Session 2 starting at 5pm
Racing includes Double Temp, sprint rides, Points racing and maddison.
You got there. I know you’re there. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. I know you’re there. You got the feeling. I know you’re there. You got know you’re there. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. You got the feeling. I know you’re there. down down. Heat. Hey, Heat. Down. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Peter is providing good bags for all the roads. Be sure to check out the products and wood chocolate for sponsoring some prizes as well. And obviously thank you to policers, volunteers, parents, mechanics, and everyone else who’s helping make this go. And the amazing team on timing even though they didn’t give a piece of timing they did really well that well Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right, we’re just about getting underway here for start of the second session at National Track Series. Got the uh sprint plate pool B plate final coming up. I think there was a some slight change to how they’re running the the finals or the semis or or something here that I just uh didn’t quite pick up on myself. So, if I work out what’s going on, I’ll let you know. All right, so pretty traditional match sprint here. Three laps. You typically see them ride around relatively slowly as they uh sort of sus each other out. Although having said that, as soon as I say they’re going slowly, you see it attack straight away. Making this pretty much a 750 time trial if they carry this on. This is uh Joseph is really going for it. Looks like Sarah has got on his wheel. Lap and a half to go. Oh, that’s a long way to go around the outside. Still over a lap to go here. I can feel my legs burning just watching that. That was a a painfully painfully long sprint, but she’s going to get the job done. So, looks like the ride there is going to go to Sarah. quite rare to see that um sprinters going quite that early. Sort of quarter of a lap into the into the race. So what I was saying is typically you’ll see it relatively slow for the first first lap. They’ll start sort of building pace. They’ll try jostle for position depending on where the rider wants to be. Do they want to lead out? Do they want to be behind the other rider? How far behind the other rider do they want to be to sort of leave a leave a bit of a gap to run at and things like that. But every now and then, if you don’t think you’re basically going to be able to sort of out tactic them or or out accelerate them late in the piece, you might just try and just go full endurance and go full gas from the start like uh like Joseph tried there. But didn’t quite work out on that occasion. So here we have Riley Faulner and Erin Green up for I believe this is the sprint plate pool a final. This is the race for for bronze or race one for bronze I should say. I believe this is best of three. Unfortunately, I missed all the this morning’s session, so I’m not quite sure about um qualifying times and things like that, unfortunately. But uh I believe it should be online the results and uh everything like that. If you’d like to see how these riders qualified, sort of how they got to this stage of the competition. It’s quite an interesting uh helmet design there and it’s got like a lot of um very traditional sort of like patterns on it. It’s quite cool. So, this is Riley Falner leading out and then Erin Erin in position two at the moment in the red. Right, we’ve already gotten f further around than the uh the first round of the sprints before they before anyone’s made any moves. So, you can see there Erin trying to gain a little bit of height on the track, sort of use the height or build the height early to be able to use it as an advantage later, but then you saw Riley accelerate a little bit and Erin just didn’t want to fall too far behind. So, she had to give up some of that height already to to avoid falling too far behind Riley. Looks
like Riley’s going to try hold her at the fence. And as soon as I see that, she she ducks down a little bit. Looks like Riley’s not willing to give up that lead position. As soon as uh soon as Erin’s Oh, they came came close to coming together there. All right, they’ve opened up the sprint. Eron’s got the lead at the moment, but she’s still held on the hip with a lap to go. Yeah, it looks like Riley’s sort of really hit the hit the gas now and is um pulling away a little bit. Having said that, Erin’s still on the slipstream. It’ be a late run, but she could still get there. But no, it’s not going to be. It’s going to be Riley for the win on that one. Goes one up in in race one of best of three. It
was an interesting sprint that one. There’s a lot of lot of movement around the track, dustling for position, stuff like that. It wasn’t just a um just a pure muscle like contest. That was uh yeah, good tactics and uh really interesting to watch. That one looked quite evenly matched too. They weren’t um no one was like totally blasting away from the other ones. So, it’s uh yeah, looks like we’re in for some good racing tonight if we’re more of it goes like that way. So, next up in this gold final, we should have Ben Murphy and Miles Prrener, I believe. Yeah, that’s what’s on the screen. They’re just down in the down in the chairs getting ready. So, as Simon was just saying on the the Enfield commentary here, both these riders, I believe, going to Junior Worlds, which is uh coming up in uh about a month, month and a bit time, I believe. It’s interesting there, Ben, I believe, running just a a normal alloy spoke front wheel. I don’t know if something happened this morning, like a puncher or something, but that’s a kind of an unusual choice of of equipment here, but I’m sure there’s a a reason for it one way or the other. the gold. So, this is former New Zealand representative Callum Sa just bring Ben up there with sporting quite a quite a nice haircut these days now sort of helping coach and and work with a lot of these riders. Position one. Position two. So in the early stages of this race, they’re meant to um go at least walking pace and they’ve they’ve easily managed that. So now you see see Ben trying to gain a little bit of height like we saw in the last race. Sitting quite close to the the back wheel of Miles. It’s not not uncommon to try and build up a little bit of distance. So when you accelerate, you’ve actually got a bit of room to run into and get in the slip stream, pass them with momentum, but he’s sitting right hard on the wheel of Miles there. In fact, it looks a lot like a punch race if you uh just zoomed in. I know you saw two of them there. That’s quite an acceleration there from Miles out of the seat. Really going for it. One lap to go. Ben’s coming around the outside. They’re awfully close together there as they come down the back straight. Looks like Ben’s going to get this one. He’s got a got half a bike length as we come into the home straight. That was That was a close run thing though. I was surprised to see him just uh sitting quite so close to Miles back wheel for a lot of that race. But obviously he knew what he was doing, knew his opponent, excuse me, knew his opponent. And then uh he takes the first ride there of the uh gold sprint plate pull a plate final. So, so here we have Pyber Newton and Hazel Gardner. This is Sprint Pool B special plate final. So, event keeping track that I think the event list is online. All right, we’re underway with this one. So once again, you normally kind of have to wait till you’re on that back straight to try and gain any height if you’re wanting to do that because uh straight off the start line, you try to do that into the corner and you probably just slip down the track. But once you sort of see that that sort of first sort of half lap or so come in, then uh you see where these riders are trying to position themselves on the track, what are their tactics, what do they think is going to work for them against against their opponent. So you won’t try the same tactic against every other rider necessarily. So depending on your strengths, your opponent’s strengths, their weaknesses, how you think you’re going to beat them, you might ride quite a different race against against different people every round you do. So they’re both right at the top of the track here as we come into one lap to go. So this is Hazel who’s got the lead in the TMU sports skin suit. Piper is in the Manow 2 skin suit. Currently in second position trying to make a move around the outside as we come into the last corner. She’ll get a bit of a bit of pace off the banking but I don’t think it’s going to be enough.
No. And so we see there Yeah, we see Haz Hazel Hazel Gardner in the Tamura skin suit win that round. sprint even just seeing single matches and going to the longest lap or glad or something like that. Today they’re basically running multiple match much more complic here. So, this is the sprint pool B special plate final, heat two. So again, as we come into the back straight on the first lap, wouldn’t be surprised to see either rider or both riders start moving up the track, sort of trying to gain a bit of height, either gain a lead or actually pull back a bit, depending on what they want to do. Lily pretty content here to stay down on the uh down on the blue blue band or just on the black line at the moment. You see these riders a lot of looking behind and it’s uh often you say you want to look where you want to go and look forward to to go forward, but in in match sprinting you obviously also want to know where your opponent is. That means you need to be pretty confident at riding around the track while looking backwards. That’s a long sprint. So Lily’s really going for it here. just coming in to get the bell this time. So, here we go. One lap to go. She’s got about a about a two or three bike length lead, but then uh does look like Minnie’s going to close this up a bit. She’s got a good run down the back straight, but she’s going to have to go a long way around the outside. It’s going to be a close one. Oh, I think Lily got that by about a wheel length. Good ride there. That was a long long sprint. That would have been a that was a big effort to to do that. So, very shortly we’re coming up into sprint plate pool a special plate. So, I actually don’t know myself what the difference between the the normal uh normal one and the special one was, but uh looking at this I’m imagining it’s something to do with the age of the riders. Just looking at who’s competing. Someone can certainly inform me if I’m wrong. Sorry, I’m uh not 100% sure on what events are which, unfortunately. But we should have Flynn Underwood and Kaio L coming up. Two very strong development sprinters. a few. So this is just the winner is Right. So, for those who are getting sick of my endurance commentary over sprinting and realizing I don’t know what I’m talking about, it looks like Zack Williams is on the way to join me. He’ll be able to give you a much better idea of of what’s going on. He’s running late. He’s being sidetracked by people who are trying to pull him aside to talk, but he’s he’s on his way very quickly. You have someone who knows what they’re talking about. Borrow some good control. All right, Zach, you’re you’re here. You’re you look like you’re absolutely thrilled to be here and commentating. Oh, stoked, mate. Stoked. A little bit late with traffic, but we got here in the end.
Yeah. Well, I was just telling everyone, you know, actually what you’re doing in this this bit of the sport. So, fake it till you make it.
Yeah. people can uh stop listening to me talking about this sort of one of the most endurancebased riders you can get um talking about sprinting. So tell us what’s happening here.
Yeah, so to begin with with the sprint, they’re just going to be nice and slow, sort of sounding each other out. I mean, both of them have been racing a wee bit today. So you’ve got Caitlyn in second and then you’ve got Tin in uh in P1 now. So Caitlyn’s probably in two going to be looking to force the pace a little now. You sort of see her coming down and she’s actually going to take the lead. Um, it’s a big cat and mouse match burning. It’s all about putting yourself in a position that will disadvantage your opponent while giving yourself a position to win. So, this cat and mouse moving around that you see a lot of is it might look like not much, but it’s actually trying to get yourself into a really, really nice position. Um, kind of like the end of a bunch race for you guys in endurance. It just happens over three laps. Yeah, that’s what I was saying before except the first time I went to say that yeah, there’s a bit of cat and mouse and they’re riding slowly at the start and then someone attacked about a quarter of a lap. That’s
always the way. Yeah, always when you’re you’re sitting there going, “Oh, yeah, this is going nicely when you’re in the race.” You always see someone takes you by surprise and does a long one and it’s a sprinter’s worst nightmare having a long one cuz they don’t train for it ever.
It looks like Caitlyn’s coming around the outside here. She’s got a fair bit of momentum as we enter the last straight. I think it’s going to going to be enough to get the job done relatively easily in the end. Yeah. See Caitlyn there? She she got over quite nice and easily in the end. Had the race one sort of by the back straight. So quite often you’ll see the sprinters as well since they want to save as much energy as possible. They’ll actually shut it down once they’re over the handlebars of the other rider just given the short recovery times they have. Even being sprinters, they uh love to sit down and do nothing in between. So there’s any energy they can save is a win for them. It’s a fair bit different to an endurance rider who finishes the race and takes a minute and wants to go again, but they also just couldn’t go as deep as as you see the sprinters go. Yeah. The uh if if you ever want to see some one of the best images in cycling, it’s see a sprinter after a kilo. It’s a sight to see. So, next up here we’ve got Leighton and James. Leighton from the mighty Manowatu. So, a lot of these sprinters now, they’ll be getting pretty tired having done a few sprints already today. So, uh, they’ll be you might see now a few more of them starting to shut down sprints early if they can. Thinking of tomorrow or the next rides. So, I believe this is Leighton in the sort of a more lighter red kit going to take take the inside position, I believe. Is that correct?
Yep. Yep. He’s getting pushed up first. So, looks like he’s going to go to P1 and you’ll have James going into P2. Not much of a steer down from these two. You quite often see sprinters giving each other a bit of a steer down at the start of the race. It’s uh a lot of people think it’s to try to psych the other guy out, but um when you’re actually on the start line, it’s more just a bit of a way. See if the opponent’s going to go early or uh just to try to psych them out and Oh,
yep. I can see that happening.
Yep. James there coming down going a bit slow on the banking. Thought he might have saved it. It was uh one of the rounds just before we turned up. Zack, I was saying that typically you won’t see anyone really do too much movement until you get onto the back straight the first time cuz that’s your first chance to really gain some height. Um I said if you you do that in the first corner often you’re going slow and you’re going to slip down the bank and I think yeah that’s what we saw happen there. So I believe they’ll restart this. That would be the common practice right I believe.
Yeah they’ll restart it. Uh they should be in the same positions as what they drew. Um sometimes they there is a swap of positions depending on if someone’s done an infringement or something. But they usually when it’s just a slip of the wheels, they’ll just bring them back around, make sure the ride is all right, bike’s okay, and kick straight back into it. Yep. Here they come up again. So, we’ll just pretend that didn’t happen and move on. It looks like he’s all okay. Just a little bit of um I imagine he might have got a small burn or something like that from just sliding down the track there. But thankfully not too high, not at good not at a great speed. So looks to be all okay. I don’t think it’ll affect him or or the race too much.
No. If anything, he might James might have a little bit of a bruised ego. We’ve all been there and done it. It’s uh never fun, especially when you come down from going a bit slow, but he’ll be right. Brush it off and no better way to get over it than get into the heat of the action and start racing again.
Maybe a little bit of adrenaline there. Never know. It might actually help him.
Yeah, exactly. Give him a little bit of more go. Right, we’re underway for take two. So, let’s see what happens here. They’re both going to the bottom of the track this time.
Yeah, nice and safe this time from both the boys. So, they’ve got to go walking pace for the first half lap in a Mitch sprint as well. Uh, so that’s wheel one’s got to make sure of that. Wheel two can take the front if they want at any stage. But generally with match sprinting, they sort of, like I said earlier, they’re just trying to feel each other out now and see which gear size gear each other’s on as uh James now takes the front and starts accelerating. Definitely gained a lot of height there. So he obviously wants to be high on the track. He’s he’s sort of got the lead and uh looks like Leighton’s going to have the ability to really pin him at the fence now though. Having said that, no, James has just gone straight to the front and and to the bottom of the track again. So,
accelerating away. You can see Leighton now he’s trying to get a bit of a gap so he can run at it.
