Day one at the veledrome and the first major upset when the Kersten brothers completed a double
whammy on "kilo king" Shane Kelly. For the second year in a row the former world champion and
australia's favourite cycling son has lost the national crown to one of the Kersten boys. Last
year it was Josh Kersten stealing Kellys crown and this year it was the turn of younger brother
and triple junior world champion Ben who denied the luckless Kelly another national title. While
Kersten may have won the battle on the boards for a national crown he still has a lot to make up
if he wishes to qualify as our top chance in the do or die kilometre test and step into Kellys shoes.
The track was definately slow but the top three men all were between 1min.04sec-1min.05sec for the
testing 1000m begging the question as to what times would have been set if they had been on a fast
track such as Adelaides Super-Drome, something that might have been on the minds of the Adelaide
management team who were trackside last night.
FERRIS DRAWS FIRST BLOOD
The battle lines were drawn today between the two protagonist Ferris & Higginson when Ferris took out
the honours in 11.681secs for the 200m flying time trial championship. There is little room for error
in this event and only .076 of a second seperated the two riders who are seeking the top spot as
Australias sprint queen. If all goes to plan a showdown between both riders in the final of the sprint
should provide plenty of entertainment for the fans.
ROBERTS CROWN AGAIN
South Australia's Luke Roberts stamped his authority on the 4000m individual pursuit with a convincing
performance once again. Roberts performance was well above that of any other finalist.
DAWSON AT BEST
Western Australia's Junior World Champion Peter Dawson showed just what a future he has in store with a blistering ride in the
under 19 mens 25K Scratch Race. Right from the starting gun riders were on the attack with the ACT team
taking it up to the bunch, but with a 100 laps of racing before them it was a doomed move and the
bunch was not allowing anyone to get away that early. The junior riders were certainly fired up for
the event and the closeness of racing produced some great sprints and team work from the western
australians. Two crashes spooked the field, the most spectacular on the northern bend where the steep
banking caught a number of riders packed in tight and a touch of wheels brought riders skidding down
to the track apron. Fortunately no-one was injured and with riders given five laps out for repairs
all were able to get back into the race. The race eventually got down to a tight fight for points between
Dawson and south aussie Glen Matulich. Fortunately for Dawson, Matulich lost his way in the crucial closing
two sprints losing valuable points and any chance of victory. Full credit though must go to Peter
who, backed in with good team support, rode an excellent race and covered the last twelve laps with great skill to ensure his title victory.
HIGGINSON SCRATCH QUEEN
Undoubtedly the most spectacular event of the night was the womens 10K scratch race if only for the
number of crashes the competitors faced in a very challenging event. In all three huge crashes
took riders to the floor including one in the last five laps of the event that unfortunately saw
some of those victims eliminated. Eventual winner Lyndelle Higginson showed her class by recovering
from the second major crash to take the race in fine style holding off Chelsea Zucker(s.a).
A POOR SHOW TRACKSIDE
Finally on the subject of the new track I must say, without being bias, the new velodrome is very
sterile and leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to atmosphere, facilities and location.
While organizers may be using the championships as a shakedown for the forth coming Olympics
there was no excuse for problems that were still surfacing at this stage like the complete fiasco
with the catering, phones with no phone books, lack of public transport to the velodrome, inadequate
lighting outside the facility and a poor attendance for the night session plus I am lead to believe
the attendance at the junior titles was even worse. One area I find of major concern is the huge impost
placed on those who travelled out to the center only to find they were stung top dollar for the privelige
of showing their dedication and support by attending the championships. What am I talking about, well
let me quote a fan who travelled nearly two thousand kilometres who told me "when are they going to wake
up that you can't charge football prices for cycling events" and "it's a bit poor that I can't buy a
season ticket and have to pay full price every day".
Putting the Olympics aside it really begs the question "who really cares about track cycling as a
spectacle" if the people running cycling don't care two hoots about the grass roots supporters.
Perhaps the only solution is to make all our track cycling "made for television spectacles" promoting
the fastest and best racing to the public in an effort to convert them over to supporting a great sport.
