January 10, 2015 (Milton, ON) – The Milton International Challenge got underway on Jan. 9 at the new Cisco PanAm Velodrome and there was a big change in the infield from last weekend as flags from 9 different countries were flying and ready for battle.

First up was the Women’s Team Sprint Qualifications with Team Canada (Sulivan/O’Brien) topping the field – taking almost half a second off of their best time from last week – followed by the Netherlands (Rijkhoff/Lamberink), USA 1 (Cobb/Feiss) and USA 3 (Sante/Mullis). Trinidad and Tobago’s number one team was disqualified for an improper exchange.

The Men’s Team Sprint saw many of Canada’s top sprinters sitting out to rest up for the Match Sprint competition coming later in the day. Trinidad and Tobago (Philip/Bramble/Browne) qualified first with Canada second (Archambault/Carey/Albert) followed by the Sprinters Edge (Koch/Mellen/Horvet) all from the USA but racing for their trade team and a Composite Team with two Canadians Chris Singleton and Daniel Nesbitt with Camiel Lok in fourth.

The Team Pursuit saw only a few teams entered as Canada 1 (Roorda/Glaesser/Brown/Lay) finished well ahead of Canada 2 (Dessureault/Forman-Mackey/Gibson/Bonhomme). Three teams were entered for the Elite Men as Canada (Pelletier-Roy/Caves/Johnstone/Mackinon) handily took this round over a composite team called Fun Boyz (Dearden/Schwizer/Schwizer/Kovalcik) in second and NCBC (Perry/Lamoureux/Simpson/Fothergill) in third.

The Milton International Challenge also featured Juniors as NCCH (Desousa/Lowry/Bell/Lee) won the Women’s Team Pursuit event while NCCH (Jones/Kirouac Marcassa/Allaire/Mayne) took the gold and RS Ontario (Taylor/Ernst/Starrs/McKellar) won silver in the Men’s Team Pursuit competition.

In the always highly anticipated 200m Sprint – how fast can you really go on a bike with a single gear and no brakes – newly crowned National Champion Monique Sulivan was the fastest qualifier going 64.068 km/h with Yesna Rijkhoff of the Netherlands  second, Kate O’Brien (CAN) third and Sara Byers (Can) fourth.

The Elite Men’s top guns were very close with three riders going over 70 km/h as Joe Veloce (CAN) bettered his track record time from last week to qualify first. Njisane Philip (TTO) was a very close second (about 5/1000s of a second slower) and newly crowned our current Canadian Match Sprint Champion Hugo Barrette was third with Evan Carey (CAN) fourth.

Then the juniors had their chance to shine. Charlotte Creswicke (Kallisto-FCV) had the fastest time for the women followed by Eva Burke (USA) and Ruby West (Kallisto-FCV).  For the junior men, Nick Wammes (Kallisto-FCV) was fastest with Sei Daneil (TTO) second and Lucas Taylor (Kallisto-FCV) third.

Up next were the Team Sprint and the gold medal round for the women was a nail biter as Team Canada (Sulivan/O’Brien) beat the Netherlands (Rijkhoff/Lamberink) by a mere tenth of a second. USA 1 (Cobb/Feiss) got the bronze as USA 3 (Sante/Mullis) made an error and were disqualified. The Men’s Team Sprint finished in the same order as qualifying with Trinidad and Tobago (Philip/Bramble/Browne) taking the gold, Canada (Archambault/Carey/Albert) the silver and the Sprinters Edge (Koch/Mellen/Horvet) the bronze.

The Team Pursuit finals were over quickly as both teams in the gold medal round caught their opponents quickly. The women’s Canada 1 (Roorda/Glaesser/Brown/Lay) team earned gold and Canada 2 (Dessureault/Forman-Mackey/Gibson/Bonhomme) brought home silver. The Canadian Men’s team (Pelletier-Roy/Caves/Johnstone/Mackinon) handily beat Fun Boyz (Dearden/Schwizer/Schwizer/Kovalcik) who settled for silver with NCBC (Perry/Lamoureux/Simpson/Fothergill) taking the bronze.

Both the Elite men’s and women’s sprinters went through the first round heats of Match Sprint before the night was over. The biggest surprise here was the current Canadian Kilo champ, Joakim Albert (QC), lost both matches (1/16 finals and his repechage). Racing should be intense on Saturday as the field gets smaller.

The night finished up with some endurance races. The Elite Women’s Scratch race finished in a bunch sprint with Anita Stenberg (NOR) taking the gold over the USA’s Colleen Hayduk in second with Danielle Mullis in third. When Stenberg launched her sprint, no one could respond while Mullis’ ride was impressive as she is still a junior.

The Men’s Scratch race was fast and hard and broke up from the start. A group of three lapped the field and they all ended up on the podium. Nicholas Rogers (United States) left nothing to chance and took off from the final group crossing the line with plenty of room to spare as his teammate Zachary Kovalcik claimed the silver with Canada’s Dylan Davies taking home the bronze.

Results (brief)

Women’s Team Sprint Final

1. Team Canada 35.195
Monique Sullivan
Kate O’Brien

2. Netherlands 35.336
Yesna Rijkhoff
Kyra Lamberink

3. USA 1 36.609
Dana Feiss
Anissa Cobb

DSQ USA 3
Julia Sante
Danielle Mullis

Men’s Team Sprint Final

1. Trinidad and Tobago 46.356
Njisane Phillip
Keron Bramble
Kwesi Browne

2. Canada 47.617
Joel Archambault
Evan Carey
Joakim Albert

3. Sprinters Edge 48.239
Nathan Koch
James Mellen
Edward Horvet

4. Composite 2  49.218
Chris Singleton
Daniel Nesbitt
Camiel Lok

Women’s Team Pursuit Final

1. Canada 1
Allison Beveridge
Jasmin Glaesser
Laura Brown
Kirsti Lay

2. Canada 2 caught
Catherine Dessureault
Annie Foreman-Mackey
Kinley Gibson
Arianne Bonhomme

Men’s Team Pursuit Final

1. Canada
Aidan Caves
Eric Johnstone
Sean Mackinnon
Adam Jamieson

2. Fun Boyz caught
Curtis Dearden
Michael Schweizer
Christoph Schweizer
Zachary Kovalcik

3. NCBC
Benjamin Perry
Jay Lamoureux
Bayley Simpson
Simon Fothergill

Women’s Scratch Race
1. Anita Stenberg (Norway)
2. Colleen Hayduk (United States)
3. Danielle Mullis (United States)
4. Marie Soleil Blais (Canada)
5. Judith Bloem (Netherlands)

Men’s Scratch Race
1. Nicholas Rogers (United States)
2. Zachary Kovalcik (United States)
3. Dylan Davies (Canada)

Women’s Sprint

Qualifications

1. Monique Sullivan (Canada)    11.238
2. Rijkhoff (Netherlands)    11.599
3. Kate O’Brien (Canada)    11.826
4. Sara Byers (Canada)    11.877
5. Kyra Lamberink (Netherlands)    12.036

Men’s Sprint

Qualifications

1. Joseph Veloce (Canada)    10.189
2. Njisane Philip (Trinidad & Tobago)    10.194
3. Hugo Barrette (Canada)    10.245
4. Evan Carey (Canada)    10.443
5. Kwesi Browne (Trinidad & Tobago)    10.657