He won’t want to run too early at James. Just hit the front and hit the front too early. He’ll just want to time his run nicely and pop off that wheel coming into the back straight. Do you think he’s uh it looks like he’s going to get it, but do you think he caught him a little bit earlier than he really wanted to?
Definitely. I think I think he got drawn in a bit uh through the last corner there coming into the bell and he probably would have liked to have been a little bit more maybe a bike length more back but in the end he does it quite well. James is probably hurting a little bit from that fall as well. All right, so we’re into some pretty strong riders coming up now. So, next up I believe is Luke Blackwood and Alex Schuler. Yeah, two of the fastest guys from qualifying this morning. Both been racing really well. No, we looks like we have Kyle and Flynn. I think that is coming up. I actually
We don’t have that here.
No, I didn’t actually mention that before. Uh I’m wondering if my sheets are a little bit out of order here somewhere. Here we are. There we go. Solve that problem. Yeah, I was a bit confused why my program wasn’t matching up, but we’ve uh reordered some paperwork. So, it looks like Flynn’s going to be will one here, and Kai will be world two. Flynn’s off to the junior worlds next month. So, last sort of hit out race for him before he goes over there. I believe the uh team sprint, both these boys actually had team sprints yesterday. Kai with the development squad and Flynn with the junior world’s boys. So
yeah, I did see that. Uh I didn’t see really how it went, but I was watching it from down in the gym there just doing doing a session myself. It looked like they were all going pretty well from what I could see.
Yeah, I think the uh I’m not too sure of development boys, but I think the junior world’s boys were uh pretty happy with their time. I think it was a PB by all accounts. Um from talking to a few of them last night, so I think they were they were really happy with how they rode. Little bit of a smile on the start line there between Flynn and Kaio. We love to see it.
Yeah, it doesn’t look like too much trying to psych each other out when you’re when you’re having a having a laugh at the start line that time.
Yeah, I I have raced Kyo before in a match sprint and he is probably the worst person on the start line because he smiles at you every time and makes you end up laughing. I think it’s his go-to. So, Kyo is probably one of the best bike handlers we’ve got in the country here. He uh can dance on that bike, that boy. And Flynn’s no slouch either. So this could be quite interesting especially once they get up to speed if it becomes a bit of cat and mouse just checking each other out as we get to the end of the back straight here. So see Flynn look will be trying to probably push the pace a little bit more here. He’s more of a long distance sprinter. He um doesn’t have the best of kick, but he’s got some really good top end and being third wheel in the team sprint, making it faster for longer is an advantage to him.
As you see, Kaio starting to move around here, doing what Kaio does best, and it’s trying to turn people inside out. He’s gone in the sprinter lane. Beautiful. Flynn’s put down well to push him back there, but he’s going to struggle here off a dead wheel going down the back straight as Kaio is going to keep accelerating. Looks like Kai’s going to going to take this one out and suggest that was a that was a very good bit of bit of bike handling and just maneuvering Flynn around to where he wanted to be.
Yeah, like I say, he’s he’s Kaio is probably one of the best in the country when it comes to moving people inside out and dancing on those pedals. So, he uh set him up beautifully there and managed to um get underneath him there. But Flynn did well to come back there. He could have um actually ended up in all sorts. So, pretty good race by the both of them. Flynn will take a lot from that going into Worlds. And uh Kyle just showing everyone how good he is.
Do you think it was that that joke or whatever at the start that’s paid off for Kyle? Oh, probably definitely. Here we have Jackson Russell and Jared Man. So, this is two more of our reasonably local development sprinters. Yeah. So, these were two more of the guys that were racing yesterday in the team sprint. So, they’ll have a little bit of fatigue in the legs, especially after all the racing today and yesterday, but uh like we just saw with Kyle and Flynn there, they’ll still keep pushing each other, these two boys.
Is there any story behind the uh the pink socks that Jared’s got? I see them see quite often something a little bit little bit rogue like that.
Yeah, don’t know. I think it’s just Jared just trying to show off a bit a bit of quirkiness. I I like it. He always does it that or I think he get green for a while from memory. I think I think I remember that from uh C2 end last year perhaps.
Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t know. I might have to ask him about that. So Jared’s drawn P1 here. So he’ll lead out and Jackson will be P2. Jackson’s definitely a rider that’s got very very good acceleration on him. So, uh Jared will have to be watching him like a hawk over this race cuz if uh Jackson gets a sniff, he will be gone and either over or under Jared. None of these boys are seeming too game to go too hard from the gun at this stage.
Yeah, I’ve only seen the one rider really try to turn it into a into almost a kilo. That’d be a you tactic, wouldn’t it be, Boris?
It’ be my only chance. Yeah, throw the gun, get a nice big push and go.
To be honest, I’d probably pay the person on the lap board to increase the laps on laps a few be rather than three laps, it might be 30. You’d have a you’d have the other sprinter complaining straight away if that was the case, mate. Maybe I just forget to uh forget to hit the button to take the laps down a couple of times. It might help me. So, coming in two to go here, we’ve got Jackson’s going a bit high, getting it getting a bit of pace, pushing the pace a bit, making Jared react to him. And that of course has the reaction of bringing the pace up naturally, which is always going to be in the favor of the guy in second. He’s getting a bit of draft. He’s got height and it’s quite the faster you go, the harder it is to look behind in man one to see where you’re going. Jackson’s got a very good run at him there.
He’s basically taking the flying 200 line.
Yeah, basically did a 200. It’s a common common tactic a lot of these guys do. Try and get height through the bow and wheel two and just do a 200 line and then uh if you get the nice run like he did there onto the wheel, pop off in the back straight, it actually makes passing quite nice and easy. So, next up we’ve got Luke Blackwood and Alex Schuler coming up. We’ve got it right this time. So, Alex being another one of these riders that’s off to the Junior Worlds next month. And Luke, he’s uh one of the key riders in that development squad with the likes of Jackson and Jared. I think both of these guys were quite evenly matched in qualifying this morning if I remember correctly. So, this should be quite a good sprint. Yes. I remember I remember Luke Luke being a uh former enduro rider back when I was helping with the I think it was yeah the team actually didn’t get to go to world champs because of co and stuff. He was a junior then and uh in the endurance team I was helping and then all of a sudden he’s he’s a sprinter. Yeah. Yeah. I think he’s one that got stolen from you guys. So we love to see that. Both these guys are quite similar types of athletes. They both like quite a long sprint. Um, you’ve got obviously Luke’s a very very good kilo rider with that endurance background he’s had and Alex doesn’t do a bad kilo either. So, this could be quite interesting. Both guys might look to push the pace in this one. So, definitely more of a like traditional size gap between the riders there than what we were seeing in some of the some of the earlier sprints where riders were hard up on the back wheel there.
Yeah, you you want as much of a gap as you can, especially early on. And it gives you a bit of room to move. You know, if the if the person in front of you slows down, you can actually you’re not hard on the wheel and having to react. You can bleed a bit of speed off going up the track. And you can actually do what Luke’s doing now, which is actually move around and gain pace, which forces the other rider to react. So you see Luke now has gone to the front and he’s just forced his way around Alex. You got Alex coming underneath him now, trying to keep him high. But because Luke’s got his handlebars in front, Luke’s Luke can actually dictate that a lot better. So, this is actually going to be quite tight coming around here at the bell.
Luke is going to have to Oh, he’s gone very high there. He’s going to have to ride a long long way around the outside for probably over a lap if he’d uh even if he’ stayed on the hip there. So, looks like Alex is going to take this one.
Yeah, it’s hard to live on that outside. If you if you can get as the person on the inside, if you can actually hold your handlebars in there after a while, that extra distance that the person on the outside’s riding, it just takes its toll. And uh you can see almost wonder if Luke was in two minds there whether he wanted to go high and gain a bit of height or try stick it out. And I think that’s why he had that little flinch up the track. And so the next one here we’ve got uh Tom coming up Tom Choy and it’ll be versing Liam Kavanaaugh. So Liam’s just coming back from a pretty pretty big injury. So I don’t think he’s been on the bike for too long compared to most of these other boys coming back from it. So Seeing what he did this morning, the 200 was pretty awesome time wise and this racing he’s been doing considering the amount of time he had off on the sidelines. Definitely. And then believe Tom went sub 10 seconds as well, was it? 9.95, I think.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah, he’s been doing quite a bit of racing this year. Tom, I think he was over in Japan racing. Went pretty quick over there. So, he’s uh he’ll be he’s another one that’s going to going to the World Champs this year. So, he’ll be flying for that in a month’s time. Yeah, it’s a very very impressive flying 200 time for I mean I don’t know the exact conditions in here today but I imagine it’s it’s not exactly warm or fast I wouldn’t think and
uh yeah the age and everything he’s at that’s it’s a very very good time. It’s very impressive.
Yeah, he’s a very very impressive athlete. So and a lovely guy as well. You have a chat to him and he’s always got the time of day for everyone. So top bloke and top bike rider to match. So Liam’s drawn P1 here. So obviously he’ll have to leave for the first half lap. Um Tom’s will too. And unless he wants to take the front, he’ll just slot into second. Tom sitting a little bit closer to the wheel than what Luke was in the last one. And the pace is probably a little bit slower, a bit more closer to that walking pace. It’s the slower speed they’re allowed to go for that first half lap. Definitely looks a little bit little bit like it is in slow motion actually watching this.
Yep. Yep. I would agree with that. You can see quite often the rider in front like what Lamb’s doing here is keeping it slow. So that can be to try and get the back, they want second wheel. Uh it can also just be a way to just try and buy a bit of time, buy some meters towards the finish. So you give your opponent less time in the race to actually be able to make a move, set up a move, and then execute it. So he’s doing a really really good good job here, Liam, of just slowing it down and keeping Tom in check. riding most of the way looking backwards like most of these guys can do from the front keeping their eyes on the opponent coming into the bell here they still haven’t quite opened up the sprint fully so in this Liam will be trying to accelerate all the way down the back straight but Tom’s coming at him and look at the speed he’s coming running at him
that’s an impressive turn of speed just the way it was like it like he just flicked a switch and all of a sudden he’s going 10k now faster
yeah he’s got a serious turn of Tom and when he he puts that after burner on. He just runs at someone in front of him and he mows them down like that. Uh it was a really good ride that actually from Liam as well. He stalled him really really nicely and he was accelerating as well. But Tom’s just on another level at the moment which makes it really hard for anyone to race against. I think it’s one of the important things for um for something like this though, the National Track Series racing. It’s like even if you’re against someone who’s a whole lot stronger than you, if you you can take the things like that, the tactics that you you used well and like practice those things even if your opponent’s so much physically stronger than you can and sort of still put it into into your racing with someone else who’s more matched to you.
Oh. Oh, definitely. Especially in in the sprinting space that you’ve got to do that you very rarely are going to come up against someone who’s even speed with you. Normally, they’re either a fair bit faster or slower than you. So, you’ve got to be able to adapt your race. Uh, I know the guys I coach, we we keep saying things like this at the NTS. It’s about going out there, putting things into practice that you’re going to use at later races, bigger events where you’re actually going to be racing against people your own speed. So, it’s the beauty of this event. So, we’ve got those the women’s dooo now.
Yeah. So, I believe this is like a tempo race. Uh, so normally in a tempo race, you have four laps with with no points where you sort everything out and then every lap there’s one point to the winner. whereas I believe this one I think it’s three laps before it actually starts awarding points and then I believe it’s one point every two laps if I’m not mistaken.
We’ll go with you. You’re the expert in this one, mate.
I was reading it uh yesterday, but I uh didn’t didn’t uh go too in depth on the rules, but I believe that’s what it is. Oh, well time will tell when we get started. We’ll see.
We’ll work it out along with you watching at home. Oh, wait. It actually uh says down the bottom if I pull it to read three laps then sprints every second lap. 321 points.
Okay. So, there’s points for the top three in every sprint. And every sprint, well, each sprint is every two laps, so every 500 meters.
Yeah. So, it’s 20 lap race this one. Nine sprints in total. So, this makes it a bit more tactical than than a standard tempo, doesn’t it? Definitely. I mean, in a in a standard tempo, you can often you can just try and sit on the front for as long as you can and pick up two or three points that way and that’ll generally put you in a pretty good spot overall. Whereas for this, like, yeah, being in second, third, still going to be awarding you points, and you’re not going to be able to sit on the front forever. And if you’re sitting on the front, you’re yeah, you’re getting three points every sprint, but you’d have to sit on the front for four four laps in order to get two sprints. And everyone behind you is just taking it easy, still scoring points. So, yeah. So,
and I guess as well, there’d be plenty of people trying to just follow second, follow wheels, get seconds and thirds. That’ll be out there at the end as well since these nine sprints.
Imagine. So to be honest, when you watch a normal tempo race, sometimes it can fizzle out as someone gets a gets half a lap on the bench or something and everyone just starts rolling around with them taking points. So I mean that’s actually sounds like a like a way to make it much more tactical and and interesting and to be honest just chaotic.
Yeah, it’s going to be like an elimination in a points race all combined.
Yeah, pretty much. If you’re down the back of the field, the way this is structured, especially being so short, it’s one you’re just going to be completely out of it. So, what would your be your approach then if you’re racing this, Boris? H
try and win every sprint and you get the most points and you’ll be the winner.
