3 named to Canada's Olympic track cycling team
OTTAWA - Three athletes have been named to compete for Canada at the Olympics next month in track cycling.
The Canadian Cycling Association announced today that Gina Grain, of Burnaby, B.C., Zach Bell, of Watson Lake, Yukon, and Martin Gilbert, of Chateauguay, Que., are bound for Beijing.
Grain will compete in the women's points race, Bell in the men's points race and Gilbert in the Madison.
Canada's Lori-Ann Muenzer won a gold medal in track cycling at the Athens Olympics four years ago. She has since retired.
"This is an experienced team," said Sean O'Donnell, the CCA's manager of high performance programs. "All three athletes have spent considerable time over the last number of years competing on the World Cup circuit. They head to Beijing very familiar with their opponents."
Bell and Gilbert will team up for the Madison, an event where teams of two riders try to accumulate the most points in intermediate sprints during a 60-kilometre race. Riders from each team alternate turns on track.
"It's probably one of the most dynamic races on the track," said Bell. "Because of the rest factor you can race quite a bit harder and with a lot more intensity. It's exciting and spectator friendly which are some of the reasons I like it along with the speed factor."
Grain turned to track cycling in 2004 after starting her cycling career on the road.
"The crossover from road to track has worked really well," said Grain, a silver medallist in the points race at the 2006 world championships in France. "On the road I'm known more as a sprinter so that comes more naturally to me. So I had no problems going over to track plus having the endurance accumulated from the road is critical on the track as well."
Gilbert and Bell raced together in the Madison at an Olympic test event earlier this year in Beijing at the new Laoshan Velodrome.
"It was really nice but a lot of athletes complained the air quality wasn't good inside the velodrome," said Gilbert. "It's something they'll need to improve for the Olympics."
(c) Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
Reade aims to bump and jump her way to more medals
The start ramp on the BMX track outside the world cycling centre in Aigle, Switzerland, is almost eight metres high, with a gradient of around 33% and it looks dauntingly vertiginous, to the layman at least. Stand at the top in the electronic launch gate and you cannot see the bottom, so steep is the slope. It does not look like the kind of thing you want to sprint down before flying through the air over a load of berms and bankings on a bike.
Before Shanaze Reade turns up for practice, earlier this month, some of her potential opponents in this week's World Championships at Taiyuan in China have a go on the course. One, an American, misjudges a jump, twice. The first time she is winded, taking half an hour to get her composure back, the second she is out cold.
The episode underlines that BMX can no longer be termed kid's stuff. The discipline will be part of the Beijing Olympics this August and rightly so as it calls for skill, strength and courage.
The ambience is somewhere between snowboarding and mountain bike downhill, the get-up a mix of motocross helmets and baggy kit, to absorb bad landings. Biceps are braced as the riders wait for the gate to drop as they launch into an intense sprint downwards that can hit 40mph before the jumps, where they can be airborne for almost 5m. There is a lot to deal with, particularly when eight riders race together on the track.
"It's one of the most technical sports," said the 18-year-old from Crewe. "You have to get the bike precisely how you want it on the jump, you want the bike to follow the gradient down when you land so you can follow through with all your force. There's three or four centimetres on the crest of a jump where you have to land." The penalty for a miscalculation has been shown only too clearly.
In Taiyuan "Speedy Ready" will be defending a unique record: she is unbeaten in four world championships in BMX - at junior and senior level - and is looking to make it five. There is an added twist to this year's worlds: the arcane world ranking system means she must at least make the semi-final to earn Great Britain a place in Beijing. But if that is all she manages, it will be a disappointment.
"I'm going to win. I wouldn't go in as a world champion and come out as a semi-finalist with a smile on my face."
Reade was voted MCC Young Sportswoman of the year for 2007 after going straight from junior to senior world champion and adding a gold medal on the track at the team sprint, together with Victoria Pendleton.
This March the pair repeated their team sprint victory in Manchester, since when Reade has again been devoting her attention to BMX, intriguingly finding she had lost fitness during her brief track campaign where the emphasis was on a few high-quality efforts in each training session rather than the more sustained stints on the BMX track.
She compares the effort in BMX to that of a 400m sprint. "The start is about getting everything out, then you have to maintain that for 30 to 45sec. I'm one of the strongest there. If I can get a clean start and get away and not get stuck in traffic I get the track to myself. I don't like to be in the pack but I'm usually in front. It sounds big-headed but if anyone is going to catch me it'll be on the last bit. It can be harder that way because if anyone sees you make a mistake they can react to it."
This weekend's racing will not include the ramp. It is too tough for the plethora of junior disciplines in the world championships where a traditional, lower starting plunge is the norm. What the wider sporting world will see in Beijing this August is known as Supercross. In essence, the ramp has been introduced so that the television channels will get more spectacle for their money. They should not be disappointed.
