Finally a day that produced plenty of exciting action on the boards of the new Dunc Gray Velodrome.
Boy what a long final session of just over four hours jammed pack with many interviews, photo sessions
and trying to keep up with results. In a way it was a pretty draining five days, best described as
long and to say the least at times very tedious and I only covered he night sessions. But its over for
another year and of course with the olympics I can relax and check it all out from the comfort of home.
Overall though there were plenty of high spots preformance wise from the athletes and it was a pleasure
to deal with those who showed enthusiasm and courtesy to come for the media calls. People like Karen Barrow
who crashed out twice in one race and by the last day had decided to give cycling away. Karen had even gone
so far as to price all her equipment for a fire sale. Then she wins gold in the womens point race, right as
the championships are winding up. What a tremendous turn around. Alison Wright. that tough little "roadie"
who was cleaned up in the last stage of the Tour de Snowy, her efforts with just two weeks track training.
A story in itself. What about those Kersten boys ambushing the luckless Shane Kelly, this time with Ben
coming out on top. And what of Gary Neiwand, is it time to hang up the bike and maybe look for something else.
There were many stories to be found at the championships and many are here on the impact pages. This
time round I looked for something different and very personal from the athletes and I hope you liked
what you've read. I know some things sound a bit critical, but all aspects have to be covered and written
about, even the bad points.
I hope that things improve crowd-wise because 8000 people in 5 days is pretty, pretty poor and shows
just how much educating the public need to get them over to becoming cycling spectators. All the hard and
fast racing events must be be scheduled for maximum crowd participation. It's no good having a score board with
clapping hands if there is neither a crowd to clap riders or a reason to clap the riders.
So thats it for this year, as I've said another one is out of the way and the highlights follow this report.
THE HIGHLIGHTS...FINAL DAY
WOMENS 25K POINTS SCORE
What a race this turned out to be, a real bottler. In the early stages it looked as though local girl Rochelle
Gilmore would dominate the event, but the sprint is all about winning either by points or getting a lap up on
the field. On a 250 metre track, this may look an easy task, but its also all about timing. With Gilmore racking
up points at an awesome rate there seemed to be a lot of riders who were intimidated by her form and dominance.
Enter the hapless Karen Barrow who on the opening night of the championships had crashed out twice at the hands
of careless riders. Just when it all looked as though Gilmore would finally break through for a big win, Karen slipped
off the front and with Alison wright and Symeko Jochinke settled down to getting a lap up. And they did it in style.
But things weren't going to be easy for the soon to be Australian champ as the effort took its toll and a poor showing
in the next couple of sprints had me feeling decidedly uneasy for her chances. But come the last sprint with its double
points bonus and like a true champion she did everything right. I hope Karen stays around the scene for a little while
longer and doesn't give it away. Womens track cycling needs its senior talent.
MENS 15K U/19 SCRATCH RACE
What can I say about Mark Renshaw except, talent, talent,talent. A rider who could develope into a household name at senior
level. In a hard fought race(and isn't every scratch race just that) renshaw covered every move, sized every rider up and used
his superior sprinting skill to bludgeon a win out of this event in an awesome display of what can only be described as Renshaw
at his best.
WOMENS U/19 INDIVIDUAL PURSUIT
katherine Bates took out another major junior womens event on the final day with a resounding win in the junior womens 2000m
individual pursuit championships. There was not a lot too talk about from the junior womens racing when it came to standout
performances except for Bates. But Kate, I know its exciting to win, but please remember those media calls. You may have noticed
that juniors don't get much media attention, so when an opportunity comes along ...grab it.
THE MAIN EVENT
MENS U/19 KEIREN
This was the race of the championships without a doubt. Featuring the exciting talents of Western Australias Ryan Bayley. This,
and I'll say it again, exciting young man is definately one of Australia's future cycling stock who should go on to greater things.
Competing in a very demanding event that was jammed into the final days programme, he did the hard way, causedin the main by a
simple error in he first heat. But give him his dues, he bounced back in the repo-charge. Here showed a top field of finalists his
back wheel as he jumped the field with 220 metres to go and was never headed. National coach Charlie Walsh gives him a huge wrap as
does three times World junior champion Ben Kersten. Recently, our sprint king Darren Hill who was in Adelaide for the Qantas Cup,
gave the young fellow a terrific reference. I do to, but lets get him in the hands of some-one who can temper that little bit of
recklessness in him...before..it costs him a big win in something really important.