Uh, it’s a tough one. Like, I mean, it depends what your strengths are, but So, for instance, there’s no no there’s no points for the first three laps. There’s no sprints. So, often if you don’t think you’ve got a good sprint, like taking a flyer now when everyone’s sort of trying to sus each other out and sort their position out, you can catch people off guard quite often. So if you got some height on the track sort of in this earlier period, you could just try go off the front and then when the points actually start counting, you’ve already got a bit of a lead. That that would probably be my tactic having no top end speed whatsoever. If you got a bit more speed, you might be kind of trying to just sit around the front of the bunch perhaps lead out a sprint, try slot back in like not too far back in the bunch and be able to pop round people or just kind of be able to sort of uh pick off those second and third positions which is there’s points for on this one.
It’s a pretty steady pace to start from the girls here. They’re definitely not out for a daw, that’s for sure. So, I believe we’ll get a either be a whistle or a bell this time round and then that’ll indicate that next lap will be the first the first sprint lap, I believe.
Here we go.
So, next time we’ll have points awarded to the the first, second, and third riders across the line. 3, two, and one for those places respectively. And you still want to be nice and and near the front of the bunch coming into that bell. You don’t want to be too many wheels back cuz you’re going to be working too hard to get any points. Isn’t that right, Boris?
Yep, definitely. So, we got a bit of a bit of a sprint here. But, so that one looks like Maline Bell took that one. So, she’ll take maximum points there. We’ve seen them all swing up the track there. So, this is where in a normal tempo race, you might just carry on cuz there’d be a point coming up this very next time across the finish line. Whereas this time around, there’s nothing this lap, but next lap is another sprint. So it might even be an advantage to try and roll like a third or a second in a sprint and then keep going as the pace, you know, gets the front potentially.
I think so. Like you could you could quite easily pick up a second or a third without doing too much effort and then attack and then unlike a normal points race where you’re going to have sort of 10 laps until the next sprint, you’ve only got to go 500 m. So around the outside number 67 there. Me Baker takes that one.
Yeah, that’s not not surprised to see her up there. They’re definitely easing up after each sprint at the moment. It is early days though, but here we see a little bit of an attack or just the roll through to the front.
Yeah, it’s definitely squeezed the pace back on that little move. So, it is like an elimination. You sort of feel like you got this rest period where nothing happens for one lap, but then all of a sudden you’re back into it. So, it is I can see this one being one where by the end you’re pretty gassed and you could sort of make that late attack and take a couple of sprints in a row if you’re really strong.
So, it’s Sophie Maxwell in the front now. She’s gone a long way out. Managed to get the points with Shayla. I think that was rolling in second.
They’re in second there.
So, they’ve got a little bit of a gap now. Those girls off the front. They’ve decided not to go on with it. You still got Sophie on the front. So, she’s actually been on the front for quite a while now. rider coming around the outside. I think that’s Tegan there from memory. I can’t quite make out the number.
Looks I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets this one as they get a bit of momentum off the end of the corner and Oh yeah, I think she did get it, but it was a was closer than I thought it was.
Or Shayla. That was
Yeah, Shayla must be must be right up there in the overall standings that they are sort of getting populated on the the scoreboard up there, but it’s just cycling through the
the overall.
So they gave that to Teague in that last front. Yep. Yeah. So, you see there like Shayaylor in second again uh like coming through this into the sprint lap and just constantly sort of up in that that pocket where you’re able to score points. Doesn’t look like she’s going to get any this time, but sort of the positioning was there. I think Ellen War’s probably going to get third here. I think she was um she was one with a few points there already as well. Oh, no. Never mind. Um
apparently not. So it was Tegan again winning that one. Just sliding back into the bunch now. Getting on a wheel trying to get a bit of recovery as you got me Baker back on the front now setting a pretty good tempo. They’re all strung out so you know the pace is actually on when they’re not bunched up in the single file like that. I could be mistaken, but obviously Meg won one of those early sprints and then didn’t really suit too much of it for a couple of those middle sprints and now back to the front wins another one. That can be another strategy to um really like pick your moments, go for a couple of sprints, make sure you score points in them rather than trying to score points in every single sprint and just getting tired and getting fourth or fifth in every every sprint where there’s just nothing for you.
Yeah. Yeah. And you see the pace there still as the race is going on between each sprint, there’s not that little lull anymore. There’s someone coming through forcing the pace, keeping the pace high. So you can actually see me that gone from winning that one to about fourth or fifth last in the bunch now. It’s so easy to get too far back with that pace staying on.
Yeah, it’s going to make it tough. There’s only only four laps left as we come through this time. So if you’re at the back of the bunch, it’s going to be difficult to get back to the front and score any more points. And it’s pretty tight at the top by the look of that overall scoreboard.
So that was Sophie getting that one as well from was I think was that Tegan in second again in that one? Yes, it was. Just waiting for the scoreboard to update in front of us so we can see the overall. So yeah, Tegan’s in the front now from Me and Sophie. They’re all tied on six points. So it it will potentially come down to the last sprint as we got a bit of a flyer here.
Yes.
Jess Thompson, I think it is.
That’s one of the moves we’re talking about. So I don’t think Jesse’s got too many points or maybe none so far, but this is really good move cuz she’s going to win this sprint. Now if she can keep this on, she’ll win the last sprint.
Yeah. And that’ll that’ll probably put her if those other girls don’t score any more points.
Yeah, that would put her on six. But because she won the last sprint, she’d won overall. So, she’s got a good lead coming into a lap and a quarter to go. And the chase is starting to tire. I think that’s Sophie Best in second position there leading the bunch, leading the chase. And that gap slowly starting to creep open. I think Jesse might hold on this for this last sprint. And I think you got Hannah Payne coming around the outside into second now. I don’t think any of those other girls that have scored points that were up the front. So, this could actually be quite interesting. It could be a four-way tie for the lead. So, it’ll come down to the last sprint then. Yes, I think um I think Jess might have uh might have got that
as in obviously she won the last two sprints, but I think she might have actually won the overall with that. So, I didn’t actually see who was second and third across the line on that last one. However,
I think Eva Wy might have been second on that last sprint. So, we’ll see here. So, it still haven’t updated after the last sprint. So, we’re just waiting for our scoreboard top update. Tell you what, you can see while there’s a whole bunch of uh commissers and people down the middle keeping track, I was just um yeah, watching it from up here and just confused as to who who had what. My people a lot smarter than us, mate. That’s for sure.
My memory is already gone. Still just waiting on that scoreboard to update. I think they’re just trying to work out confirm the results. Sorry. So, we think they’ve uh might have made a bit of a mess to some of those points for you watching at I think it doesn’t quite add up. Um, but yeah, Zach and I also struggling to count. So, I mean, we we can’t really do any better, can we?
I was a sprinter. That’s my excuse, mate. I can only count to four.
Yeah. I mean, I’ll just say I focus on the physiology, not not math. So, I mean, yeah. I mean, sometimes I I claim, yeah, we’ll have a master’s degree with mathematics in the title, but I still can’t count.
It’s what calculators form, mate.
Yeah, exactly. But you you remember what your uh high school teacher probably told you. You won’t be walking around with a with a calculator strapped to your leg all the time, will you?
No. No. Good thing I got my phone. Yeah. So, yeah, I think they’re still trying to work out down the infield there. Uh cuz we haven’t had any confirmation up on that scoreboard. So, as soon as we get that, we’ll let you know. Well, there’s the results for sprint nine. They’ve just put that. So, it was Jesse uh first, Evan Wyman second.
Yeah. And at least with the the final results we’ve got on screen, Jesse has taken it with like we said those winning those two sprints and being the the winner of the final sprint. That’s enough to to win the overall. So
goes to show you you’ve sort of got nothing through the whole race. It looks like you’re not doing well at all. You make the right move at the right time and that wins you the race.
Yeah. So Jesse won, Sophie Maxwell too, and it was uh Tegan in third, Meg Baker fourth I believe. So that was a really nice even race from all those girls.
Yeah. the top three riders all won the same points. But just goes to show like yeah that that final sprint can be can be everything if it uh comes down to that. Especially a relatively short race like that where you got similar riders scoring a lot of points and there’s uh I mean nine sprints is quite a few but it’s not a ton. So back up for the second ride of the match sprints here. So, uh, rolling back up now. So Sarah got the first ride of this. So she will be in wheel one for this one and Joseph will be up in wheel two. I didn’t notice that uh first time round. It’s actually a partis bike that um we got there in the in the front. It’s uh type of road bike my St. George team rides on the road.
You need to get yourself one there, mate.
No, I’ve got two of them at home. I’m actually trying to sell one. If anyone wants a about a 56 12 cm partis bike, Altegra Z2, hit me up. Need it gone. Scone wheels. We’ll uh we’ll get a little promo video up for you later, mate. Try and sell it for you. Anyway, back to the racing.
So, we’ve got Sarah on the front here. She’s nice and high and she’s almost she’s going to force Joseph actually underneath her to the front here. So, quite a nice move there from Sarah. It
was Joseph who uh made that that really early attack. um straight away in the in the first round. So, uh just thought thought better of it this time around.
Learn learned that it’s not always the best way in sprinting when you got these short turnarounds. Yeah, exactly. It’s uh it did look like a very painful sprint from from my view. It did go all the way like it was quite close the whole way through. So, you see the move here came from Sarah. She’s made the first move here. So, she wants to lead it out. Mate Joseph have to run at her and actually try and pass her. See Joseph starting to run a bit now down the back straight. Can actually see the difference in gears that these guys are on as well
with the different difference in cadence that they’ve got. So I think coming in the front straight, I think Sarah’s going to be too strong here and hold it off and he’s going to win the the second race. It was much closer though. It was um you Joseph playing it very differently that time getting much closer to the win that time around and to be honest I think uh a whole lot less painful way of doing it as well. But having said that, Sarah takes both wins and uh that will get her through to the next round or is that actually the B final?
So that’s the that will be the final I think for that one. So
for
Yeah, that’s the final for that.
Well, therefore she just takes it out.
Well done, Sarah.
I’ve just had a text message, Boris, that someone said they’ll give you a Hyundai for the bike. A Hyundai?
Yeah.
Um at the moment I’m asking three and a half grand. So,
oh I I’ll pass that on to the uh person who who uh messaged me that in. So, if they’d like to have a counter offer, please text in.
Maybe maybe 100 and also $3,400 cash on the side.
Okay. Well, we’ll we’ll see what he says. Three three and a half grand for shipping and 100 bucks. We’ve been told. I think that’s a bloody good deal. No pickup allowed. It has to be shipped for that price.
Yeah. No, no pickups. So, we’ve got next one here. We got Riley Forner and Aaron Green by the looks of it coming up. So, Erin is P1 for this one since they’ve swapped and Riley will be in P2. So, Riley’s off to the junior worlds as well next month. She’s our sole female sprinter, I believe. Go. She took out the took out the first ride of this. It was a It was quite a good tactical race from Remy though. I remember um I think it was just for you guys rides that it was um they both like were moving around the track a lot and it was quite close and really good to watch. So two of the upandcomers, future up andcomers in the women’s sprint ranks that we’ve got here. See Riley came down a bit quick there and nearly actually ran with the back of her wheel. So she had to do a bit of evasive action. thought she was going to going to just overtake on the on the cut there.
Got up the inside. So, no one actually gaining any height yet. Is that What’s the thoughts there, Zack?
Uh, it’s they’re both, I think, just still trying to sound each other out. I’d say Eron’s wanting to stay low and just try and keep the pace low. You can see they’re still not really going fast enough to stay on the track here. Coming in two to go. Uh quite often you’ll get the second wheel where we’ll gain a bit of height to try and force a bit of pace early and get a bit of separation, but Riley’s just happy to sit there and stalk her at the moment. Riley’s got quite a good acceleration on her, so she won’t mind it being slow as we’re starting to pick up the pace a bit now with Riley gaining some height. Aaron sitting there waiting and just waiting for Riley to dive and reacting. Riley’s got a lot of momentum from diving high on the track. has come through a lap to go. She’s got a good lead there now. Yep. And she’s well over pretty much at the 200 meter line. And here unfortunately from that position, there’s not a lot you can do when someone comes over you that fast. It’s so hard to come back.
There’s a very different race to the to the first one they they both had. So, but nice work there by Riley. She takes takes out both rounds of of uh the A plate final. for the bronze medal I should add. Next up, I think we’re going to have Ben Murphy and Miles Brena coming up. So, uh, Ben is the starter for the team sprint for the junior men’s. And I think Miles is the non-traveling reserve for that team. So both of these guys are sort of in and around that squad. So I’ve had a reply on the offer and I’ve been told that you’re dreaming. It’s a part of and and I mean it’s been written by me for one might make it go down in value to be fair but and they’ve offered to give you a set of tires for your car as well. What do they happen to work at VTNZ or something? I mean,
I can’t confirm or deny where they work, but they they’re’ve offered to give you a set of tires for your car. So,
well, I mean, that is Yeah, they are perishing. Oh, well, they might uh you might be able to come to an offer then or an agreement.
Tell you what, if I was to try and sell my car, I’d be asking for about $350 rather than three and a half grand. So, we’ve got Ben here in wheel one, Miles in wheel two. So, both of these guys are very, very polar opposites when it comes to sprinters. Miles comes from more of an endurance background on the road. Uh, he hasn’t been sprinting for too long. And, uh, Ben, on the other hand, is very twitchy, very good starter. Uh, backs his acceleration. So, this will be a bit of a tale of who of an arm wrestler of the two of them, of who can actually get the upper hand here. So, Ben won the won the first round here. Um, given what you just said about them, is this where you think potentially if you’re miles you sort of try something a bit bit long or something like
Yeah, you you’d be wanting to really try and push that pace early and try and and dull a bit of that excel that Ben’s got. Um, that’s definitely the upper hand Ben has. I think both these guys are quite similar on qualifying this morning timewise. So, you want to ride so like Miles in this situation here really wants to be trying to push the pace, gain some height, which will make Ben actually react and have to accelerate. So whereas Ben’s doing a beautiful job here of slowing it down, stalling him. Uh Miles, you can see he’s trying to get him to push that pace, but Ben’s just shutting it down. So the best thing Miles could do right now is actually just accelerate and try to go over Ben. So you can see him trying, but Ben’s I think got this covered here. Oh, this will be very interesting. So Miles up on the hip now at the belt. Ben’s really sticking his elbows out there. really make himself nice and wide and hard to pass. This is a good race. Yeah. So, Miles has been able to live out there, so this could be quite interesting. And Miles has got him. So, they’re going to go to three here. That was a great sprint and just commitment from Miles too for a long, long time. I thought I thought Ben was just going to really pull away having the inside line, but not the case. Great ride.
