The final race for me of 2016 was this past weekend at the first Ontario Cup of the winter, this was my first opportunity to really test the legs and see how the hard work over the past few months would play out. With this being an O-cup and only a one day event, the only sprint event for junior men was the keirin competition as it does not take as long to complete as a match sprint tournament. The keirin was last on the schedule for the day of competition so it allowed me to sleep in for a change on raceday which doesnt happen very often. After finally getting out of bed at around 10 am I went through a slightly adjusted pre-race routine that included a dynamic warmup and as always, lots of food. We arrived at the track just after 1pm and began to get bikes and rollers ready to go for warmup. Over the past few weeks we have also been working on establishing a new warmup and better routines that help us to be better prepared at the start line. For anyone that didn't know, the rules of the keirin have also changed recently, where instead of eight laps it is now six and the derny pulls off half a lap earlier extending the sprint to three laps instead of two and a half, one final major rule change is that you can now come up beside the derny before it pulls off as long as you do not pass the front wheel. Ready to go at the start line, I drew position number one on the track for the first round. With only two heats this would be the semi-final where top three riders in each heat go to the 1-6 final and bottom three go to 7-12 final so all I needed to do was place inside the top three to secure a spot in the medal ride. I ended up in second place after the first round and secured my spot in the final. After about 45 minutes it was time for the final, alongside my buddy Je'Land Sydney we took positions 4 and 5 behind the derny. Je'Land made the early move to the front and I followed him to the front, the speed really kicked up with a lap and a half to go and it was a race the line, I took second position and Je'Land took the win. It was a great day of racing in Milton and it was a great gauge to see some solid progress being made as well as some areas for improvement. Onto the next race in January.
Rob Melnyk
12/10/2016 04:13:19 pm
Way to go, Nick! Keep up the good work.
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