This past weekend I competed in the Ontario Track Cycling Provincial Championships. This was my first competition back since my accident on December 19th of 2015 and it has definitely been a very long road to get to this point. For those unfamiliar with my injury I sustained a concussion that put me off the bike for 5 weeks, giving me just over one month of training before provincial championships. In all honesty I was completely freaked out heading into this race, unsure of my form and a bit nervous to jump right back into the racing. Previous to the race I had only had one day of track time in the month of training so the nerves of riding the track still lingered a little bit.
I'm sure by now you would actually like to hear about how the weekend of racing played out since that is the reason you came to read. The weekend started on Friday morning with pre-race activation (45 minutes on rollers to get your body ready to race). This was followed by lots of cooking and packing before heading off to Milton. Since racing for me wasn't until Saturday, we decided to stop by the track to support friends as they raced their individual pursuits that afternoon. It was then off to my aunt and uncle's house to get a good night's sleep before the big day. It was a fairly early wake up on Saturday morning at 6:45 in order to leave by 7:30am. After a really big breakfast to get the fuel for the day, it was off to the velodrome. We arrived at the track around 8am and started to unload all the equipment and get it set up. With everything ready to go it was time to begin focusing on what needs to happen in the next few hours, headphones in, music loud and it's go time. Warm-up starts with 15 minutes of stretching and active mobility and then 40 minutes on rollers in order to be 200% ready to go. Ten seconds before the start of my 200m I recapped the goal of this ride in my head which was to have a new personal best time. In order to do this, I would need to go faster than 11.406 seconds and I was quite determined to do so. Crossing the line in a new personal best of 11.382 seconds I was a little disappointed because I new that I had the speed for a faster time but there were a few technical errors through corner 3 and 4 that cost me some time in the end. This time placed me in 4th place meaning I would ride against the fifth place qualifier in the first round. Onward and upward it was time to prepare for the quarter finals, having raced the rider in the past I was quite confident that I could beat him so I made sure to attack first to be safe and minimize the effort I would need to put out. Having won this ride I had secured a spot in the semi finals later in the day. It was time to get cleaned up and refuel before the afternoon session knowing that the semifinals were not going to be easy if I wanted to get into the gold medal ride off since I was going up against a teammate and fastest qualifier Adam Lefebvre. With another solid warmup I was ready to go, and after two very tough races I had luckily made it into the gold medal ride off which was against another teammate and good friend Je'land Sydney. These next two races were also very tough and after missing a key opportunity, Je'land got the jump on me and won two straight taking the gold medal and provincial title. That's it for the first day of competition. Day 2 of competition started off early again being at the track a little after 8:30am. First up was the kilometre time trial and I was very excited for this race since it was 4 laps of the track full on racing the clock. After leaving everything I had out on the track I crossed the line in a time of 1:08.573. I was quite pleased with this ride as it put me in third place with one rider remaining. I finished the event in 4th place but since the 3rd place rider was from outside of Ontario I received the bronze medal. Next up was the keirin, one of my all time favourite races on the track. Unfortunately it did not go as planned and I did not advance to the 1-6 final after placing fourth in my qualifying heat when only the top three advance. This put me into the 7-12 final which I was a little disappointed about but decided to use it as a learning experience and try some new tactics. I ended up winning the small final by about 15-20 meters proving that I have what it takes to win but sometimes all the factors just don't line up. The final event of the day was the Team Sprint where we won the event with teammates Lucas Taylor and Adam Lefebvre in a time of 50.327 seconds. This rounded out a great weekend of racing for all with lots of fast times put on display.... congratulations to all who that participated! I would like to also take the time to send out a huge thank you to all the people who have helped me overcome two major injuries in the past eight months. These injuries have been very challenging to overcome on a physical level but have also taken quite a toll mentally. A very sincere thank you goes out to all the friends, family, doctors and coaches that have helped me overcome these obstacles and constantly pushing me to be better. I really can't thank you enough. It has been a long road but with your help it has made it a little easier! Cheers, Nick
Chantal, James and Tyler Rorke
3/9/2016 11:25:11 pm
It was such a pleasure to finally see you in action. Our son Tyler is only 12 and just started racing this year. And he's really enjoying it. It was wonderful seeing all you older boys on the team race on the weekend.
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Theresa Wammes-Glavin
3/10/2016 09:54:45 am
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