Yeah. So, Miles got him into that drag race, which is uh someone like him who’s a longer sprinter, they love that drag race sort of stuff. So, um, he did actually really, really well there, Miles, to get up there and draw Ben in early. Ben had to commit going through the bell, which was always going to hurt in that last half lap. So, really good racing from both those boys there. So in the next one we’ve got uh Piper Newton and Hazel Gardner. Hazel from TA. Pipers from uh Manawa 2. So Hazel won the first one of this. Both these girls were part of the under9 girl uh New Zealand girls team that raced the team sprint at the Oceanania Champs over in Aussie earlier this year. Picking up a silver medal, I believe. Both very different. Hazel comes from a BMX background, so she also does BMX. Very good uh starter, very explosive. Uh Piper lot more of a longdistance sprinter. Loves a Kieran. Uh quite similar to that previous match sprint we saw. We’ve got you know complete polar opposites. This could be quite interesting.
It’s really phenomenal the the power and acceleration of um well anyone riding BMX or anyone coming across from BMX. It’s
Yeah.
Then even even a one lap sprint is actually quite a long way for them.
Yeah. Any anything uh anything over a few seconds is a long way for a BMX. But yeah, they put out incredible uh force through those pedals. Bit bit different on the Vel drive. No, no jumps to go over and I suppose the the banking is a bit like a big boom, but
yeah, maybe in
a way. But straight down it,
but you see quite slow. Both staying low here. Might even see a track stand here, maybe potentially. See Piper in second there’s really she doesn’t want to take the front by the looks of it. She wants to stay back. Uh but this is just playing into the hands of uh Hazel right now. Keeping it nice and slow. Still not actually up on the track itself. They’re coming a long way actually through this match sprint to still be on the blue there.
Yeah, normally by now you see them on the track coming in two to go, but it’s they they are allowed to go on the uh on the blue band if it’s too slow to stay on the track. So you can see Hazel very clearly wants second wheel here. Keeping it nice and slow. I think Piper might be forced to go to the front here. This is definitely one of the more tactical races we’ve seen so far. Definitely. We’re one lap into the three laps. It’s been a been a lot of sort of slow motion jostling for position. It’s really interesting seeing what what each rider actually wants to do.
You see Piper here having to react to Hazel. Hazel’s gone nice and high, so she get a really good run off the banking. So Hazel gap, isn’t it?
Really big gap. Hazel was in an awesome position there. She was high on the track, had got all that free run off the track, off the top there of turn two down the back straight, whereas Piper was mid track, not going anywhere. It just makes it so much harder. So that’ll be Hazel going uh two nil up there against Piper. So, next up here we have Mini Collins versus Lily Cameron. So, looks like Mini will be wheel one for this. Lily will be wheel two. say as they come up. Oh no, it might be the other way around actually. We might have Nope. They’ll swap back over. It looked like Lillly was going to go to the bottom of the track there. So Minnie taking off from the uh in first place. Lily won the first one. So be interesting to see what Minnie’s got in reply in the second ride. Lily is a very good local rider here uh to Cambridge. She’s got pretty good little turn of speed on her as well. And uh Minnie from the Man 2 as well. She’s coming to her own and sprinting in the last sort of year or so. So she was the other member of that uh those three girls that went to Oshi’s for the New Zealand women’s team sprint with an under 19 team with Hazel and Piper. So let’s see what they’ve got in this one. Very similar to the last race. Just both uh coming into to one lap completed here. Still not actually up on the boards themselves.
So there there we see um Lily coming up to gain a bit of height. Very similar to the last race. In fact, it’s almost a carbon copy.
Definite carbon copy here. You see Minnie’s probably reacting a little bit more than the previous race and Lily hasn’t quite gone on with it as much. It’ll be interesting to see what happens here at top of turn two when they get to the back straight. And you see Lily just powering over the top. Still in the saddle. Phenomenal see the power from her there. And uh she’s showing that turn of speed. Minnie’s going to have to try and do something with this gap here. Having said that, Lily’s going to have been on the front for a long long time by the time we’re we’re coming into this back straight here. So Minnie had to come off a bit of a dead wheel there. She got sucked in early. So it makes it really hard when you get down the end of the back straight unless you’ve got that nice run. So I think Lily’s going to take this one from Minnie
and we’ll go two nil up from that one. Yeah. So, I believe that puts her It’s saying final, so I assume I assume she’s won that. But then it says heat, too. Sorry. I’m not quite sure where we’re at in this competition.
Yeah, we are. Our paperwork here is a bit all over the place, unfortunately. So, we’re told uh someone is uh scratching from this heat. Believe Caitlyn Kelly according to what we’ve uh devised from our paperwork here which is a little bit suspect. So basically they have to roll up to the line start obviously no competition shows up and therefore they declared the winner of this this ride. Don’t don’t quote us on that that it is Caitlyn because uh we aren’t too sure with our paperwork yet. But that is definitely 10 that’s rolled over. So and we believe it is Caitlyn that’s not starting. So that seems to be correct. So Tin will take the win in this one and he’ll roll to the back straight and pop off his bike. He’s presenting to the line and then we’ll move on to the next race. Okay, so we confirmed Caitlyn winners in this race against Leighton. So, uh, that was James that did not start in that last one. Our apologies. I think we need to apologize, Zach. It’s It’s whoever’s uh printed off this paper that’s clearly wrong.
Yeah. Giving us this dodgy paperwork. So, yeah. be Caitlyn versus Leighton here. So, Caitlyn will be P1. Lane will be P2. So, this will be the first of the gold medal rides. It be a best of three. Should be quite a good race between these two. Kaitlin’s been to Junior Worlds previously for New Zealand. Now moving more into the elite ranks. I mean quite a quite a tough step up that going from especially in track cycling. You basically have juniors and then straight into elites. Like it’s a Yeah, there’s not much of a bridge in between. So that’s where events like this are great. you actually get a bit of racing with uh for someone like Caitlyn, she’s getting to race some of the guys. So, gives her that little step up as well without that pressure so she can try things, learn it. And uh I remember the great Christina Vogle used to always train with the uh German juniors over in Germany and she was phenomenal. So, it’s it’s a great benefit for the girls when they can step up and race some of the guys as well. Yeah, I remember again it would have been or 2020 or 2021 there was uh I think it was 2021 there was the the girls Madison period was actually racing against the under 19 boys Madison here at NTS and um yeah again just gave them a really good good competition especially that time when there was no competition. Anyway, the sprint’s kicking off here. So Leighton’s going to awesome move ducking underneath Caitlyn there. So they’re coming into the bell now and uh you can see Caitlyn’s trying to come back. Leighton’s going to try and gain a little bit of height there to drop down and keep her a bit close. But Caitlyn’s starting to get a run at her down the back straight, but I don’t know if she’s going to be able to come back. Leon looks like he’s finishing quite strong, getting that gear moving. So, good ride there from uh from Leighton. And that’ll be a really good experience as well for Caitlyn having to race one of the boys, too. So being a bit more aggressive than some of the girl uh girls racing is usually the guys they tend to go for gaps that sometimes aren’t exactly gaps. Uh so it’s good good experience for a Just waiting for the next sprint now as Leighton and Caitlyn just slowly wind down. So, here they come up. It’s looks like it’s Jared and Flynn coming up for this next one. restaurant two. So, the boys just strapping themselves in to their pedals now. So, once they’ve done that, they’ll roll on up. So, it should be uh quite a good one. Uh both these guys pretty evenly matched in qualifying. So, uh it’ll be really good sprint for both of them, I think. Wonder if we’ll see a bit of laughing from Flynn like we did in the last one with Kaio.
Depends how good Jared’s jokes are, I guess.
Yeah. Now it looks all business from the two of them here this time around. Not too much steering in each other. Here we go.
There’s a little smirk. I think I saw there little bit of a smirk. So nice and slow. Seeing Jared’s just sitting nice and close to him there. Flynn being a bit bigger as well and heightwise. He gives a quite good amount of draft when they get speed as well. So it’s not a bad place to be. Jared sort of yeah really sitting on the hip which is uh He’s not really trying to take the front, but he clearly doesn’t want to want to gap to really open up to Flynn. So, nice reasonable pace now coming through. Two to go. Nothing not too fast, but just comfortable. You can see Jared now he’s guarding gain a wee bit of uh wee bit of height there and bit of pace moving him around. Is it is it just an optical co illusion or is it um am I correct? It looks like Jared rides a rides a fairly big gear all the time.
Yeah, definitely a bit bigger than uh Flynn there looking at it as Flynn stands up again. Jared’s coming in with nice good run of steam here. So, he might hit him perfectly and he actually does. I think Flynn’s just kicked again. So, Jared’s going to get stuck a bit now. Yeah, looked like Jared had done a lot of things right there, but maybe if he got that run, the same run, but on the back straight rather than the front straight, maybe it would have been different. But yeah,
yeah, Flynn with that second kick just able to accelerate in the seat and just stop Jared really ever being able to get the momentum around the outside there.
It’s a good ride there. Flynn takes that one.
So, here we go one up before the boys come back out for the best of three. So, it looks on our sheet next we’re going to have Kyo and Jackson. So, that’ll be a really good race. Two really good bike handlers there. Just got word from the infield. I think a few of the riders are starting to feel it a wee bit. A few of the sprinters. Been a pretty long day for them. So, they’ll be a few of them to sleep well tonight before having a backup for those Kings tomorrow. That’s for sure. But the work’s not done yet for a lot of them. I’ve still got a one to two, maybe even three for some of them yet to come. matchments come still to go. So, got to get the job done first. Yeah,
it’s a hard one with track cycling, too. Often you’ll you’ll finish relatively late at night and then obviously you got to got to cool down, got to go home, have something to eat, try try to wind down and things like that and then then come out not super early, but relatively early like tomorrow morning. So,
yeah. And and perform. And a lot of these sprinters as well, they tend to have quite long drawn out warm-ups as well. So, they’ll normally be here an hour and a half before they’re riding at a minimum. So, you know, if it’s a early start, they’re here even earlier. Usually, they’re the first ones in the valadrome, the last to leave. Half of that’s cuz they talk too much and they like to sit around. So, it looks like Kyo is going to draw P1 here for the start. So, yeah,
he’s definitely laughing a lot, isn’t he?
Yeah, he is. He’s He’s got the smirk on Kyo, that’s for sure. Se it looks like he might be selling a joke there. Pretty serious to be fair from the boys. So yeah, it was it was all uh all after until about 10 seconds before to go and then then it definitely got quite serious.
It’s a tough one when you someone you you train and race with so much and then you you got to race against them. It’s an interesting dynamic.
Yeah, definitely. It makes it you you know them so well. Uh, so you sort of know what they’re going to do, but also still it makes it hard because they know what you’re going to do as well. So, it’s a really good arm wrestle actually when you end up racing people you train with all the time. And plus, both these guys are awesome bike handlers. They can do some pretty cool stuff on a bike. Both these fellas at low and high speeds. So, this would be good. You I’d imagine that uh Jackson will want to keep it a bit slower than Kyle. Um, Kyle probably wants a bit of long one. He loves getting it in some of the endurance racing. loves an elimination that boy. So you can see them now maybe a little touch wheels there.
It’s definitely close. You sort of see Ky flick up the track as Jackson was sort of making a run down. Here we come into the bell lap.
Held it up well though. So yeah, coming through the bell now. Ky is accelerating. You see Jackson’s just waiting, biting his time for that run. And he’ll start that run now. Looks like he’s going to try and aim to slot off him and front straight and pop over him.
Always very hard on this track to do that. But he’s done. Oh, look. All right, I think Jackson got that one.
Very well timed run if he did. It’s uh Cambridge is quite a hard track to do that in sprinting to the in the front straight. It’s not that long. So, you’ve got to time that run really, really well to get over them
and they gave it to Jackson, too. He did it really good job. It’s close, but yeah, I was pretty sure that’s what it was on the line. But having said that last time I was up here from the uh the C2 racing last year, um basically every time there was a photo finish, I was wrong. So, oh well, you got that one right, mate. That was good practice. So
yeah, like you say, like a track like Cambridge sort of slightly longer corners and and shorter straights, so bit less time to come off the corner. Yeah, a little bit less time. Somewhere in a bit nicer to pass. Um and just here as well, you spend that time in the corner. It actually gives you more time to uh screw that run up and hit them too early. So that was really really well done by Jackson. Sort of shows how many laps he’s probably done on this track in training, running at people like Kyo in training and also running at the motorbike in efforts. So, uh, it was really well done. We’ve got Luke Blackwood, Liam Kavanagh now coming up. So, it looks like Liam’s drawn P1 for this first one and Luke in P2. These two guys were I think the junior world’s medalist a few years ago in the team sprint. So both gear getting ready to uh show each other what they can do. They they train together. Obviously I said earlier Lamb’s had a bit of a extended time off with injury. So uh maybe that time off’s given a bit of time to have a think of some new tactics that he might be able to race with. And you can see he’s probably implementing a few of them here that today given how well he’s gone in the sprints. Yeah, I don’t don’t know all the details of that injury, but believe it was tibia and fibia was it?
Yeah, I’m not too sure. I know there was there was something like that. So,
I know it was pretty horrific and a lot a lot of time and rehab to to come back from that. So, I mean, especially when you think of basically a break like that and then the the training these sprinters do, not not so much on the bike, but in the gym and the loads they’re sort of putting through bones and everything like that to like Yeah, the amount of time and and recovery that takes to be able to even train for this sort of sport again is to to actually be back already is quite phenomenal to be honest.