Once the world championships are out of the way, Reade will be back in Switzerland as this is the only ramp of its kind in Europe, although moves are afoot to build one, rapidly, on a plot of land next to the City of Manchester Stadium, so she has somewhere to train before Beijing.
"I won last year's test event in China on the ramp so I know what to work on. When the worlds are over, I'll be virtually living here to get as much time on the hill as I can."
Working with a newly appointed BMX coach in former professional Grant White, Reade says she has gained a new hunger for her sport this year. "I'd hit a plateau. I was getting by winning world titles, but not how I'd like to, if that doesn't sound immodest. Grant came along and turned me round, made me analyse what I do for the first time. I was just doing what I'd been doing for 10 years - be in front by the first jump. He massively took me out of the comfort zone."
Turning to the track has also given Reade new ambitions. "Grant and I have spoken about being competitive in the keirin next year and I don't know about the future but there's the match sprint. It's technical but I have the power."
Pendleton is in her sights. "She's seen as a superstar so I'd love to beat her and I've told her that in a nice way. I'm young, I've won a lot but I see myself as pretty low down, not as a world champion. I've got a lot more to develop as an athlete: I'm running at about 70% and there's so much more to come." Beginning, she hopes, with another world title this weekend.
(c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Losada & Mosquera break collarbones in dangerous Catalunya stage
The nervous second stage of the Volta a Catalunya featured several crashes and broken bones, including the withdrawal of two riders due to broken collarbones.
Alberto Losada was one unfortunate crash victim. On the final descent, about 12km from the finish, Losada crashed and broke his right collarbone. The Caisse d'Epargne racer is expected to undergo an operation at the Clinic Dexeus of Barcelona, Spain.
Karpin Galicia's Ezequiel Mosquera was another downed rider forced to withdraw from the race. He suffered a broken collarbone and index finger. Director Sportif Alvaro Pino explained what happened, "The fall took place when Ezequiel looked back and touched his front wheel to the parapet of the edge of the highway and crashed to the ground. Despite this, he has been lucky because it was possible to have fallen off a precipice. The collarbone fracture in principle seems clean, and they have fixed the index finger, and we are hopeful until we know the true extent of the fractures."
Other racers were affected, but with less serious consequences, by the conditions at the end of the race where riders tackled narrow, curvy roads.
"There was a very dangerous descent after the final climb and a lot of riders crashed, which meant a serious separation of the peloton. There were a lot of turns and many of them were gravelled so it was not a good scenario," said Team CSC Sports Director Dan Frost after the stage according to team-csc.com.
"Our guys took it easy on the descent in order to avoid crashes, which luckily we did but of course we paid the price because we had to slow down," said Frost referring to his team's results for the stage.
Two riders Christophe Riblon (AG2r) and Alexandre Botcharov (Caisse d'Epargne) were left with a narrow lead in the race leading the race going into the final climb. The pair held a 2'50" lead on a much reduced peloton, but a crash on a gravel-strewn turn took both of them down on a technical descent. They were eventually caught and Cyril Dessel went on to stage victory.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
British Cycling ramps up to support Bikeability
British Cycling is creating a new training team to meet the Department for Transport and Cycling England target to provide Bikeability cycle training to half a million young people by 2012. The new team is part of British Cycling's existing coaching and education department and follows the Department for Transport's 140 million pound funding announcement in January.
"This is an exciting opportunity for British Cycling to build on the successful Go-Ride training schemes," said Chief executive Peter King. "British Cycling is delighted to be able to be able to contribute to the objectives of Cycling England. This project is an important link in the chain of services we can offer to the cycling world in general and to our members in particular."
Bikeability is Cycling Proficiency for the 21st century and is designed to give young people the skills and confidence to cycle on today's busy roads. Comprising of three different levels, Level 1 teaches basic skills, Level 2 gives young people the skills to ride on quiet roads and Level 3 teaches the skills required to safely negotiate major roads and junctions. This will enable young people to make local trips, such as riding to school, both safely and conveniently. In addition, it is expected to encourage more young people to join local clubs, get involved in cycle sport and may even nurture future champions.
Oli Lougheed will serve as the training manager and head up the new team. British Cycling is currently also recruiting a cycle training officer. The team will work closely with the newly expanded Go-Ride development team. Pilot schemes will begin in March 2009.
Over the next nine months, British Cycling will also be developing a cycle trainer education course, which is aimed at coaches that have already reached British Cycling's Level 2 coaching standard, to meet the National Standard for Cycle Training. Completing the course will qualify coaches to deliver the forthcoming Go-Ride Bikeability course in schools, clubs or even to their colleagues, family and friends.
Copyrigth Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
'Legacy' track runs into rule book
Escarpment officials oppose BMX site that keen founder, 20, died creating on private land
May 05, 2008 04:30 AM
Jim Wilkes
Staff Reporter
Tim DaSilva never got the chance to see his dream finished.
The 20-year-old Milton man was crushed to death in 2006 when a roller he was operating overturned while he was shaping a BMX track in Halton Hills.
