January 17, 2011 (London, ON) – Despite the winter weather another outstanding night of racing at the FCV. The racing on Saturday night was hot with several riders coming in for a weekend of training at the Forest City Velodrome. Junior sensation Alex Cataford was on hand to show the locals that he has been working hard to keep at the top of his game leading into the 2011 season.

Cataford was part of the winning team that lapped the field in the “A” Madison, just piped young 14 year old Will Simonds by a tire in the miss & out, won the scratch race, and made it to the semi-finals of the sprint competition. Not bad for a night of training.

In other action the youth racers were entertaining as always…. Some close encounters of the wobbly kind. Everyone kept up right and the kids had a “Blast”. Logan McIntyre and Lucas Taylor were the winners on the night.

A total of 27 sprint races during the evening meant that the Sprint Tournament was going to the toughest to win all season. All riders were seeded into a massive round robin style tournament that had Juniors racing Seniors, Masters racing Cadets…. In the end after 25 sprint heats the top 6 riders battled it out in 2 Semi-Finals that on any other night could have been the event finale.

In Semi-Final #1, the Professor Lorne Falkenstein (Cycles London) was up against 14 year old Will Simonds (Invita-FCV) and Kristofer Ovensek (Invita-FCV). Falkenstein was the first to take command of the 5 lap semi by going immediately to the lead and marking the moves of the 2 Invita-FCV riders. Simonds tried to get over Ovensek to take a run at “the professor” however Ovensek had other ideas and with 2 laps to go battled hard to stay on Falkensteins elbow…. This pretty much sealed to the fate of the younger Simonds who would finish 3rd. With 1 to go Ovsenek attacked over the top, Falkenstein battled back but in the end just did not have enough for the 16 year old from London. Ovsenek moves on to sprint final.

In Semi-Final #2, the 3 riders who made to to this semi had 4 rounds to get win just to make it this far. Again the Invita-FCV team place 2 riders into this Semi. Candice Vermeulen & Adrian George were up against another London speedster Daniel McKenzie-Picot (CoachChris.ca). In this sprint George, took an early lead and was controlling the event until with Vermeulen attacked and McKenzie-Picot reacted to the 10 metre gap that Vermeulen squeezed out. That advantage lasted over 2 laps as The 2 Juniors started to close the distance and with 1 to go McKenzie-Picot and George powered over the top on the very quick women to seal the deal for McKenzie-Picot advancing to the Sprint final, George was second and Vermeulen a very respectable third.

We have seen this picture before with the 2 Juniors doing battle in sprint action at FCV. Daniel McKenzie-Picot took the advantage right form rider instructions taking the pole position and not looking back. Ovsenek and M-P train with one another weekly and both know each others moves, the top speed of each rider is about the same while training. This race was going to come down to who was going to be more aggressive during the opening 2 laps of the race. M-P took the advantage from the opening whistle and had Ovsenek trying to get M-P to make a mistake, Daniel was having none of that and with 3 to go attacked at 80% and Ovsenek had to battle back for 2 bike lengths back. On the bell lap M-P had Ovensek coming up over his hip, however it was a little to late as Daniel McKenzie-Picot took advantage and won the very entertaining Sprints by half a wheel. Both riders saluted the crowd and congratulated each other on a very fine night of racing.

Full results HERE.

Racing continues at the FCV on Saturday January 29th, Tim Hortons “Always Fresh” Winter Nationals. Individual timed events begin at Noon, with mass start racing at 7pm.

In other FCV news: the Thor Espresso Bar Velodrome Challenge, has registration still open. All entries must be in before January 24th for all the final preparations for the $2,500 to win event.

For updated FCV news: www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca