Junior Track Cycling

As my initiative from last year has caught on and I am happy that many writers from all over the world are now contributing to www.juniorvelo.com, I am though left thinking that everything has been sais about yesterday(monday) at the Junior Worlds and suddenly I am left without a story.

I was thinking to write about the Meyer brothers’s exceptionnal performance in the Madison with Cameron coming back from the dead to take first place in the Madison and then with his team last night in Team Pursuit but it has already been done.

I was also thinking about writing that every time I see Jason Kenny he amazes me with his seemingly effortless lightning speed but this has also been done.

I’ll thus only tell you only one thing today.

I am amazingly proud of my son Lawrence’s performance at 11.16 in flying 200 m. for 25th place, one hundredth of a second shy of 24th place and a participation to the matches. He has brought tears to my eyes as he did the day he was born.

Good job boy ; you’re a man now.

Robert

Rick Lee left this major comment today, which deserves to be presented as a post of its own. The rest is his:

Am I a proud Aussie Coach? You bet ya!

“Meyer out of Hospital and another Rainbow Jersey”

Well ever cloud has silver lining or in Cameron Meyer’s case a GOLD one after his unbelievable ride to lead the Aussies home to the coveted World Team Pursuit Gold medal in 4.09, the team went 5 seconds quicker than the qualifying time of 4.12… Beating the favourites and last years champions New Zealand who did 4.11.

Cam was only out of hospital for 2 hours where he was suffering from dehydration and concussion before jumping on his bike to lead the Aussies to victory, he lead the team over the last 2 1/4 laps to easily account for the Kiwis in the closing stages of the 4000metre event.

I just spoke to Cameron {3 x World Champ} and Travis {2 x World Champ} and they are on “cloud nine”, it was an emotional phone call and one I will not forget. I said jokingly to Trav “mate we need to do some work with your Point Score, a bronze just does not ‘cut it’ mate” he laughed and said “actually I thought that was my best ride Rick”, we both laughed, I was of course referring to his great bronze medal ride on Day 1 of the Championships.

Cameron Said “I felt great, legs were a bit stiff on the rollers in the warm up, but when I got out there I was floating. It is quite humid tonight so the track was not super quick so to do 4.09 is a good time”.

I have worked with these young men since they were little Junior 13 & 15s and I must say there were “pretty average” in the early days of their development. I recall saying to their Dad - Ken Meyer ” I think you should consider some airfares to Alice Springs for the JM15 Australian Track Championships” and he looked at me as if I was on another planet. Well the rest is now history, these lads are not just the toast of WA Cycling they are the toast of World Cycling.

Ken called me and gave me his race call of the Team Pursuit and when they won it was so unreal, I wanted to jump through the phone and be there with them to share in this special moment. After a few moments I realised that there will be plenty of special moments not just as a result of the Meyer exploits but by the other many young champions who I will be at a training session with tonight. It is this unique and great squad of cyclewestcoach.com that has instilled the character that is so evident in the Meyer bothers.

Both Cameron and Travis agreed ” that without our mates in the cyclewestcoach.com we would not be where we are, we push each other, we socialise with each other and we go through so much together”

Cameron and Travis are a product of our system implimented by cyclewestcoach.com with the Midland Cycle Club and I often say if you are the best Junior 15/17 or 19 in Australia you are possibly the best in the World, well now I will jokingly say to them “if you are the best junior in the Midland Club you may be the best in the World” and who would dispute that now?

Travis will return to home on Thursday and Cameron will stay on to compete in the World Road Championships. Cameron is a big chance at the World Road TT and if he can pull that off it will be a great asset to his CV.

Yesterday was a little slow on this site, and it turns out that our regular correspondent had some internet access problems. Today, there’s plenty to read:

• Day 2 coverage from Yorick Bos - our European junior writer makes a one-day visit to worlds.
• Day 2 coverage from Robert Leroux, who will cover the whole event.
• British Cycling’s coverage, as mentioned by Steven Woo.
• TrackCycling.info.
• Raw results appear rapidly on the official site, World Junior Cycling Championships 2006.

And finally some quick comments on Day 3.
The Women’s Individual Pursuit qualifications ended with the favorites at the top, but perhaps a few surprises. Kalitovska (UKR) and Mullens (AUS) performed a couple of seconds slower than their previous bests, still qualifying first and third. Lauren Marie Ellis (NZL) took an amazing 12 seconds off her second place time at New Zealand nationals to deliver a 2:29.840 for second. Trine Hansen (DEN) rounds out the pairings for the medal rides, with a time only 0.049 seconds behind Peta Mullens. In USA news, Lauren Shirock took a huge 4.9 seconds off her time from nationals, to finish 20th.

The top four completed the finals in the same order as qualifying, with Lesya Kalitovska posting an even faster 2:26.193. The bronze medal riders both rode fast enough to have qualified for silver - but that’s bike racing.

In team pursuit, defending champion New Zealand (4:12.092) and Australia (4:14.258) will ride for gold, with Great Britain and France in the bronze medal pairing. Will ride becomes has ridden. The Aussies apparently were holding something back this morning. New Zealand rode faster as well, but Australia (Bobridge, Howard, Meyer, and Meyer) took off over 5 seconds to win the gold in 4:09.249. Britain handily took the Bronze with the second fastest time of the day, 4:10.572.

In sprint qualifying, Jason Kenny blew away the field in 10.378 with a gap of 0.246 seconds, as big as the difference between 2nd and 9th. There are a lot of fast juniors out there, with 17 riders below 11 seconds, and all 40 below 12.

USA rider Matthew Fox took six hundredths off his Nationals time, for 32nd place, and Justin Williams lost couple of tenths, for 38th. Lawrence Leroux of Canada dropped over 3 tenths from his best time in the JuniorVelo database to place 25th. Unfortunately, only 24 riders go on to the “1/16 Final”.

It sure was a fight between the Aussies and the Dutchies in the Madison. Australia (Meyer and Meyer) and The Netherlands (Ligthart and Vermeulen) both lapped the peloton after a long pursuit. First Ligthart (with Vermeulen) attacked, and several laps later the Meyer’s joined them. It was a little bit of a weird race for the Meyer brothers. Before they lapped the peloton they both fell, and with 9 laps to go, one of them again fell. Because they (Australia and The Netherlands) had almost the same points, the last sprint was deciding who will be the new WC Madison. With 3 laps to go Vermeulen attacked, but the Meyer’s respond very quick, and with 2 laps to go Ligthart came into the track, and made a long sprint to the finish. But with 20 metres to go Italia, with Meyer in his wheel, sprinted over Ligthart, and won the last sprint, Australia 2 and The Netherlands finished in the last sprint at place 3. Australia won the Madison with 12 points, The Netherlands finished second with 10 points, and Italy finished third, with one lap behind and they gathared 20 points. So Australia World Champion with two falls…

But 3 minutes before the Madison, one of the Meyer’s, Cameron, stand on the podium for his title on the Pursuit. In the final he defeted Gough riding for New Zealand with a time of 3.20.325, and 3.22.558 for Gough. Third became Sergent, in a time of 3.23.326 also a riding for New Zealand. Two world titles on one day, who also can say that?

They aren’t the only Aussies who won a title this day. Scott Sunderland was far the best on the KM today. In a good time of 1.04.051, he defeated both Englishmen Christian Lyte and first year David Daniell with times of 1.05.454 and 1.05.694. David, only 16 year of age, became European Champion 2 weeks ago, and showed he is a favorite for the title next year.

Also the Keirin for men was today. The expected World Champion, Jason Kenny, won. In the final the previous World Champion, the man from Greece Volikakis, was also at the start. Last year Jason Kenny was first at the line, but he was relegated for causing a fall in the final, so Volikakis won the Keirin in Vienna. This year Jason Kenny took revange, and he won. This year, Volikakis came as second over the finish, but know he was relegated. Last years reaction from Volikakis: screaming and yelling because he won. This year: Very angry and throwing his helmet with World Champion stripes on the ground…

For the women the Sprint and the Pointrace was today. In the 200m qualification Shulyka rode an impressive time of 11.428, second time for Anny Blyth in 11.871, and third time for Cueff in a time of 11.911. Today the 1/2 and the final will be. Shulyka, Blyth, McCulloch and Clair are still in the race.

In the pointrace the European Champion Elise van Hage from the Netherlands, took almost all the race the lead, but at the end Mie Bekker Lacota won the race. Both women are also very talented on the road. Lacota became European Champion on the road, van Hage became there second. Elise, who also can sprint a time of around 12 seconds, don’t seem to have her usual sprint legs, like she had in Athens where she won the Championship. Like the Madison for men, the last sprint was decided for becoming the champion. At the end Lacota won with 17 points, Elise became second with 13 points, and Romanyuta from Russia became third, also with 13 points.

It was a nice day on the track, and hopefully the other days will be just such succesfull. This my only contribution of the World Championship, because this is the only day that came to Gent. I also took some pictures which you can see below. I hope you enjoyed my story. Next year the World Championship will be in Mexico, hopefully I can ride there.

Here are some pictures I took. They were taken with my 2mpixel camera phone, so don’t expact to much.

Sunday July 6th 2nd day of competition at the velodrome and much warmer temperatures which should make for faster times.

In the morning session it was men’s pursuit and believe me its is hard to find an angle to look at it and make it palpitating. The effort is admirable and the times are there but I guess sprint is my passion.

Let’s just say that as awaited Cameron Meyer of Australia was perfect coming inside 0.9 seconds of his compatriot’s Michael Ford Junior world record of 3:17, recording a 3:18… something.

Women’s sprint matches gave us a few surprises, the lower seeded Australian McCullough eliminating the upper seeded Cueff from France and Sullivan from Canada.

Lyubov Shulika advanced without any difficulty as did Sandie Clair from France and these two should eventually face each other in the final.

Then comes the furious action ;first the keirin heat for men with an ultra aggressive Denis Spika from Czech Republic first relegated from his qualification after winning, reintering through the repechage, getting warned in the semi-final for aggressive behavior the race being interrupted for this. Upon rerun he gets qualified 2nd behind Jason Kenny in a semi where Australian Ellis takes a big fall.

Comes the final where he finished fourth behind wunderkind Kenny and the 2 frenchmen. Aggressivity is good in keirin but seldom replaces lightning fast speed and Kenny has got it.

Kilo was an open competition until Scott Sunderland from Australia, bronze medalist last year and last one to go came to the plate. He settled it once and for all with a superb 1:04.051 to edge GB’s Christian Lyte’s 1:05.45

Again many nice photos which I should be able to send today as yesterday was sunday and sunday everything’s closed in Flanders.