Now his family and friends, who helped finish the track, are in a fight with the Niagara Escarpment Commission, which wants the site levelled and returned to agricultural land.
"This is the last piece of Tim that we have," his sister Jessica Medeiros, 25, of Brampton said yesterday, as she looked out at the ridges and rills set up to challenge cyclists.
"This is what he dreamed of, what he designed, what he put his love and labour into. He died here."
DaSilva was installing his track with the owner's permission at Halton Place, an equestrian centre that has 80 hectares of rolling hills on 15th Sideroad, north of Milton.
His creation doesn't look like much now.
Weeds and water have filled low points between the series of ridges that attracted 50 club members to the scene until the escarpment authorities intervened.
Now supporters face an uphill struggle to rescue the track.
"We didn't realize that we needed a permit before this project started," said Medeiros.
"In June last year the commission told us to cease all activities until the permit was granted. But now they say there won't be a permit given – ever."
Oakville councillor Allan Elgar, who represents Halton Region on the escarpment commission, said the track doesn't "fit at all with the Niagara Escarpment plan."
"Everything (DaSilva) did was without any approvals whatsoever," Elgar said.
"It's a sad story, but it's the old case where people go and ask for forgiveness (after the fact) ... I feel bad about this one."
But DaSilva's tragic death doesn't override the concerns of the commission and its regulations, he said.
"The trouble is people going ahead and doing things outside the law."
Nicky Pearson, BMX co-ordinator for the Ontario Cycling Association, said the commission is misguided to oppose the bike track.
"There are golf courses going up left, right and centre, and quarries on the escarpment," she said. "You can build tennis courts, which is all asphalt and fencing.
"Here, we're just moving dirt."
Pearson said DaSilva built a track "to bring kids up to the next level" of BMX racing, which will make its Olympic debut in Beijing.
Medeiros said track supporters hope to get a hearing when the Niagara Escarpment Commission meets May 15 in Tobermory.
"We just think that because Tim died here and because (the track) has been such a positive influence on the community, it should be allowed to stay."
(c) Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
Traksel wins again
Current UCI European Tour leader, Bobbie Traksel (P3 Transfer-Batavus) has taken yet another win this season, making him one of the most successful riders of the early season. On May 1 he took out the 1.2 classified Groote Mei Prijs Hoboken.
The Dutchman was the fasted from a lead group of 12 riders who contested the sprint after 184.4 kilometers of racing. Belgium's Thomas Chamon (PWS Eyssen) was second and The Netherlands Dennis Kreder (Van Vliet - EBH Elshof) third.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Azizul wants to be first Asian to dip below 10 seconds in 200m sprint
Tuesday April 29, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: Track cyclist Azizul Hasni Awang returned to his training base in Melbourne yesterday with a renewed determination to work harder in a bid to become the first Asian to dip under 10 seconds in the 200m sprint.
After taking a well-deserved two-week break after the Asian Championships in Japan, Azizul and his track cycling team-mates will resume training under Australian John Beasley from tomorrow to prepare for their biggest assignment yet - the Beijing Olympics in August.
While Azizul is also eligible to ride in the team sprint, he is likely to concentrate on the individual 200m sprint and keirin.
For the keirin, Josiah Ng, a finalist in the Athens Olympics four years ago, will form a two-pronged Malaysian challenge.
Azizul was the toast of the Malaysian squad in the Asian Championships. He retained the keirin title and added a second to his name from the 200m sprint. Rizal Tisin delivered a third gold medal for Malaysia. He won the 1km time trial to give Malaysia their best-ever finish in the senior ranks of the Asian championships.
Azizul is the first Malaysian to hold both Asian sprint cycling titles but he is not contented and is keen to take on the challenge of clocking a sub-10 seconds soon in the 200m.
He set a new Asian record of 10.160 for an 11th-place finish in the Track World Championships in Manchester last month. And the 19-year-old pint-sized lad from Dungun felt it is not an impossible goal to chase down after his run in the Asian meet.
"It was not a flawless run because I only picked up speed after the first sector," said Azizul.
"If I can crank up power in the first sector, I believe I can achieve my target. But first, I need to improve on my techniques and everything has to be right to smash the 10-second barrier.
"No Asian has done it before. In fact, only a few cyclists in the world have gone below the 10-second mark and I would like to be one of them."
The current world record is 9.772 and set by Theo Bos of Holland when he won the world title in 2006.
"It would be great if I can do it in my first Olympics outing. But I will not be too disappointed if I do not get it as long as I keep on improving from one competition to another," said Azizul.
"The next one week of training will be to shape up on my fitness level. I want to be in the best of form to challenge strongly in the individual events in Beijing in August."
The other members of the sprint cycling squad gearing up for the Olympics are Mohd Edrus Yunus and Junaidi Nasir.
Copyright (c) 1995-2008 Star Publications (M) Bhd (Co No 10894-D) Managed by I.Star
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