Yeah, a lot of these sprinters lift some serious weights in the gym. It’s pretty impressive. Uh if you ever want some good viewing, sit in the stands here at the Veladrome and watch them in a gym session. and you’ll be uh pretty impressed what these boys can and girls can lift. So, coming through two to go here, it’s pretty slow. See Liam slowing it up quite nicely. Luke obviously want to pace a little bit more, being a bit more of that longer distance sprinter. You can see he’s starting to gain a bit of height and accelerating as he’s doing that, which is having to cause Liam to react. So, pace is starting to come up really nicely now for for Luke in second. But, uh Liam’s doing an awesome job of covering him. So, Luke just laying off now waiting to get a good run. Liam saw that though and matched it. So it’s going to be pretty hard work for Luke, but he is coming. Just maybe might be running out of a bit of room and he does about half a bike length. So he’ll have to come back in the second ride.
It looked like Luke had a Luke had the right idea there. It looked like he did everything.
He did all the things correct just not quite at the correct time. Maybe just left a fraction too late.
Yeah, too late on that run. It it Liam did really well there though. He was he he saw that Luke was gaining height uh through turn one and two after the bell when he he just waited to match that run down the back straight which just makes it a little bit harder and delays that run for Luke to come at him. So uh well ridden by Luke but really really well ridden by uh by Liam there. So I think this is our last sprint coming out. This will be quite interesting. It’s Tom Choy versus Alex Schuler. Two guys going to junior worlds for different countries. So, this will be uh could potentially be of some a sort of a dress rehearsal for something that you might see in a month’s time at the Junior World. They’ve done a lot of racing against each other, these two, so they know each other very, very well. Uh Tom with obviously the bit of the edge of the speed. Um so, we’ll see how they go in this one. Tom’s drawn one by the looks of it and Alex is two. And as you mentioned, they’re going for different countries, but uh despite the fact he’s wearing an Italian skin suit, Alex Schuler is going for New Zealand, not not he isn’t going for Italy. No. Yeah. Yeah. Just to clear that one up. Yeah, I think that’s Alex’s favorite skin set. He wears it all the time. I think he’d probably wear it to bed if he was given the chance. I think it was a couple couple of tents that separated these guys or two and a half tents this morning. So, uh, close enough that Alex could probably do something here, but also enough that Alex, uh, that sorry, Tom has a bit of a safety net if there is a mistake or Alex catches him by surprise. So, should be a pretty good race this one. Nice and slow off the line. And see, Tom just doesn’t take his eyes off Alex at all. So, still pretty slow as we’re coming in down the backstroke with two and a half to go. See, Alex starting to gain a little bit of height there. Just both of these guys will be sounding each other out. And Tom’s not really interested in games. He’s saying to Alex, he’s saying, “If you want the front, mate, you have it. I’m equally happy at the back. Not too much of a fight for for Alex to um he just kind of took the front when it was was an offer. He didn’t really go into a track stand.
Yeah, Tom Tom does race a lot from two if you watch a lot of his races. So, he’s very very good at maneuvering someone round and um so he he wouldn’t have minded taking the back at all. So, he’s got a bit of height here. Alex is going to have to be careful here because it’s it’s slow and he’s mid track and he needs to react well and he just hasn’t really reacted there. So Tom’s just blown straight over him.
Looked like he was like Alex was caught napping a little bit there. I think Tom was was basically past them by the time Alex actually reacted and saw what was happening there. So Tom’s actually shut this down almost. You see there and so is Alex. So they’ll have to come out for the next one. And that completes I think the first ride of these finals for the match sprints
believe so. So I think we’re into B-grade men double tempo. So the same as we saw for the women before but uh just with the B-grade men and then followed by the A grade men of the same thing. So B-grade men 4 km race and a grade A grade men 5 km race. So same distance as we saw with the woman before. Yeah. So, this will be fast and intense like the women’s one. And uh yeah, these guys won’t have hold any prisoners, that’s for sure. So, just rolling around now. So, they’ll come around, get in their order on the fence or if they’re held on the blue band. Although, it doesn’t look like there’s any holders up here. So, they might be all on the fence to be to be fair. So, So, we just had confirmation there was a some sort of technical glitch or little issue they’re having with the scoreboard on that that women’s race. They’ve said they’ve they’ve sorted it out for this one. So hopefully we’ll actually be getting the the three two and one points actually going up properly this time and we’ll be able to keep track of it a little bit better. So I don’t think with us not being able to count Zack I blame I blame the people in the middle.
Yeah. Yeah. Well that’s easy. We’ll go with that mate. Bit smaller field here as well. So they’ll you’ll have the ability to win a sprint and pop back in for a sprint or two to recover here and not actually be too far away from the front of the bunch. So probably might be a couple of different tactics to what was in the girls ones given that’s a bit smaller of a field. Yeah, definitely. You can can actually go to the back of a field like this and you probably miss the next sprint, but by by the the following one you might actually be back towards the front. Whereas if you got a got a larger field like I think we might have in the the Arab men after this. Yeah, much bigger field. you go to the back of that, it’s going to be really hard to get back to the front.
Especially with the pace being on, I’d say my bet, especially for the A grade men, is I don’t think they’ll let up in between. They’ll just be on from the guns. So, be interesting to see if these boys in the B-grade whether they do the same or whether they they have that little bit of a low, especially after the first couple of sprints, just sounding everyone out seeing what everyone’s plan is. So, there we go. Just just had the gun go. So, we’re underway. So again, we’ve got three laps with no points awarded and then we’ll be we’ll get a bell after they’ve done three laps and then we’ll be awarding points every second lap thereafter. Reminder, three, two, and one for first, second, and third across the line in every sprint, which is every two laps once we start sprinting. So see, they’re just um jostle a bit for position now. The guys that were at the back, uh they’ll be starting to try and move up a bit. Uh try and either follow a wheel up or if you’ve got to make a move, the best times to make a move is early in the race with the paces and all. get get further up. So, see that a couple of moves going around the outside. It’s definitely a good way to get to the front. Although, having said that, if you use all your energy to get to the front, by going around the outside, you sort of in the end, you got nothing left for the sprint, you actually don’t gain anything anyway. Having said that, those couple of riders who did move around the outside, they’re in a in a good position as we come through here to to get the bell for going into our first sprint. Yeah. So, you’ve got Jack Allen around coming around the outside there, the big fella
and he’s really putting the gas on, too. He’s opened up a bit of a gap, which is quite good for the rider on the front. They actually get a bit of a wheel to run at now. So,
looks like he’s going to take that first sprint quite convincingly. Be interesting to see here is he what’s he going to do? He’s going to swing up the field.
That’s Jonathan Ble the second. He’s going to come back. He’s actually been on the front most of this race. So, he’s doing a lot of work early on.
You see there just Jack Helen. Well, he didn’t get much draft, but he’s actually uh basically managed to take a little bit of a rest and then one lap to go hit the front again. So, he’s going to try and do the same again.
And the other guys that were on the front, they’ve slotted back into fourth and sixth, respectively. So, you see how easy it is to just get stuck back when you lap off, especially coming into a sprint lap.
There’s actually quite a good battle going on for that last point here. Jack Allen got that
and Leo, I think it was in second.
Yeah. And Luke Herbert, I think, was in third, managed to get that little sprint. So they’re actually there’s a bit of a split going on now. Although they’ve lapped up. So
looks like Jack Jack might have realized this and he’s going to carry it on a little bit though.
He’s doing it hard the the big fella. That’s for sure with uh I think that was uh in second Jonathan Ble again on the bench. So he’s come back after that earlier sprint. I
think he’s going to going to roll him for this one. Yep. Yeah, I think he is. So I think Jack’s maybe just done a bit too much work early. So he’s going to have to try and get on a wheel now and try and recover before the last couple of sprints.
Having said that, he’s still got second in that sprint, but he hasn’t reacted to this little move that’s going at all and bunch of splitting two. So he’s he’s suddenly on the back foot just taking those first couple of sprints just from brute force, but it’s uh potentially paying the price for it now. So here we come through coming into Oliver Clark on the front I think there. So he’s done a really good move there and he split the race up massively with three guys off the front or two and one just holding on. Yes, this is the thing. If even if you’re not up there in those first two, just like we or those first few sprints like we saw in the women’s race, you make a good move at the right time like this and all of a sudden you can take the take the remaining sprints and actually still win the race.
So, I think it’s Harrison Coulter is the second rider with him there.
Who’s who’s there rider about 20 meters off the back of these two? He’s doing it hard, but he’s going to going to still be picking up a point each time at the moment. It’s number 48.
That’s James Turnill doing an awesome ride. He’s got to keep going though. He’s looking back. He needs to keep going cuz if he keeps going here, he’s going to pick up this and he might be able to hold on for that last one point. So So Oliver Clark takes that that one again.
These guys are lapping out really nicely. But you notice Oliver is he’s actually positioning. He’s happy to take the sprint lap. So he’s keeping uh making it easier for himself. Although he’s struggling to hold back onto the wheel now. And James Turnbull, he see he’s gone back into the bunch now. He’s got a bit too hard. He’s actually struggling to hold on to the main bunch now. So, there’s going to be an interesting sprint for third. Now,
the good thing is though, haven’t gone too hard in this race. As long as you don’t get lapsed, which is very, very unlikely with only two laps remaining, then it’s not really an issue cuz it’s points. It’s not about where you finish in the final one. So, a bit of a swap around for these front two.
Yeah. So, Harrison won that one. So, this could be quite interesting going into the last sprint. Oh, very number I think it was number 63. It was Le Oay got the got the third place in that one. So, here we come into the final lap of the race.
Both these guys are hanging on for it. Looking up at the scoreboard, seeing where they are in position. Just keep getting to the last sprint though. Haven’t actually seen the overall standings at the moment. But here we go. Half a lap to go. That’s Oliver Clark starting to open it up to come around the outside. But then there’s a kick underneath him.
No, he’s got it.
Oh, he’s got it. Y
Yep. Over the top. Just just had enough. It’s going to be an interesting battle for third though.
That’ll that should win him the overall. Oh, I think that was Liam again getting the third there. So, he’s done really well to get two/3s there. Although potentially, we’ll see what the result once the scoreboard updates to the last one. I think it’s might be quite tight actually with the points that Jack Allen got early on. Oh, true, true. Although having said that, I think I think once it updates, I still believe Oliver Clark will be equal on points
with uh with Jack.
Yeah, he will.
And again, same thing, winning the last sprint. If you’re even on points, that’s what counts. So, he’ll win the overall.
Really good ride from both those fellas there. Two polar opposites when it comes to the tactics, but uh really, really well ridden by both them. So, it was awesome to see. It shows you really in the basically in any race where it’s points based like you can go out early and get a bunch of points and blow up and as long as you don’t get lapped then you can still get a really good result. And likewise if you’re halfway through and you’ve got nothing but then you you sort of use your endurance or the fact you’re fresher to make a move and still come back and uh sort of win that way or get yourself into the standings that way which obviously is not the case in something like a like a normal scratch race.
Go out early in a scratch race and blow up and you just uh just have have a painful death. Yeah, it’s not it’s never fun. So, we’re still waiting on confirmation of that one for them to update the results, but uh I think we’ve got a coming out shortly. So, the beautiful thing for the sprinters right now is they’re actually getting a fair bit of recovery with these long endurance races. So, they won’t be complaining, that’s for sure. So start rolling up now the Agrade men’s. It’s a big field this one. And now on our one, it’s uh we got it’s 20 laps and nine sprints for these ones.
Same 321 every three laps. Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a different race dynamic here. Just just like we’re talking about before with such a big field and and quite a bit of depth to this field, too. So, it’s one you really don’t want to go to the back of in such a short race with points being awarded so often. Yeah. And these guys won’t be messing around. Quite a few. There’s the Junior Worlds boys are in this. Uh some previous ones as well. You know, you’ve got Magnus Jameson there and Devin Brooks, one of the top par athletes. He’s in the field as well. Yeah, we’ve also got uh oh um sorry if I pronounced this wrong, but um Kieran Woodry from uh from New Calonia. He was at the Oceanana Champs. Actually got a I think a bronze medal in the points race there. He rode really well. He came out here a couple of months ago just um just for some training and now he’s back again. Is he is he uh I think he’s preferring for actually French nationals from memory. Anyway, he’s basing himself here. He’s obviously they do have drrome in in New Calonia and Numeia there, but it’s it’s concrete and it’s outdoor and it’s very bumpy. So coming here to train and actually be able to train on indoor track is a real game changer for for athletes like himself. So it’s good for a good mix as well of young guys in this field as well. See some of the guys there, they’re just, you know, under 17 still like been some boys in there. So it’s really really good mix. So um got some a couple of elite boys and some under 17 second years. So it’s uh yeah going to be quite good good little mix. Yeah, nice and slow on the uh neutral left for them as well. So there we go. Run away. So same again. Three laps where there’s no points awarded. You can attack though. It’s not neutral. Um you can still jo position. You can go off the front. You can do anything you like. Uh but just no points awarded until you cross that line at the end of the fourth lap. So two laps until we sort of we’ll get a bell. Nice and tight in that midfield there as well. They’re all starting to jostle position.
Yeah, Max Allen just trying to increase the pace there on the front. It’s a it’s a good move in terms of just stringing the race out a bit, but it’s also quite a bit of energy when there still still a lap before they get a bell for to actually start getting points. Having said that, he has swung up. So, he’ll try and slot back into the front of the bunch, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be too keen to let him in there. And you can see as well there’s a bit of a train coming around the outside. to see Magnus. I think it is just popped popped out to the front of that.
