Points Race - Provincial Championship

[Bradford]

For those of us not fortunate enough to be logging mileage in sunny San Diego, I thought I'd offer up a brief race report to kick off the 2016 campaign.

On Sunday, the Mattamy National Cycling Center (Pan Am Games Venue), hosted the Ontario Provincial Track Championships - I was slated to ride the Men's Elite (cat 1/2) Points Race.

Track racing is completely new to me - so for those of you who might be unfamiliar - points race is 80 laps total, with a sprint lap every ten laps (8 in total), with points awarded for the first four racers across the line (5 pts, 3, 2, 1) - if you lap the field, you're awarded 20 points.

Because track riding is a totally different beast (no brakes, picking the right gear ratio for the race, positioning and controlling racers etc) - I had modest expectations - my goal was to get in the break with Astellas' rider Ryan Aitcheson, national team rider Bayley Simpson, and local track stud, Steve McKee (and anyone else who could hang on).

Shortly into the race, these guys drilled it and separated from the field - I came with, and took my turn pulling, running exchanges every half lap. It wasn't long before we lapped the field - 20 points award to each of us. However, I ended up at the back of the rotation each time we would come into a sprint lap, and was only picking up 1 point (as the 4th rider) each time through. I was basically thinking - ok - I'm going to hang in with these guys, and finish 4th - that would be great.

However, Bayley Simpson attacked early for a sprint lap with maybe 23 laps remaining and I went through - I pipped him at the line taking the 5 points (much to the surprise of the commentator in the video) and sailed through with a quarter lap gap. Not wanting to go it alone for this long, I went up track to try and let our break catch back on - but the gap didn't close.

With 7 laps remaining before the next sprint, and still down in 4th place, I figured I'd give it a go to try and solo for the next round of points (trying to grab 5). I stayed seated to put in my dig (stealth) and opened more of a gap. Astellas' Aitcheson gave chase for awhile, but was unable to close the gap, and I picked up the points.

I still had a gap and after sitting up briefly, it became clear I would have to go it alone to the end of the race. I put my head down and chased the back of the field which seemed to maybe only be a half lap away. I managed to catch what was now a significantly depleted bunch (riders get pulled), and you will see, sort of motion to the commissars on my way by - hey, 2nd time lapping the field, 20 points please - this put me into 1st place with only a few laps remaining.

By this time, the three guys I had left earlier were panicking and mounting a strong chase effort - I sort of asked guys in the bunch to work with me to keep the pace up - but they basically told me it was my race and they weren't going to help - obviously I told them to go f' themselves - because I always make friends in bike races - and continued on.

Unfortunately (and to his credit), Steve McKee caught on to the back of the bunch and grabbed the second 20 point bonus too, pushing me into 2nd -

Final Points Tallies:

1st Steve McKee - 59 Points
2nd Brad Bradford - 55 Points
3rd Bayley Simpson - 47 Points
4th Ryan Aitcheson - 40 Points

They record and stream the entire raceday at the velodrome, so if you have 18 minutes, you can check it out - the commentary is pretty funny at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlSOl5hHebM

Points race rolls off at 5:20:35

Let me know when you guys want to come up and hit the boards!

[Fintan]

"Brad Bradford is hovering out in front... Correction he is not hovering"
Nice work Brad.

[Jacob]

Nice job!

[Mkidd3]

SWEET!!

[Smudger]

Just remind me again.

You were a Cat5 looking for an upgrade race this time last year, correct???

AMAZING

[jmorrissey]

#BadASS

Great job

[KTeves]

I guess it hasn't taken you very long to get the hang of track cycling. Nice job!