3. Rachel Canning, 7
4. Cam Thorpe, 5
5. Jacob, 3
6. Tavis, 2
6. Olivier, 2

20 Lap Scratch Race

1. Kevin Thorpe
2. Monique Sullivan
3. Cam Thorpe
4. Olivier
5. Jacob
6. Rachel Canning
7. Tavis