November 21, 2010 (London, ON) – Racing on Saturday night at the Forest City Velodrome in London was at it’s best. The Cadet & Junior Division was center stage for the prelude to the CanAmQue Challenge which will hit the boards in 5 short days. The Forest City Velodrome continues to roll out Canada’s top talent in the Cadet & Junior categories. Fast… no no…. really fast, Cadet Sprinters who regularly top the speed charts on race nights.

Saturday’s racing was no exception.The top four qualifiers were Cadets and Juniors, with speeds at 57.064kph for 4th qualifier Brandon Lindow (Brantford) to quickest qualifier Kris Ovsenek (Invita-FCV) at 59.935, not to shabby on our tight 138m Velodrome.

In the tournament it self, 2nd place qualifier, Adrian George (Invita-FCV), was upset by “The Professor” Lorne Falkenstein who advanced to the Bronze medal round only to go down to defeat by inches to up and coming racer Chris Singleton (St. Catharines). In the Gold medal sprint the 2 cadets Ovsenek and Daniel McKenzie-Picot (coachchris.ca) duelled head to head and a late surge by Ovsenek proved to be enough to secure the win in a very entertaining sprint final.

The Women were next to hit the track. There were 2 young ladies from Quebec who participated and performed at the top of their game and came away with 3 podiums on the night. Audrey Labrie and her sister Laurence Paquette (Piste.ca) were on the podium in the Scratch races and Points race. Nina Nesdoly (Ottawa Bicycle club) won the Points race ahead of Labrie only to have Audrey nip Nesboly in the final scratch on the night.
New comer Kristen Sears (NCCH) had a great night of racing having 2 podiums herself in the Points and Scratch races. Candice Vermuelen rounded out the podiums for the women with a silver medal in the first scratch race on the night.

The featured race of this Grand Prix series event was the 80 lap Cadet & Junior endurance race. The riders were seeded through qualifying events early in the program and only the top 14 racers would contest the Main Event.

Early in the race a breakaway of 3 riders would see Kyle Rupay (La Bicicletta), Branden Lindow (Brantford) and Brian Trafford (Ottawa Bicycle Club) quickly gain 1/2 a lap. The trio would work together very well for the next 30 laps when eventual winner Jason King (Invita-FCV) would bridge the gap and get on even terms with the 3 leaders. As the laps clicked off, a 5th rider Patrick McGinley (Invita-FCV) attempted to get across to the 4 leaders who were about to go up 1 lap on the field. Slowly McGinley chipped away at the 4 leaders and with 20 to go, there were 5 riders up a lap and the attacks continued.

With 9 laps to go, King rolled off the front and had a 10m advantage. The chase was on, however the 4 other chasers were out of gas and could not make up the difference. King won the very exciting Junior feature event. Kyle Rupay and Branden Lindow came accross the line together with Rupay taking 2nd by less then .077 seconds according to the FCV computer scoring system.

The final event of the night was the Elite Madison, with 6 teams taking to the rail for the start. It was a good mix of youth and master racers who would spice up the event. In the end the Invita-FCV team of Jason King (who was on fire all night) partnered with Will Simonds to lap the field and had the crowd standing and cheering them on. In the end, with 5 laps to go, the 14 year old Simonds missed his last exchange with King. Simonds had to finish the race with the hard charging team of Dave Bogue & Garnett Abbey closing a 1/2 lap in the final 5 laps to finish 2nd by two bike lengths.

Overall a very successful evening of racing with over 250 spectators jammed into the FCV.

All eyes will be on the Forest City Velodrome this weekend Nov 26th and 27th as the 5th annual CanAmQue Challenge weekend will rumble onto the boards….

Friday night is Madison night with separate “A” & “B” Madison races with Sprints, Miss & Outs, Scratch races along with opening and closing Madisons during the program.

On Saturday night at 7 pm the 138 lap CanAmQue Challenge will be the feature event. There will be racing for all categories including the FCV youth racers. Adult admission is $10.00 with Seniors $5.00 and Kids are always “FREE”.

Visit www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca for more information.

Complete race results HERE.