Yeah, that’s Magnus Jameson there in the south on skin suit. So, he’s in about fifth position at the moment. We just had the bell, so first points are awarded at the end of this lap. Oh, what a move.
Yeah, Kale from New Calonia. That’s a very, very moving. He’s taking the race. No one’s really bit sluggish to respond. You can see them slowly respond in the bunch. He’s going to carry it on, too. So,
I think it was Remy Dalton there in second, I think. has swung up.
No, swung up. So, we get the bell again this time. That’s Benson Boy on the front.
Yes, he’s been on the front for a long time, but as long as you don’t get get rolled by too many people, you’re still going to pick up points.
Very, very talented young rider as well, Benson from down south. He’s got a bright future ahead of him, that boy.
I think he just held on for second place in that one. Yeah, I think that was Robert Turbo over the top and he’s come over with some pace.
Yeah, he’s really carried it on. So, he doesn’t hasn’t split the field too much yet and he has swung up, but that’s a good move to see if there’s any cracks appearing. See if you can get a small group off the front and then just have to fight with less people. That’s Josh Grieve has come to the front now as we get the bell again. So, he’s just kicked kicked a little bit trying to trying to take this one out. And that split that was in the bunch has just come back together now, but there’s a bit of an accordion effect going on and off here. So they’re letting four of them go to compete for the sprint. So these boys realize this the four off the front. They might be able to go with this cuz the bunch isn’t really interested in chasing. I think they’ve realized and they’re going on with it.
I think that was Oliver Ke. Yeah, it was Oliver Ke who just took that one out. But yeah, we’ve got four riders off the front now. Josh Griev second there really fighting to hold the wheel.
Jamie Henderson over the top.
Number 45 Jamie Henderson looks like take this one. and he’s really forcing the pace in this sort of this front group of four riders. Yeah, starting to split them apart which could be a little bit to their detriment still with 10 laps to go. So, it’s long enough racing. They’ve all started swinging up. No one really wants to take the lead.
Oliver Keith is going to going to try to keep it going here. And you got fourth in that one. So no points remember but if you can stay off the front with these guys and pick up points in the subsequent sprint instances probably a lot better chance in a group of four than a group of 20 odd in the whole bunch. You
see the bunch starting to slowly come back. I think those guys out front have used quite a bit of their energy now. So they they’ll survive for this one but I think the uh the bunch if they they get their act together they might be able to come back. I think is that Robert Turn on the front of the bunch really trying to bring it back now? It’s the two counties man riders at the front there.
Jamie and I think that might have been Alex Botha maybe. Not sure who got that sprint. She was pretty tight. Y Magnus on the front of the the main bunch now trying to get them up and they are starting to come but it might again be a little bit too late for the sprint. They might be able to get the last two. Remy Dalton just trying to come around the outside. is not quite going to be able to get there, I think. So, I think Josh is going to take that one.
That was Alex Bo, I think, got that second and Jamie got stuck, but he’s he’s revitalized a little bit now as Jamie. So, they might be able to actually hold on here for the next one. In fact, that that gap’s definitely going back on going back out. Oliver Ke has just been dropped from this front group. So he’s uh he’s been swallowed by the bunch, but this front trio is still just doing a a great job of just sharing the points between them. Now
they’re holding on very well. So they’ll get definitely uh it might be able to hold on for the next one, but that bunch is just eking its way back slightly. Alex Bother I think that one again is just uh very tight on the line, but uh I think he was pretty confident in getting it and just a little bike through to make sure of it. And now they’re all back swarmed in the bunch. So what we’ll wait now for another move. There might be one coming over the top now. So looks like Nicholas Smith who’s leading out this time. And then we have Who’s that coming around the outside? He’s going well. He’s he’s absolutely hauling around the outside. That’s Riley Crampton there. He’s taking that sprint. That was a good turn of speed. Now it’s going to be interesting. You got Magnus starting to come on the outside of the bunch looking looking to try and lead it. And I think is that Remy on the inside? Yeah, it is Remy, I think. Yep. So, this is going to be interesting. Two speeders on the front of the bench right now coming for this last sprint. Magnus is starting to run. Has he left it too late? Well, he gets him in the end for the last sprint. He does get it there, but I saw Magnus at the front of the bunch a lot. Look who’s in good position, but I don’t think he picked up any points.
Too many points. No, I don’t think so either. So, that was a really nice race there by them by the boys.
Definitely a different dynamic, that bigger bunch. Everyone just carrying on after sprints and just the aggression you see in in an Ara men’s field that uh to be honest, half the time some of the attacks, I’m not sure they actually know why they’re attacking. They just just want to get out there. Typical teenage boys, they just want to give it a nudge. So, I think the blood goes to the head and they just start going. So, just waiting on uh confirmation on the overall results there. Well, people smarter than us work out who got where. So, I think we’re moving in next to the second rod of the sprints, I believe. I
think that’s correct. We’ve got the program here. Yep, that is correct, Zach. So they’re just currently checking uh where who got where and what sprints so give us the uh overall total. This is quite cool the the setup up here. So, um Damian Payne set set everything up for uh for basically all this live streaming and commentary and whatnot. But you can basically see what the commissers are doing. So, you can actually see the the photo finished camera. Yeah, right. Pretty interesting actually seeing uh basically what the commissers are actually going through at the moment. Having a having a look at what happened in that last race and who they would excuse me award the points to and the uh the sprinters will not be mining this extra couple of minutes of recovery either. So uh they’ll be thanking all the enduro boys that are out there now. How would a sprinter think of this then in terms of like a warm up and and stuff like that? So, for instance, as an endurance rider, you get a bit of a delay or something like this. It can be depending on how long it goes. It’s a little annoying kind of warmed up, ready to go like with the sprinters just be happy for the extra time or they they kind of want to they want to kind of get going cuz they’ve warmed up as well.
It it depends on the rider. Some riders very much they want to be there right at the right moment, have you know, x amount of time in the chair before they go up. Um but for the most part, a lot of them would they would have been on the rollers just keep keeping warm. Um they’ll have leg warmers on um even though it’s you know it’s not cold in here but just to keep that heat in the muscles and so they’ll just be sitting in the chair relaxing you know um warmed up ready to go. If we had a 5 to 10 minute delay they might go and jump back on the road bikes on the infield like you see a couple of the guys rolling around. I think uh there’s currently Liam and uh maybe Luke rolling around on the roadies. For the most part, they’ll just be sitting there happy to just have a little bit extra cover, especially those ones that had a pretty hard sprint like a couple of them we saw earlier. So, in in between racing for sprinters, it’s more about just just keeping warm and uh trying to recover as and and you know, as much as possible and you keeping warm with least amount of effort put in as possible. So, like I say, the the lazy sprinters for a reason. Yeah. And again, they can uh basically go a lot deeper and actually hurt themselves a lot more than your average endurance rider, but then their capacity to recover is a lot lot less as well. So, kind of Yeah. So, why you see uh Yeah. totally different different sort of dynamic after each race.
Yeah. Yep. You’ll see. Yeah. Typically, when a sprinter has had a pretty hard race, more more so a kilo or a pretty hard fast Karen. Um, but you sometimes see it as well when you you have match sprints really close together and they go to three, you quite often see a sprinter uh next to the rubbish bin or uh on the ground and lying looking lifeless. Um whereas you just would have seen most of those endurance boys getting off having a laugh talking to each other whereas quite often you don’t see sprinters doing that. They head straight for the bucket. Um that’s how hard they can push themselves. Yeah. Thankfully I’ve uh not had to experience that myself. It just Yeah. don’t have the fast switch fibers to Yeah. Lucky lucky for some mate. Yeah. Yep. It’s a uh it’s a very unique feeling a sprinter doing something like a kilo. It’s uh
Yeah. I remember I got told once uh sprinters hurt, enduro suffer. I think that’s pretty true.
It’s a good way to describe it. Yeah. I think yeah your average endurance rider sort of basically because that they don’t have the ability to sort of go to that depth of essentially like acidity and the muscle and things like that. You just don’t quite understand like how can an endurance rider will go do a max effort for one minute and they go hard but like
yeah just the pain they feel and everything like that is completely different.
Yeah, completely different. So I think we got a third ride coming up here um between uh Miles and Ben. So they’ll they’ll redraw for the third ride. Um obviously they swap between positions from the first ride to the second ride, but the third ride they’ll redraw again. And uh by the look of it, how they’re getting on the bike there. I think Miles might have drawn wheel one and Ben will be wheel two. So this this will be interesting. Ben having to back up being quite a twitchy sprinter. He might suffer in that regard. Miles being a bit more of an endurance sprinter. He’ll be wanting this the shorter recovery. He he would have been the one down there pushing to try to get those endurance boys off the track quicker. So, uh this will be quite interesting from these two. Little bit of a steer down from Miles there. Ben’s not too interested. Already see straight away. Little bit more pace off the start there from Miles. Definitely looks like he’s keen to crack into it pretty quickly here. Ben gaining a bit of height there as well. See, Miles is still kicking on with it a bit, though. So, I think this will be quite an interesting uh match up, these two. Ben will obviously want to try and slow it down as well. Use that fast twitch. The advantage he’s got over Miles. A
bit of a bit of a fake there from Miles. Then, he actually opens it up with a lap and 3/4 to go. So, he is definitely trying to go long. Yeah, Ben’s having to recover here, although Ben might get stuck on the outside here if Miles matches this. This could be quite interesting if Miles holds on there.
It doesn’t look like he’s going to though. Ben’s actually got the Sprinters lane now. And I don’t think Miles’s going to come back from this. Having said that, he’s
he’s coming. He’s coming back. This could be quite close on the line.
Ben is tying up a bit.
Yep. Oh, Miles maybe got that.
I definitely spoke to you soon. I’d say Miles did get that. And if if not, then it was remarkably close. What a ride
that was. If he got that, that’s a phenomenal comeback for being passed at the bell to come back like that. It’s
Miles got it. We’ve just got told far out. Great ride from both the fellas there. That was awesome.
I think that’s a great example of just using using your your strengths to win, too. Just just knowing that going long is is going to be your advantage over over your opponent.
He almost you could almost baited him into it to going long there. And you could see Ben just he went Ben almost probably would have been better just to to lay off get a bit of height at one and a half and just run at him through the bell nicely. Instead he he sort of panicked a bit and went over did get over him really really well but I think Miles just backed the fact that he was going to tie up there and um that was that was an awesome ride. Yeah, the way the way Ben came around the outside I thought thought if he didn’t get into the sprinters lane he was going to have a tough time but when he got into that sprinters lane I thought thought that was the end of the race. But yeah, great ride there from both of them and and yeah, Miles takes that one out. Next one here, we got back to Leighton versus Caitlyn here. So, these guys are going to actually Miles and Ben might actually have quite a short recovery now since they went to three. What was that? The
So, that was the plate final. Oh, so they
I think that’s them for the for the night, isn’t it? So that they’re done now, aren’t they? Yep. So correct that. Thought one of them might have to be coming back up in a very very short space of time. So obviously James earlier pulled out of this. So Tim came up and presented the line. He doesn’t have to do that for the second ride. So we’re straight into this one. Uh swapping positions. Leon has won now. the man from Manowat and Caitlyn is into P2 here. Leen did a very very good move underneath with one and a half to go in the first ride. So it’ll be quite interesting to see what tactics they use in this one.
Caitlin’s not giving him not giving him an inch at the moment. So, both moving up the track here on the back straight, just trying to gain height. Doesn’t look like they’re they’re really too keen to get on with it here. Leighton is just starting to starting to accelerate as he goes into the corner. You see now here they’ve gaining a bit of height. Caitlyn’s actually stalking Leon really, really well here. And she’s made an awesome move there. And I think she’s got underneath him.
Yeah, very good move. Sprinter’s lane with momentum. Leon’s going to going to get on the wheel. He’s going to have a good run at her. But that was a very good move by Caitlyn. He’s going to have to really try now, but he’s on a bit of a dead wheel here. So, this could He’s making life hard for himself late in down the back straight. And Caitlin’s actually powering on. Really awesome. She’s got the inside line. He’s spent a lot of time up above the sprinters lane now. So, it’s going to be going to be to him out having Yeah, he has got it. But actually a great ride by Caitlyn there. Like,
yeah, she raced that awesome. That was amazing ride by Caitlyn. Leen will go two nil up in that. But, uh, very, very good ride by Caitlyn there. Like we were saying before, like you have Caitlin racing the guys in this, it does make it difficult from a from a physical perspective, but being able to like play out the tactics like that and stuff is is still like a great way to develop and learn.
Yeah, really really well written there by Caitlyn. I think next one we’re going to go Flynn and Jared Man. So, I think from memory, Jared took the the last one of these out. Had a a really good run and just
it was Flynn, was it?
Yep. They just updated the uh the score sheet up there.
What one am I thinking of?
I’m not sure. I hate to cut you off, mate, but
No, I swear. I was I was just about to ask. I hope you know who won the last one cuz I wasn’t too sure. So, I don’t know. I’ve created a
Can we get a replay here, Dammo?
Are we able to get a replay of the last race of who won? I feel like Jared won something earlier that I’ve I’ve uh yeah, completely mixed up in my head. All right, we have Flynn one nil up in this one then. I do think the first one of this was quite close between both of these two. So I get the feeling this one will be equally as close. Flynn is definitely a rider that uh prefers the back as most sprinters have one have a preference front or back. He likes the back, likes to be second, likes to try and maneuver the other opponent around quite a bit. Unsure on Jared, but uh I know Flynn likes the back, so we’ll see what they uh what he’s able to do here from the back and what Jared’s able to do from one with those awesome pink socks. They’re can see Jared a mile away down the back straight. It’s awesome.
Yeah, even if they were in the same kit, it uh make it nice and easy to pick them out. Don’t think they’re like the Aeros or anything. I think everyone he’s come up against has been wearing wearing shoe covers, so not sure on the performance of them, but but who cares when you got style like that? It’s your sprinters mate. It’s all about how you look, not about how fast you go. So good move here from Flynn. Forcing the pace a bit from the front.
