Junior Track Cycling

The Australian track cycling championships are once again being held in Adelaide, South Australia this year. With less than 1 week to go until the championships (which includes both open and U/19(junior) categories) teams are on their way from all across Australia. Most teams are arriving on Thursday or Friday so they can get some good practise on the indoor, boarded track. The track (which was opened in 1993 for the track world cup) has a maximum of 43 degrees banking and is 250m long. Teams from all 5 states and 2 territories will compete in the week long event contested at the stunning Adelaide SuperDrome.

Australia in the past years has been one of, if not the strongest country on the track at junior world championships and the new contingent of riders is said to be just as strong, if not stronger. With almost half of the Australian team who rode at the world championships in 2005 being first years, the talent in Australia is still very hot. Riders such as Scott Sunderland (Western Australia), who won a bronze in both the Kilo and team sprint and a 4th in the sprint at the championships in Austria, will be one of the top contenders for the national title. He will have strong competition from Danny Ellis (ACT), who also won a bronze at the world titles and Victorian young gun Leigh Howard. Howard won 8 Australian titles last year as an U17 and broke several Australian records set by great Australian riders such as Shane Kelly and Ben Kersten. Howard has stepped up to the U19 level and has proved he has the speed to match the best, winning Australia’s biggest wheel races. Howard won the Melbourne cup on wheels (coming around Olympic champion Ryan Bayley) and also the Sydney 1000 (coming around World Cup champion Ben Kersten).

Howard recorded a time of 3:27 at the state championships

Other stands out riders are the Meyer brothers (Western Australia). Cameron is a second year and scored two medals at the world championships last year (in the Madison and team pursuit) and his younger brother Travis is a first year. Both riders have set world standard times at their state championships in the Pursuit, with younger brother pipping Cameron with times of 3:23 and 3:24 respectively. Leigh Howard is also a chance for the title riding a 3:27, showing his versatility as a sprinter and pursuiter. Other contenders for the title are Mathew Petit (NSW) who rode into third place at the junior world championships in the team pursuit and Jack Bobridge (SA) who has been pulling out some excellent times in training. Who ever the winner, there should definitely be some fast times and some exciting racing.

Leading the international tour of Canberra, Cameron Meyer shows his versitility

The teams pursuit is always and incredibly high class event in Australia. With NSW and Victoria being the main two teams normally fighting out for the gold medal. This year things may just change. Western Australia will have an incredibly strong team with the Meyer brothers leading the charge in the 4km event. Victoria will have the power of Leigh Howard, but many are asking if the team can be ridden by just one rider. The teams pursuit is normally known by being just as strong as your weakest rider. NSW will again have a strong team with their 4 riders all going under 3:34. One team that is coming up is South Australia. With some strong riders this team could pull off a ride that could upset the best.

The national track championships start on Monday and continue until Friday. These championships are the main selection race for the junior world’s team so riders will be giving their all to impress the selectors. These will be championships not to forget!

Christos winter

An update to the previous article, prompted by a big increase in riders from Belgium and the Netherlands.

As of today [Edit: updated February 1], here are the countries with the most current juniors in the Junior Velo database:

203	United States of America	50	New Zealand	49	Australia
32	Great Britain	30	Germany	22	Netherlands
20	Belgium	7	France	7	Spain

The database has 834 riders. 481 are current - they will be no older than 18 in 2006.

The track is back in operation, as announced on the Hellyer site. Big thanks to those who did the work.

I’ll try to put up a post-repair picture or two some time soon.

Just a followup for the locals. The first picture shows how a falling Eucalyptus tree damaged part of the railing between turns 1 and 2. The lights themselves seem to be okay, but many of them have no wiring attached.

Quite a few trees are missing, and some heavy trimming was still going on near turn 3 when I was there Friday morning. The track surface is dirty, and there are at least two places where the concrete was gouged, probably during cutting and hauling of the fallen tree. It looks very minor - nothing riders will need to worry about.

Storm Damage to the Fence and Lighting at Hellyer

The broken area from the inside.

A scrape and a bit of concrete chipped off in the sprinter's lane.

A minor gouge in the concrete.

By the way, a work day is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday the 21st).

In the name of journalistic honesty I have to admit that I am really guessing here. The site says “Ch. de Belg. Débutants”, which I take to mean a championship in Belgium. Débutants, according to one reference I found, means 15-16. I’m going with that, but it’s far from certain. Maybe it’s not even Belgium. The page also says “Uitslagen Jeugd ‘t Kuipke Piste Gent” and “Piste Gent” sounds like a track in Belgium to me, but the file name is actueel_piste_1016_6damsterdam.html. Last time I checked, Amsterdam was not in Belgium.

Okay, enough disclaimers. I put 6 riders from this event in the database, along with their excellent 500m TT and 2000m Pursuit times. I’m calling them 16-year-old Belgians until someone corrects me.

NOTE: Thanks to a comment from Reinout Van Schuylenbergh and a helpful email from Yorick Bos, it seems that my guesses were mostly correct. Now I know to watch for “Nieuwelingen” as the label for the 15-16 age group.