Junior Track Cycling

What a funny title.

But really, contrary to popular belief and contrary to what all the other girls say(I heard them) and think she really is.

Last year as a first year junior she was made of skin and bones and muscles and despite being already very fast she made tons of mistakes like qualifying first in 200 m. and losing to last qualifyer in the first round.

Or being overly aggressive in the Keirin and getting relegated in the final.

This year for the last month or so she had been perfect; in fact she had been barely human. First she beat the 500 m. junior world record in Lviv Ukraine’s slow track and at the European Championship she won everything: sprint after qualifying first in 11:30′, 550 m under 35 seconds and keirin.

Up to last night in Gent despite finishing second in the 500 m., she had easily won the flying 200 m. and sprint and was navigating upon very calm waters in the keirin qualifications always keeping her opponents on her hip and controlling every race.

That is until the final when something broke and against all odds she was not in front anymore. In fact she was struggling to keep up, getting passed by Blyth, Rozhkova, Delev and McCullough finishing 5th and surprising everybody in the velodrome.

Blyth had won and Shulika was not even on the podium.

The girls had magically slain their dragon; this time at least.

Robert

Lyubov Shulika finished second in 500 m

Monique Sullivan from Canada waits to start her 500 m

Barry Miller from the US during practice

The great Eddy Merckx was in attendance

Team Sprint winners GB

Before worlds, I listed some fast times that I had on record as a rough indicator of who to watch out for at worlds. It wasn’t really meant as a prediction, but let’s see how it fared versus actual results. I’ll leave the tables in the same order, and add a column for actual results. I’ll add top-3 riders who weren’t in the original tables in italics.

It seems that the existing times were a pretty good indication of who would be strong, especially in the shorter events. Naturally there were surprises, or we wouldn’t need to have the competition! Notice that of the 5 medalists who did not appear in the original tables, 3 were from New Zealand. I wonder if they are supressing their best times to gain the advantage of surprise at worlds. On the other hand, maybe I just need to look harder for New Zealand rider results next year.

I have been accused of ignoring the United States of America, but it’s simply a lack of information. I haven’t had a single email or informative comment from the Americans in Belgium.

Of course you can’t get the interesting part of the story from raw results. There’s a big difference between finishing 15th of 15 after a failed attack that could have won the race and finishing 15th just hanging on. You also can’t know what the goals and expectations of the riders were.

Highlights include Cody O’Reilly’s pursuit (perhaps the fastest ever for the US), Shane Kline’s 6th place in the scratch race, and Catherine Fiedler’s overall solid performance. No doubt all 10 riders gave their best, and some may have been separated from higher placings by nothing more than a bit of luck. On the bright side, several of our best placings came from the five 17-year-old riders on the team. Next year may be a bit better as these riders progress and a few fast 16-year-olds such as Daniel Walker (Cristin’s brother, I believe) and Colleen Hayduk become eligible.

Shane Kline
Scratch: 6th
Madison: 9th, no points, 1 lap down

Nik Reinert
Madison: 9th, no points, 1 lap down

Matthew Fox
Sprint: qualified 32nd in 11.427
Kilo: 16th in 1:08.137

Cody O’Reilly
Pursuit: 24th in 3:31.483 - the fastest USA time in my database, beating Tyler Farrar’s time from junior nationals 2002

Justin Williams
Sprint: qualified 38th in 11.821
Keirin: relegated in Keirin round 1, DNF in reps heat 4 (I hear he was crashed by a rider who was then relegated)

Barry Miller
Points: 13th in qualifying with -20 points, 12 went on

Catherine Fiedler
Keirin: 3rd in heat 4, 1st in reps heat 4, 6th in heat 2 of round 2, 5th in the 7-12 final, 11th overall
Points: 12th with 1 point
Scratch: 9th

Cristin Walker
Keirin: 3rd in heat 2, 3rd in reps heat 2
500 m: 17th in 39.328
Sprint: qualified 22nd in 13.059, eliminated in 1/16 final

Lauren Shirock
Pursuit: 20th in 38.514

Cindy Lakatosh
Sprint: qualified 21st in 13.041, eliminated in 1/16 final

Just a note - the otherwise excellent results reporting on the junior2006.be site failed to include day 4! The only source I know of is the British Cycling site. They have lots of good pictures and descriptions, all from a British point of view.

Junior Worlds is not about the medal count, but I’m a compulsive counter so here goes.

You can also see last year’s counts.