Jared was just stalling a bit there. So this is a bit of a replay of the first one, I think, where Jared actually had to come behind from Flynn. So Flynn’s building it through the bell. And here comes Jared with a really, really good run. He’s actually going to hit this quite well, I think. But Flynn’s responded. I think Flynn’s just found another gear down the back straight there. And it’s uh that’s going to be all she writes. Two nil up for Flynn. I think that gave me flashbacks of what actually happened in the first one. So it’s coming back to me now. All right, so Kaio and Jackson back up for this one. Jackson taking out the first one. And I can say that with confidence this time because Jackson has a a big green dot next to him on the scoreboard. I’m glad you know what your greens from your uh from your blue backgrounds, mate. That’s awesome.
I mean, if you’re color blind, it would be hard, wouldn’t you? Green and blue. So, the first one of this was an awesome battle between these two. So, I think this uh second one’s going to be just as good. Hopefully uh for our sake Kai can win this one and we go to three for them. Jackson won’t be wanting that. They’ll be wanting it two straight. So yeah, there was a touch wheels last time. Yep. Yep. Jackson did bloody well to keep it up actually on that one. So just shows the skill that these guys have. Just enough. So, the roll away here. We’ve got Jackson’s going to be leading off this one. Ky in second position. quite nice and slow here as they’re coming into the back stroke. You got Kai’s really, really close to him. So, interesting to see if there’s any pace increase here from Kai. We want that sprint a little bit faster. This pace definitely plays into Jackson’s hands. But uh nothing much happening at the moment. Just sending each other out. They’ll have to drop down the track shortly. They are going a bit too slow to keep that up on the banking. So there they come slowly rolling down. You might see Kaio. Yep. Accelerate like that. Keep on the track. Just good way of keeping that pace up a bit in second and having to have first wheel react a bit and increase that pace. And Kyle’s done awesome. He’s got him in there and he’s actually pinned him a little bit of a RG bar with a bit of elbow in there. So Jackson here is going to look to try and get under him. And there we go.
Oh, that was another close one there. Yeah, they’re they’re really giving it to each other, these two. There’s no love loss right there. Just great bike handling right on the limit from these two. It’s awesome. And a bit of rubbing his shoulders there. Oh, the touching the whole way. It’s awesome racing. Brings back to the good old days of sprinting. Oh,
is Jackson going to come back underneath? It looks like he is at this stage.
Yeah. Yeah. Jackson just good enough. But that was awesome there. I think they spent half that last lap leaning on each other there. So,
that was one exciting sprint. That was really good. That was great. That was a precision sprinting there. Both uh going hard with each other, leaning on each other, bit of elbowing, bit of flicking, but uh the end of the day, it was awesome. Both kept it up, right? That’s what we want to say. Like, well, I mentioned like events like this are great. They’re also not not one you want to crash at. You want to just use them for training, for tactics, for
getting some race experience. But one of those ones not worth taking too many unnecessary rust either.
But like really good riding from those guys. Really like on the limit and they both know what the limit is. They know each other so well these two. They train so much together. So uh that was uh awesome racing. Well done fellas. So next up we’ve got Liam Kevin Luke Blackwood. Liam won the first one of this. So, we just got word from the commissers. They reckon on the balance that was pretty good racing from those two. So, we’ll take that. So, here we are. So, we’ve got Luke Blackwood in P1, Liam in P2. So, Luke rolling away first. Obviously, he’s got to take the lead. These guys had a really awesome uh first ride of this. So, hopefully the second one can live up to that reputation. Bit more pace on here from uh Luke and a bit of a gap as well. So, Liam wanting a bit of room to play with. Just stalking Luke. There is Liam in second up and down the track. Just slowly building the pace. He’s gone under here. Really nice move to take the lead. Trying to pan Luke up there. It’s difficult to do. It’s very easy, like we saw in the last one, to let them out, but Luke’s just powered over the top and he’s got over clear. That’s really nice move there by Luke to get out of there. Yeah, like we said, Luke will like a a nice long sprint, so going with a lap and a half to go is not really going to be an issue for him.
No. And but Liam’s going to get a really nice run here. If he can time this run down the back straight, he might be able to pop off. And this will actually be quite close on the line, I think.
Liam got that.
Yep, he does get it. Really, really good run from Liam there. So I think next one’s going to be uh Alex Scheler and Tom Choy again. I think Alex was a bit asleep in that first one when Tom made the move.
He certainly was and then when he accelerated it actually looked like a really good pace. So if he can uh just be be switched on for this one and actually really take it to a sprint. Be interesting to see how he goes against Tom. I think uh Tom was Tom Wheel one in the first ride,
I think. And he got Alex took the front from memory.
I think so. Yeah, that that sounds familiar.
So,
it definitely was because Tom went Tom ended up uh well, Tom attacked from the back.
Yeah.
And uh yeah, I believe they didn’t start like that. I think I think Tom maneuvered him into that position. So, it’ll be uh Tom Tom ideally be looking to something similar in this one. Alex will be trying to keep it on Tom from wheel one. Maybe even force him to the front. It’ be pretty hard to do though with Tom. He’s a very, very classy bike rider. So, just rolling up now. Alex will take P1. Like I said earlier, both these guys know each other so well. They’ve raced each other a number of times now. and they’re rolling off now. These two obviously Tom looking to win this one to take it out two zip and Alex be looking to win this to take it to a third decider. I don’t know if any of these have gone to a decided yet out of these ones. So,
no, I don’t believe so. There’s always a first time for everything. Nice gap there from Tom. He’ll be looking to try and create a bit of space to do a move like he did in the last one. Alex looking to probably keep the pace a little bit higher so he’s got a little bit of a safety blanket in case Tom does make a jump on him. Even though they’re low on the track there, you can see the pace is definitely faster than it was in the first one. And Tom again’s going high. So, wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see another move like that first one. Alex looks like he’s got a cover though. Accelerating as well. Tom’s just shadowing him. And Alex has actually gone there. So,
really, really good movement to the bell. He’s actually got a decent gap. So, Tom’s going to have to work here. Tom’s got some speed though. Look at it. Look at the way he’s closing that down. He’s closing it like a freight train down the back straight. I think he’ll probably get Alex here, but it definitely very better ride from Alex than the first one.
I think Tom had phenomenal speed there, but I I suspect he wouldn’t have wanted that gap to be quite that large.
No, I think maybe another meter or two and uh Tom’s going to be working for that to come around. So, very good ride from both those guys. Very, very good ride. So, I think we’re into women’s points race now. 7 and a halfk points race. So normally in a points race you’d have a sprint every 10 laps but in this case it is sprint every six laps.
Makes it a bit harder then doesn’t it?
Yeah less recovery.
You also have to um actually be able to be able to count in in sixes. We might be we might be able
would be a bit challenged. Yeah it would be a bit challenged there. Even 10 sometimes a bit of a stretch. Here. Simon on the infield there giving orders to people to go and hold so we can get this race underway. So, we’re just waiting. and they’re getting their final orders, the girls, before they uh start this race. Like like Yeah, like usual, we’ll have a neutral lap here and then we’ll be underway. So, unlike the last one, uh it’s not really like there’s any non-sprint laps before we actually start the race. We’re straight into it, but the first sprint will be uh Bell going at 25 and sprinting to 24. So, like we mentioned before, if you missed that, there’s a sprint every six laps on this one. So, 30 lap race, sprint every six laps. So, five sprints in total.
What I don’t know is if it’s a double points on the on the last sprint, which is normal rules for a points race these days, but whether that’s the case here, I’m not sure. Even the infield commentator Simon down there doesn’t know. He’s he’s assuming it is double on the last.
We’ll go with that. We will go with that. So maybe a few more of the girls might look to make a bit of a move in this one. And of course 20 points if you can take a lap. Be very hard to to take a lap, especially in such a short race, but definitely is possible if you make the right move at the right time and the bunch is sort of in a bit of a lull or something. You can actually take a full lap in a very short space of time. So, the sprinters are done now for the rest of the night. So, they’ll be stoked they get an early night for once. It’s going to be reasonably tight turnaround then for all the all the endurance riders, but I think uh I think they’ll like that and they’re used to that, so be good for them. So, not too much has happened here so far. Well, there’s been no real attacks, just people rolling off, trying to trying to just get in the position they want uh without wasting too much energy too early. Just coming into 26 laps to go now. So, next time around, we’ll get the bell for the first sprint. So, the girls will be starting to position themselves now, wanting to be in that top four to five riders coming into the sprint. Any further back than that, they’ll be having to do a bit of work to come around people. So they’re definitely looking to try and be on not so not necessarily on the front but near the front.
It’s interesting a few riders swinging up there as you come into the bell. That’s that’s a little bit unusual. I wouldn’t recommend that. So we got Shayaylor on the front. She’s just getting rounded up now. I think it’s Jesse Thompson I think coming around the outside looking at the number. It’s going to take out this first sprint. Yep. Jess Jess or Jesse Thompson and Shayaylor on the wheel. Now, the two of them have got a bit of a gap and it looks like they’re carrying on. So, especially, yeah, only six laps between each sprint. So, just that little bit more regular uh sprinting than normal. So, a little bit more incentive to try sort of carry on if you got this small gap. A little bit less distance to go between each one and obviously then a little bit easier to hold on. You got three riders coming over there now. So, I think you we’ll get the numbers for them when they come around this time, but I think the Hannah Payne was one of them. And Sophie Maxwell, I think, was another one. I think Sophie’s just going to the front now. Yeah, Hannah Payne in second who’s just taking the lead now. Then Elena Beal is on the front now. Looks like they’re going to get caught there. They didn’t quite commit to that. So, pretty much all back together as one big bunch. Still a couple of laps until we get the till we get the uh the bell again. So next sprint will be they’ll be sprinting 218. So they’ll get the bell when we see 19. So they’re going to get 20 this time around. So next time around they’ll get the bell. Some of the girls just starting to make a bit of a fly around the outside. I think that was a lane of warl that’s moving up round everyone getting to the front as the pace is a bit low. It’s a good time to do it before the sprint actually kicks into action. I
think the one thing is she she didn’t quite get to the front and now she’s still stacked very high up on the track and I think Sophie’s gone to the front now. She’ll look to wind it up.
Me Baker’s making a move around the outside. Looks like
four wide for them there. Looks like she’ll roll over the front of them and probably take this one, I’d say. I think Sophie might have just done just a little bit too much work in that one in between on the front.
Oh, tie battle for second, but I
maybe on the outside potentially.
I thought a lena got it, but yeah, very close between those two there. Again, there’s a little bit of a push after that sprint, but no one really committing to it yet. Looks like the rubber band in the middle of that bunch might be about to snap if there’s an attack or two. Just judging by the gaps that are opening up every sprint now.
It does look like even though it’s all in one piece, you’ve kind of got kind of half the bunch which is able to fight for the sprints and half the bunch which is kind of just hanging on. Yeah, it does get this sense this this bunch that it’s one that might split open if someone makes a big move soon. We’re still with 16 laps to go now. So, plenty of time in the race for them to make a move and those that haven’t scored any points to to try and get some points, maybe take a lap. Haven’t really haven’t seen really a good attempt at that just yet.
H not too many actual attacks. Few people are just carrying on a little bit from a sprint, but no one’s really launched an attack, but I think there’s someone trying to make one, but they’re just getting stacked up high by riders dropping back.
I think that’s Sophie Best coming around the outside. Yes, it is. So, making a really nice move. The girls having to respond now. I think that is Emma Crawford in second and maybe Hannah Payne in third there with I think might be Evil Wyman making the gap the bridge over. So four really nice strong girls there off the front. They’ll get the bell next time. So if they can keep that gap they they’ll be able to share the points between them. But
yeah, if they work together they might. But I think that bunch is starting to come back but there are some tired girls in that bunch now.
It’s definitely even though it is all together there’s still sort of fairly big gaps between riders. So it’ be quite hard to make a move all the way around the outside from there.
So you got Hannah Payne on the front right now and Evman in second and Sophie I think slotted into third now. So this will be interesting. Hannah getting out of the seat down the back straight accelerating. There’s not really a lot coming out of the Bane bunch at the moment. I think Hannah might hold on to win this one.
Looks like it.
She going to sit up and go back or keep going is the big question. Yeah,
she’s going to keep going. So,
giving it a dig. The bunch does have some momentum and it’s not a big gap. She Yeah, she gives up, swings up there. I think I think that was a good move. Like, save yourself for the next sprint.
Yeah, she’s got to get back on her wheel though there, not too far back. And there’s little bit of a squeeze coming on front now with a laner on the front. And uh coming through under that is Hazel Johnson. He’s coming to the front. So, Amy Free just takes a takes turn, swings up there. I think it was. So the pace has come off a bit. So those girls that made that move just before the previous sprint are actually going to get a bit of recovery now. So what little time you can recover with only six laps between sprints. The laner coming back to the front now. Okay, here we see see a bit of an attack coming. Got some high
Sophie I think coming doing the attack. Sophie Maxwell. Yeah, it is. Yep. And you got Emma Crawford having to go to the front of the bunch to respond there. So there’s some tired legs in that bunch and they don’t really that quick to respond with some gaps opening. So it’s a really good time to make a move by Sophie.
This is definitely the biggest uh biggest attack and biggest gap we’ve seen so far in this race. It’s a really good move.
She’s going to have to get into a really nice rhythm off the front there now, Sophie. She keeps looking back to see if she’s making a making gains on the bunch.
