Herne Hill Velodrome

05-05-10 Track League 3

Photos here Herne Hill Velodrome Flickr

Ding ding! Round three and a dark evening loomed over Herne Hill this week – with a hint of rain threatening, our skies were grey with only a few hours before the meeting was due to start.

Despite this we had yet another amazing turn out. Our biggest yet this year and an improvement in all categories; the most being with the women. Riders braved the cold evening in the hunt for pride and glory!

The youths get a chance at every discipline one of which is the human paced race. This is a derny event. However, the pacer is a senior rider. The same rules apply and you need to either shout Allez or Ho to speed up or slow down. Senior riders really had to work hard with not only there own events but pacing the youths in the under twelve and over twelve. They certainly can’t complain of not getting enough track time!

As usual, slightly earlier than the main senior programme, the youths, many coming fresh from the Regional Youth Omnium of the previous weekend, set the night off with super fast racing. Freddie Wright didn’t have it all his own way with Max Bergin taking the first scratch race. However, Freddie reclaimed his throne with wins in the points, handicap sprint and human paced race. Charlotte Cole-Hossain just lost out in the sprint finish of the motor paced race with an intelligent head Charlotte didn’t waste any energy and positioned perfectly to finish strong.

A return to track riding after his crash in training a few weeks ago, Tristan Lambert showed his hand this week with a good clear win in the human paced race and handicap sprint. The over twelve’s are pushing hard to score those valuable points, a win for Andrew Bradshaw, newbie Arben Zilci with Noah Philips closely behind in all results means the fight for the overall top spot is very close.

A few chattering teeth before the senior warm up race soon turned into sweat and tears as a calm evening meant racing was smooth and fast with hardly any jumping around.

Women riders out in force today kept the men on their toes by sticking in and fighting for places at the end of each race. Rebecca Charlton, Anna Glowinski, Corrine Hall, Estelle Rodgers, Wiesia Kuczaj and Zoe Lewis really showed the men that they all are forces to be reckoned with.

With the bit between his teeth Jason Cattermole stole the show to just grab the victory from Symon Lewis in the warm up event. Jason timed his final sprint perfectly to hold off and contenders.  Handicap sprints haven’t favoured the scratch riders over the first three week’s as they haven’t been able to catch the riders for the win! Anthony Bristow, taking all his advantages, easily won over Scarlet Parker and Kieran Laurie.

It wouldn’t take long for Bryan Taylor and Symon Lewis to battle again and they didn’t disappoint. Still only one point separates these two from the top spot. The Devil as quoted by Taylor is the hardest devil he has done in a while. With one rider out every other lap this turned the devil into ten match sprints making it very hard for everyone.  Taylor took victory over Lewis but Lewis pushed to claim an easy victory in the points race not without trouble from Simon Warren who as everyone knows like to make it hard by attacking!

The last race of the evening looked to be a great one. Darkness was falling and it really set the scene for an unknown distance. Riders suddenly got five laps to go which ramped the speed up.  From the back to the front Lewis made a do or die effort coming into the back straight – to no avail and ran out of steam meaning he was piped to the line by Taylor, Cattermole and Solly. The combativity crown has to go to Anna Glowinski of Team Mule Bar Girl whose consistent attacking kept her in the thick of the action right into the finishing straight.

Next week sees the first women’s specific event, which plans to increase week on week. With a strong field this week we hope to see fast and exciting racing in week 4 and beyond.

• Overall League Table (Senior)
• Overall League Table (Youth)