May 25, 2007 (Vanlencia, Venezuela) – When countries go to war they usually go in with a plan. They don’t go in all blitzkrieg and then change their plan during the same battle to guerrilla warfare. This was exactly our problem last night as Martin Gilbert and I raced the Madison at the Pan Am Championships here in Valencia, Venezuela.

We had a plan that was well thought out and we prepared specifically during the last three weeks of training to execute our plan. We were as prepared as we could have been and everything was inline. Sophie, Team Canada’s soigneur, has done a great job with taking care of our aching muscles. Chad, the wrench, has been all over the bikes keeping our hands clean and letting us focus on the track. The three coaches lined themselves around the track with radios to communicate the race information like crooks planning a heist. Our ceramic bearings on our CaneCreek were wheels spinning as if there was no such thing as friction. We were warmed up, coffee’d up and everything was looking up.

Our 160 lap (53km) Madison started as usual with guns firing and a lot of action. It’s no secret that Gilbert and I are a fast twitch team so our plan was to ride a sprinter’s race and not miss any breaks of two or more. We were doing a decent job. We were also doing a decent job of bringing along too many teams with us to beat us in the sprints. It went back and forth like this literally for 140 laps. At that point we had not won absolutely one single point. The only positives to our pace-making were that we were able to get rid of the Argentinean team who always come with their A-game.

Finally we took the time, sat back, and started racing like we had nothing to lose. During the last two sprints Gilbert and I launched RPG’s into the rest of the pack like we should have been doing all race, instead of fumbling with the num-chucks, to earn 10 points. Our jihad paid off launching us into 5th place.

As with many wars, the USA always finds their way to victory. The team of Brad Huff and veteran Colby Pearce won just ahead of Chile with Cuba and Columbia coming in third and fourth.

Team Sprint Bronze

Cam McKinnon, Yannick Morin and Lawrence Leroux did improve on the week’s results. The trio won their bronze medal heat in the Olympic sprint against Venezuela, despite a stadium full of fans cheering against them.

It was great to see them succeed. Canada has a very strong team of motivated athletes despite our country’s abundance of tundra. The Pan Am Track Championships were a fundamental step to gain points to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. We earned a great deal this week putting us on the right path. If we can continue to create the opportunities for ourselves I think we have all the chance in the world to qualify for the Olympics in all od the events that Canada participated in these past four days.

Our room just got more full as David Veilleux just showed up along with Charles Dionne and Keven Lacombe to take part in the road race this Sunday. It is going to be quite the race. The course is a 6 or 7km hot dog with U-turns at both ends and a small overpass in the middle. More to come.

Canadian Track Results

Cam McKinnon – Yannick Morin – Lorence Leroux
Bronze Medal — Team Sprint

Cam McKinnon
5th Keirin
4th Match Sprint

Martin Gilbert — Ryan McKenzie
5th Madison

Martin Gilbert
4th Scratch Race

Zach Bell
4th Points Race

Gina Grain
6th Women’s Points Race

Monique Sullivan
5th Women’s Keirin
5th Women’s Match Sprint (it should be noted that Sullivan rode an incredible 5th through 8th final for the win)