Herne Hill Velodrome

23-06-10 Track League 10

Gelard’s photos here. Tao’s madison photo’s here

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

A scorching night for racing certainly helped make for fast and close racing. Tonight saw a Madison added to the programme to allow for some practice before the coming weekends event Brixton CC Super Madison Open.

The night began with the Youth riders starting a little slower than usual, possibly due to the summer heat. With only a select few riders signed on for the over twelve’s all riders rode together.

The under twelves saw Max Bergin having a great night with two wins in the Sprint and Scratch. Freddie Wright didn’t allow for total domination from Bergin and won the Points and got 2^nd places and in many of the over twelve events. Stanley Sorrel also had a really good night placing high in all events.

Over Twelve riders has a shock from the under twelve’s this week as the younger riders got the opportunity to ride up. Andrew Bradshaw was the only rider in the over twelve’s to win all but one event over his rival Arben Zilci.

Senior racing saw a return from Jason Cattermole proving that he is racing well again with a cool 2^nd place in the warm up race and a 4th in the last points race. Symon Lewis was seemingly below par due to illness and struggled with the pace tonight. However, with cunning tactics still managed to get decent points with a 2^nd in the final points race after spending much of the race holding onto the bunch!

The big race of the night was the Madison race - 15 laps for riders to regain their technique. Straight from the gun Kieth Coffey shot away taking no time to get things rolling. Before any time at all a small group formed by Lewis/Taylor, Cook/Solly, Hart/Bunns and Nelson/Sakurai. Each change seemed to ramp up the pace. Lewis and Taylor put in a good effort in the final stages and gained a big enough gap to hold on for the win. Cook and Solly were closing fast but just didn’t have enough laps.

The senior B events, as with most weeks had a different winner for each event - Chris Dick being the most consistent rider of the evening. We also saw great rides from Eli Lassman in the Devil and Kristian Borbley in the short 5-lap scratch.

The last race of the night was a 30-lap points race. Lewis looked off the pace again but managed to score in three sets of points. Taylor scored in every sprint meaning he ran away with the win and Hart, whom many forget is still under 16 scored in most sprints to claim a strong 3^rd place. Jason Cattermole, in his first meeting back for a few weeks due to illness pushed hard and positioned well in the right part of the race to gain valuable points. In the closing laps of the race an unfortunate crash near the front of the bunch brought down four riders. St Johns Ambalance were on the scene and did a great job to patch up the road rash. Euan Cattermole was taken to hospital to be checked over, but was discharged with a clean bill of health.