October 6/09 16:00 pm - Caracol de Pista Championship: Day 3 report

Posted by Editoress on 10/6/09
 

Caracol de Pista Championship Race Day 3 report

Report courtesy CCA - Petrina Tulissi

While it is in fact day three of racing, all riders left for the track at 7:30 am to finish off the day two program that had been cancelled due to rain. The program started at 9:30 am with the remainder of the sprint rounds. Our first event was the men's elimination. David Boily made it to 10th place before elimination and was the third placed foreign rider. Not a bad performance, considering it was David's first elimination ever.

Laura Brown was up next for the women's Elimination and rode perhaps a little too conservatively and was eliminated in ninth position. It was then Monique Sullivan's turn in the 5-8 Sprint final. She was up against Clara Sanchez, Keirin world champ from France, and her team mate, Sandie Claire, a former Junior world champ and a Colombian rider. Monique rode a nearly flawless race taking the lead and controlling quite well, but was just caught at the line by Sanchez. This has been the first competition Sullivan has consistently been able to ride well against an elite level group of riders. Monique thus ended up sixth in the sprints which garners her valuable overall points.

The men's Madison featured 80 laps with eight sprints to be contested by twelve teams. Boily was paired with a Colombian, and winner of the elimination, Carlos Osenia on the Shimano/GW bikes team. The pair had a rough start but clawed back to regain the pack but at the same time New Zealander Hayden Godfrey and his Colombian team mate and another Colombian team featuring Cofidis road professional Leandro Duque lapped the field. Boily and Osenia went on the attack with the Italian team and another Colombian team and were scoring valuable points. The threesome came very close to lapping the field but Duque upped the pace and brought the threat back. The acceleration put several teams into difficulty including Godfrey's team mate, and Duque nearly succeeded in taking a second lap and putting three more teams up a lap but they ran out of race distance. In the end a lot was learned about suffering by Boily and a well deserved fourth place, one point out of third.

The final race of the morning session was the women's unknown distance race. Laura was determined to have a strong effort and we knew the maximum distance was to be 20 laps. The plan was to watch for Bronzini primarily, as she has won all the endurance events so far, but keep an eye on the few other potential threats. At ten laps into the race Trine Schmidt from Denmark went up track and was followed by Laura. Schmidt then attacked with Brown hesitating but following. Schmidt had a 20 bike length lead on the bunch with Laura halfway between when the bell sounded. Schmidt cruised to the win and Laura gutted it out to hold off all but one of the hard charging bunch, with only a Colombian taking second by a miniscule margin. It was a nice end to the morning program with our second podium of the event. We all packed up and drove back to the hotel for a good lunch and nap before leaving again at 4:30 for a 7 pm start.

The evening featured the Keirin and Chariot races for the sprinters and the Points race and Antioquena. This last race is a points race at the front, with 1 point awarded to the winner of every second lap, and an elimination at the back with one rider eliminated every second lap. Then, when it is down to 5 riders, it is a scratch race with points at the end from 5 to 1 points for first to fifth.

The start of the evening program was the 500m chariot races. Monique drew a tough heat with Krupenskaite as top seed. Three riders would advance to the major final. Monique took the bull by the horns and went right to the front charging hard. Her acceleration was matched and she was passed with half a lap to go by two riders then a Cuban pushed Monique down the track and forced her to back off. Monique backed out and reaccelerated around the Cuban to take the third qualifying spot. In the final Monique ran out of gas and finished fourth against a World Cup level field.

David Boily was up next in the Antioquena. The race was fast paced and very tactical, due to points at the front and elimination at the rear. Dave started conservatively and slowly moved up but was caught down low on an elimination lap and ended up being eliminated. Laura Brown met the same fate and both riders felt they did not give their best performance and were determined for the final points race later in the evening.

Monique was in the first keirin heat and rode a superb race. Monique drew the number one position behind the bike and when the bike pulled off she kept a wary eye on her opponents while gradually increasing her pace. At the bell Sullivan continued to lead but the acceleration was coming hard from behind. Monique held the line but finished the heat in fourth. Krupenskaite won the heat but was relegated for clearly passing all the lead riders on the blue due to a tactical error on her part. Monique was now in the finals, but up first were the men's and then women's points races.

David was set to put in a good performance after his disappointing earlier race. Again David started the 80 lap 20 km points race conservatively, and while there was a group of 2 and then 4 that lapped the field David became more and more active. Soon David was in the lead group continually pushing the pace and was away for several laps by himself taking one sprint and at one point being over half a lap up. This was then brought back but David continued to maintain good position and was still a factor at the front of the race. Final position was not available at time of report.

Laura was also looking to avenge her earlier poor race performance and she did so with mucho gusto. The first sprint went by without much fanfare but 11 laps into the 60 lap, 15 km affair, a Colombian rider attacked and Laura followed. There was no chase and within 7 laps the duo had taken a lap on the field and put themselves 20 points each up on everyone. The next sprint the Colombian rider took a single point putting her at 21 and Laura at 20. Two sprints later Laura scored 2 points giving her the lead. There were now two sprints left. Giorgina Bronzini was winning the majority of the sprints and was moving up. Going into the final sprint Laura was still leading with 22, Colombian in 21 and Bronzini now with 20. It was one more final effort. The final push started with one and a half laps to go. Laura gave everything she had but Bronzini took the final sprint and the race, the Colombian picked up two points giving her a one point edge over Laura who was just out of the points in the final sprint in fifth. Laura held onto third, her second podium of the event and a providing a new appreciation for suffering.

The final event of the competition was the keirin final. Monique Sullivan was up against three current or former world champions and two other World Cup medalists. Sullivan drew the number two spot behind the bike and with the bike pulling off she did not react to the early acceleration from the riders behind and was unable to match the speed, placing sixth. As soon as the awards were over the rain came down and riders all packed up their bikes finally making it back to the hotel for dinner by midnight.

I would like to commend the Canadian riders at this event. We were definitely one of the more unheralded teams at the event and our first pre-race meeting was all about taking advantage of this great racing opportunity and a very strong field, and showing that we had come to race and that we belonged at this level. The tally at the end showed the Canadians with three podiums and three more top sixes, proving we definitely belonged and that the riders should be very proud. All three of these riders are off to a CCA testing camp in Victoria, BC in two days and then to a training camp in Los Angeles the week after.

Day 2