A clear blue Summers sky with a light westerly breeze welcomed the 28 riders on Tuesday night. A good turnout from our younger riders as they fine tune their skills for the West Coast Track Cycling Championships to be held this coming weekend. The nights programme was designed to further develop race craft in the scratch races, develop intestinal fortitude in the handicap races and develop their ability to adapt to something new by introducing a number to Keirin racing behind the motorbike.
The night also saw Jaycob Humphreys break the 2000m under 19 pursuit record set previously by Jesse Sergent 7 years ago. New Zealand and Wanganui age group representative Cassie Cameron made the trip from Wanganui seeking some meaningful competition and found it with tight finishes, challenging handicaps and good sized race fields. The improvement in riders week on week is clear to see and a good representation of the Clubs strength in track cycling should be on display at the Centre Championships with a number of good results expected.
As the quality of the riders climbs so does the quality of the racing. The race of the night could have been awarded to any one of three races, these races showed individuals tenacity to push past comfort zones, to bear gritted teeth and to dig as deep as they dear to produce their very best effort. The final race of the night had a finish measured in tyre widths, 1 lap plus head start handicaps awarded in a 12 lap race and a scratch bunch that all but made it through the field. As Tegan Roffe rolled around to take her limit mark 500m ahead of a scratch bunch of Mark Finlay and Jaycob Humphreys a group of three riders including Cameron Gibbons and Brent Zimmerman settled at turn three 300m from the scratch riders. Tegan began the race as the leader at settled into a steady rhythm which she was able to maintain, this allowed her to stay clear for 10 of the 12 laps. While Tegan had the spectators in a trance as they watched her tick off the laps as the scratch riders ticked past the riders in front of them to close the gap Cameron and Brent worked well together to maintain a gap of safety back to the scratch riders. The scratch riders passed Tegan with two laps to go only to notice that Brent had moved to the outside of the track after dragging Cameron through at pace over the last few laps and had left Cameron alone 200m ahead. Mark set off both turbo boosters as he exploded to bridge the gap and take the race, Jaycob grabbed the wheel for a wild ride around the track as they both stepped upto another level. It became obvious to all that a new contest had just begun and Cameron was in sprint mode as he was not giving this opportunity for victory away.
At the second last turn Cameron had reached empty and was visibly slowing down as he went through the motions to the finish line, meanwhile the chasing scratch riders were closing in fast like a defending fleet footed winger corner flagging to tackle a runaway prop. As the scratch riders entered the home straight it was left to Mark to make the final bid for the line, the crowed were roaring at Cameron as it looked as if he thought he had it won when the crowd could see clearly that was not the case. At the line Cameron just held on by the thinnest of margins to win a most entertaining race.
Results for Tuesday the 24th of January
Under 15 Girls 2 lap scratch race
1st Emily Shearman
2nd Libby Arbuckle
Under 15 Boys 2 lap scratch race
1st Cody Simpson
2nd Carne Groube
3rd Michaela Drummond
4th Chris Denholm
Under 17 Girls 3 lap scratch race
1st Kate Stewart
2nd Ruby Perry
Under 17 Boys 3 lap scratch race
1st Josh Kendall
2nd Jordan Castle
3rd Liam Barber
4th James Denholm
Womens 3 lap scratch race
1st Cassie Cameron
2nd Sharon Hollenstein
3rd Tegan Roffe
4th Kelsi Eccles
Mens 3 lap scratch race
1st Cameron Gibbons
2nd Luuk van Wantendonk
Masters Men 3 lap scratch race
1st Brent Zimmerman
2nd Shaun Matena
3rd Marcel Hollenstein
4th Peter Wenborn
2000m Under 19 pursuit
Jaycob Humphreys broke record with 2.34.11 old record 2.35.54
Keirin heat 1
1st Cody Simpson
2nd Robert Stannard
3rd Chris Denholm
4th Michaela Drummond
Keirin heat 2
1st Jordan Castle
2nd Josh Kendall
3rd Kate Stewart
4th James Denholm
Keirin heat 3
1st Emily Shearman
2nd Libby Arbuckle
3rd Thomas Stannard
Keirin heat 4
1st Kelsi Eccles
2nd Sharon Hollenstein
3rd Ruby Perry
4th Tegan Roffe
Keirin heat 5
1st Cassie Cameron
2nd Shaun Matena
3rd Brent Zimmerman
4th Marcel Hollenstein
Keirin heat 6
1st Mark Finlay
2nd Jaycob Humphreys
3rd Luuk van Wantendonk
4th Cameron Gibbons
Under 15 3 lap handicap
1st Robert Stannard
2nd Chris Denholm
3rd Thomas Stannard
4th Emily Shearman
Under 17 3 lap handicap
1st Jordan Castle
2nd Josh Kendall
3rd Kate Stewart
4th Ruby Perry
Womens 6 lap points race
1st Kelsi Eccles 7 points
2nd Sharon Hollenstein 7 points
3rd Tegan Roffe 6 points
B Grade 7 lap points race
1st Brent Zimmerman 10 points
2nd Marcel Hollenstein 5 points
3rd Cameron Gibbons 5 points
A Grade 7 lap points race
1st Mark Finlay 10 points
2nd Jaycob Humphreys 6 points
3rd Cassie Cameron 4 points
4th Luuk van Wantendonk 2 points
Under 15 7 lap handicap
1st Robert Stannard
2nd Chris Denholm
3rd Emily Shearman
4th Libby Arbuckle
Under 17 8 lap handicap
1st Jordan Castle
2nd Josh Kendall
3rd Kate Stewart
4th James Denholm
All in 12 lap handicap
1st Cameron Gibbons
2nd Mark Finlay
3rd Jaycob Humphreys
4th Luuk van Wantendonk