March 26, 2010 – Travis Smith was in a stacked first round in the Keirin, including Chris Hoy of Great Britain who would go on to win the event. The event was delayed as the British fans, who are the loudest in the stands, were asked to remove a flag that was hanging on to the track.

The riders were lined up on the start line for the second time when the derny came around and the athletes were pushed in to the race. The Malaysian rider Josiah Ng Onn Lam cut down the track too quickly taking out Chris Hoy, who bumped the Dutch rider who was able to unclip his feet and land on the apron safely. The third time the riders took to the start line, minus the disqualified Malaysian rider, resulted in a clean beginning and the expected outcome with Chris Hoy and Australian Shane Perkins moving on to the next round. Travis proceeded to the repechage where he kept his cool, played it safe, and with ¾ of a lap to go made his move on the outside powering over the other riders in his heat. He was getting close to the front heading out of corner number 4, but needed another 5 meters of track to make up enough ground to move on to the next round. Finishing in 13th place overall he is looking forward to the Sprint races which start on Saturday. “The Sprint is the true test of speed as there aren’t as many variables. I’m feeling fast in training so I am looking forward to doing a fast time in the 200 and qualifying well.”

The Women’s Team Pursuit where the next Canadians on track, with Tara Whitten, Steph Roorda, and Laura Brown. The team have set a new Canadian Record and won a medal at each event they have competed at and they took another 0.6 seconds off of their time from Beijing in January to finish with a time of 3:26.132 in 6thplace. “Nothing was left in the tank by anyone” commented coach Jeremy Storie. “We do these races to win and our minimum goal was a top five but we were really looking for a medal ride off. We will file away the disappointment and take the positives of a new Canadian record, a technically great ride, but more importantly that the gap between us and the leaders in qualifying is narrowing. We are among the best in the world and are still on target for our ultimate goal, a medal in London in 2012.” New Zealand set a new World Record in the Bronze medal ride with a time of 3:21.552 and Australia looked close to besting the WR again in the Gold medal ride, but were 0.2 seconds off the time when they crossed the finish line. Great Britain, the former World Record holders took home the silver.

Zach Bell was looking to be a contender in the men’s Scratch Race and rode aggressively. Punching it at the front, chasing down breaks, and trying to create winning moves, he looked to be on form. Alex Rasmussen of Denmark and Kazuhiro Mori of Japan lapped the field about half way through, then Juan Esteban Arango Carvajal of Columbia gained a lap with several other riders, including Zach, attempting a break away and gained lap of their own, but no other group were organized enough to join the front of the race. The Danish rider took the Gold, followed by the Columbian, then Japanese, with Zach finishing in 11th.

Today is a day off for the Canadian Team with half the athletes now on their way home to Canada. Tomorrow, Tara Whitten races in the Omnium, where she won silver last year, and Travis Smith will begin the Sprint tournament. On the last day of competition Monique Sullivan will compete in the Keirin and Tara will race in her 4thevent of these championships, the Points Race.

Link to Canadian Records… href=”http://www.pedalmag.com/pdf/Canadian Records.pdf”>here