The bunch’s definitely l a bit and she’ll get the bell this lap. I’d say very very likely to take this sprint and then it’s just a case of what happens behind and and if she can carry on for the last sprint. Good move coming out of the main bunch though. Definitely this will start closing the gap a little bit too. That’s uh Jesse Thompson
with Tegan and and Toe chasing. So really really good bunch there. If those girls can bridge across that’s a really strong group off the front and they’ll be pretty hard to catch with only six laps to go. Sophie’s just got to get herself into a good rhythm. That’s where I think she should she didn’t swing up, but that’s where I’d be swinging up and looking to sit on these two for a bit, get a bit of recovery, but she’s uh just kept pressing on when they catch her. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s pretty exhausted now.
I think it’s Amy Freeze coming over uh in fourth there about to make it a group of four. Uh Sophie’s on the wheels now. She’ll need to recover as quickly as she can. And these girls look like they’ve just lost a little bit of that impetus off the front.
Having said that, I think there’s some tight legs on the bunch as well. So, it’s uh the gap’s still there, but these four at the front don’t look to be working too closely together. Yeah, the gap the bunch might be coming back just enough. And if these girls on the front are foxing it a bit, saving themselves, making the girls in the bunch work, it could make it quite interesting for that last sprint. So, looking at got Jesse Thompson leading at the moment on eight points. Sophie Maxwell on six and Hannah Payne on I think it was five there. So, it’s all tied at the top, especially if we’re correct about this double points in the final sprint. It’s uh still actually uh actually yeah, disproportionately weighted when you got so few sprints in the race.
So, they will be starting to jostle for position here now coming into two to go. So, they’ll want to make sure they’re right near the front, these girls. So, Emma Crawford hitting the front there as we got go through two to go. She’s got Hannah Payne on her wheel following over in the box. I think Jesse’s in uh in third position and Hannah’s starting to actually make a move here. She’s gone quite early.
Me Baker in second there. She’s she’s got enough points. If she was to have a really good result here, she could shoot right up to the top of the standings. Got Elena Warl on the outside there just starting to go backwards now. It’s so hard to live out there.
Oh, look at the speed around the outside.
That’s an awesome three wide around the last corner. Hannah tried like valiantly there, but the girls just came over flying.
So, it’s Tegan who wins that last sprint. And if we’re right about it being double points, that’ll that’ll make a big change to the overall. So, we’re just waiting for the final results from that that last sprint to update so we can see the uh the overall for for that race. But can see the B-ray men lining up on the back straight there. So they’re up next. The exact same thing. Uh their race is only 6 km, but same thing. They’ve got sprint every six laps. James. So, it looks like Tegan did win that uh that race overall, 15 points. Jess Thompson in second with 12. And I just missed who that was with 11. It’s uh scrolling through a little bit fast for me. Tegan, Jesse, Megan, and Hannah. There we go. Me Barker with 11 points in third. Hannah in fourth with six. So, those top three are quite a big uh big distance from the rest. But I think from memory, those are the three you scored in that that last double point sprint. So, really shows you the value of that last sprint. However, just winning that last sprint isn’t isn’t enough. You do do really need to pick up some points along the way. typically in a points race or or even Madison like a lot of people focus on on winning sprints and um really getting the big points but especially in a in a full distance race with basically more sprints. Um if you look at it statistically basically you’re you’re better to just try and score in as many sprints as possible rather than trying to focus on winning one or two sprints. If you can just score in more sprints, as long as you’re not only picking up single points here and there, um t typically that sort of basically stacks up to a really good result. And obviously then staying on the lead lap or or avoid avoiding losing a lap to competition as well is important. So here we are. 24 laps for the big road men. They’ll be underway shortly. They’re just uh just sorting something final out before they let them roll away for their neutral lap. We go. Looks like Mark Island’s coming up to to give them a go ahead to go now. I believe she’s going to run through the race race with them. Make sure they all know what they’re doing. Make sure they can count on sixes and then we’ll be uh be good to go very shortly. So after a little bit of a delay there, our big road men are under the way. 24 laps. So they’re underway. Gun is gone. 24 laps. Sprint every six. So it’ll be sprinting to 18. Bell on 19. So will anyone make an early move before that? No one really doing anything so far. Just rolling around. Content to content to wait for the first sprint at this stage. There’s a question we wipe. So still no big moves coming coming towards the first sprint now.
So when they when they come through this next time it’s going to be 20 laps to go. So still 500 m at the moment sort of 625 m until that first first sprint point. See Jack Allen making his way around the outside of the bunch there. He’s been up up the top of the track for a long time. He’s he’s a big strong boy, but he’s been doing a lot of extra distance there. All right. So, as we come across the finish line this time, they’ll get the bell for this first sprint. It’s a bit of pace coming on. Few guys stacked up the track there still. All right, here we go. Bell lap. So, into the first sprint. Got Jonathan Blast leading it out. Got James Turn on his wheel trying to come around. both in that uh James Turbull’s in that sort of arrow hoods position rather than on the drops which are very aerodynamic and as long as you’re basically committed to a to line then very good position to be riding in. Looks like Jonathan Blast’s going to try to carry it on though. So I think he took that sprint and he’s going to try try really crack some of the field here but swings up the track and no one’s really willing to go on with it. So, it’s Oliver Clark who just comes through for a turn, pulls up the track, followed by George Clark. Don’t know if they’re they’re related. I I uh got to say it’s an awesome last name, though. Pace has really gone out of this one. So, it looked like it was going to potentially kick off a little bit there, but everyone’s just saving themselves for the next sprint now by the looks. So, this is Liam Oay just led them through there. Then, uh just coming to the front now. James Turn back to the front. So, he was he was up there in that first sprint. We’re getting towards that next sprint, but they’re going to get 14 to go as they cross the line this time. So, still two laps to go until we’re until they’re getting points. So, Bell next time. So, this is Levy Mitchell. He’s making a making a bit of a move there, but doesn’t manage to open the gap. So, Oliver Clark comes back to the front now. He’s looks like he’s going to lead them into the Bell lap. So, Bell this time for sprint points. Sean Threadgill uh in second there on the Dolan bike out of the seat trying to come around the outside of Oliver. Looks like he’s going to do it at the moment. It’s just what I reckon hang hang on in the final straight here which it looks like he will. It looks like I think Oliver Clark there in second and then I think George Clark might have taken third there. So they’re consistently scoring. So that’s what I was talking about at the start like whether you’re winning or getting second or third. It’s uh obviously it is important to be getting more points, but it’s more important to score in more sprints in general. And then if you do that do that throughout the whole race, it tends to give you a better outcome than just focusing on winning sprints. Obviously, if you can win multiple sprints, then you’re away laughing. So, a bit of a move there, but he uh looked like he was committing to it and then he just just swung up the track. So, still all together overall here. Got a bit of pace here from uh Merks Merks, but uh again, he swings up the track. So got Jack, Jack Ellen and Oliver Clark off the front here and then Merks is coming across to them. So three of them off the front with one rider coming across to join them potentially. A little bit of a gap there. So Jonathan Blly just joins those front four, but bunch is coming back. There’s not too many of them working together here. Yeah, front four really establishing themselves here as they come into two laps until the next sprint. Jack Ellen’s making a move off the front solo. Jonathan Blice chasing him down. However, he’s a wee way off the wheel, but he was still getting a little bit of draft that far back. Looks like Jack Ellen’s going to going to be able to take this one though as he comes into the bell lap now. So, he’s been given the bell. Jonathan Blly and then Oliver Clark in third there. So, that these front three and four are really really breaking up. They could have uh could have worked together, but be interesting to see what happens now that Jack’s going to take the sprint, but will they regroup? Will he carry on by himself? There’s riders all over the place. So, this race has really exploded in this um in this back end here. So, Jack’s trying to carry this on. He does look pretty tired, though. Jonathan’s coming up to him. So, we might have two just at the front. And uh they could carry this on really well cuz everyone else is uh looking pretty much solo across the whole rest of the track now. There’s riders everywhere. Jonathan comes through. He’s going to pull a terminal jack.
He’s got Oliver navigating traffic here. He’s not quite sure where to go. He runs goes through the middle of the two riders, but he’s been held up by that and he’s trying to do it all on his own. Meanwhile, Jack and uh Jack and Jonno off the front there working together. So, got Luke Herbert sort of trying to make his way across. I think he’s in in fourth. There’s a couple of lap riders in there. So, it’s all getting a bit messy, but still Jack and J BL off the front here. So, looks like uh Oliver Clark’s Oh, he’s just dangling there. He’s he’s might be making his way back to him, but it’s not going to be easy giving he’s doing it all solo while there’s two at the front sort of doing half a l lap each taking turns. They’ll be uh they’ll be working hard, but they’ll be a lot fresher than a lot of these riders in the back who are basically just on their own basically riding a time trial at this point. So, here they come. They’re going to get the bell this lap for the final sprint. A reminder, double points. Johnny Blice making an early move. He’s going to take the take the lead until this last lap. He’s got a little bit of a gap over Jack, but Jack’s just running at the wheel. So, this is a very important sprint cuz obviously those double points, Jack’s really hit the afterburners there, and he’s going to open up a massive gap. John is going to take second. Oliver Clark still sitting in third at the moment, so he’s going to take that third place points. I saw Harrison Coulter go across the line there. I think he was on the lead lead lap, but I actually kind of lost track of who was there, who was where to be honest. So, I think yeah, Jack’s going to Jack’s going to be up to 15 points with that. And uh so is Jonno, but uh he’s going to be second in that last sprint. So, Jack’s going to take it. So once again, I think we’ve got a tie for the overall overall lead of the whole race in terms of they’re on the same points, but whoever won that last sprint is going to once again be the deciding factor. And I think Oliver Clark third overall in that race. So spent a lot of time on his own that last six laps, but he’s held on to take third. It
started off quite tame for the first half. There’s not a lot happening. And wow, that split all over the show in the uh in the back end there. Some pretty pretty exhausted riders coming off the track there. So, we saw some pace in the back end there, but now we’re going to have the A grade men come up for the same thing. So, back to 7 and 12k race. So, 30 laps, sprint every six like we’ve been seeing. So, five sprints in total. Once again, this is a this is a big field. It’s good depth there. There’s a lot of riders who are who are fighting out for points in that last race. So, this should be a good one. Let’s cross. So we got a men taking their places here. So very big field. A lot of holders down there on the inside. About half the field coming off the rail. Half the field or so uh on the blue band on the inside. Obviously if you’re being held on the inside, nothing to hold on to. So you have a holder come up and hold you. Takes a lot of people to run a track race. Not even not even talking about the officials and comers and things like that, but just simply uh just holding riders, managing riders, things like that. It’s actually uh amazing the amount of people you you need to run something. And then you get into team sprint, team pursuit, you need holders for that as well. And working gates and things like that, running lap boards is it’s a lot of people. All right, they’re underway, so they’re on the neutral lap. So once again, 30 laps, sprint every six laps. So five sprints total, double points on the last. And that uh as we’ve seen in those first two races, that double points on the last and your position on the last sprint is proving to be vitally important so far tonight. So with this being 30 laps, it’s a pretty good distance for these guys. Like it’s it’s long enough they can do something, but uh short enough that they can go pretty hard most of the way. So this will be quite interesting. Definitely. Definitely. It’s one uh sort of just tucked away there, Zach, but that that last race there was nothing happening for the first half. It was um pretty tame and then all of a sudden it was basically just riders doing an individual time troll over the show. It split to pieces.
Yeah, it looked from where I was watching it, it uh looked brutal for them.
We got Deon Briggs coming to the front here. So, one of our our elite power athletes and that blue New Zealand kit. So, it’s a New Zealand training kit. So, typically they they train in the blue kit and then save the black kit for racing. So basically the idea is if you’re representing New Zealand, you’re really actually racing for New Zealand, that’s when you get the black kit. And if you’re not not really representing New Zealand, then you wear the blue kit if you’re just training. Even if you’re on the squad and have earned the black kit, you just save it for race day. So these guys are really really going for it in this group off the front. So you obviously Deon Deon’s up there, the very very good par rider.
Yeah, Nicholas Smith just took a took a quick turn there in the red.
Robert Turnill’s in there, I think. Uh, is that Remy on the front now? Potentially. It’s hard to see the number from from here, but yeah, Robert Turbo definitely in there. That’s him on the front right now.
That looks like Remy. I think it is Remy on the back there.
Remy Dton. So, this is a good group of five. And they’ve they’ve made a made a gap early. Making everyone else in that bunch chase really hard. And you can actually see the gap starting to open up now in that bunch. There’s some some guys under the pump already. and we’re just coming into the first sprint now. So, those guys that have been chasing, having to keep going in that sprint, that’s really going to hurt them.
This front group though is going to fight it out for the points in this first one. I think they’ll be they’ll be quite tired after this, but they’ve um they’ve succeeded in actually being able to get this first lot of points. So, I think that was Riley Crarampton who took that one over uh over Robert Turnle. Very close on the line, but pretty sure that Riley got that one. So, we’re seeing a seeing a move from K for the the New Calonia rider here. A really good move putting them under pressure now. And you’ve got Harrison taking over the lead now as he swings off. And there’s actually another split in that bunch again now. So, actually, if these boys realize they’ve actually got a bit of a gap that they might be able to make something happen here. So this is Max Allen who’s really trying to press on with it
and he’s with Alex. Both are there. So the two of them have opened up a good gap. Alex is a very good individual pursued. So this will be right up his alley and they’re actually pulling away quite a nice gap on the main field. I think there’s a few really tired boys taking turns on the front of the main field. It’s also just the dynamic in the bunch where of course you want to catch these front two but you don’t want to be the one to do it. You don’t want to waste your energy for the sprint. So once the gap opens up and it seems quite hard to close, you can’t just jump across on your own, then all of a sudden you can find the motivation of the bunch really disappears. Angus Sims on the front here now putting in a really good turn, lifting that pace of the bunch up a bit. And you see they’ve just started to respond a bit now. So that gap sort of starting to stabilize. Riley Crarampton leading the bunch. Of course, he’s leading the race so far for that first sprint as they get the bell for this time. Alex Both is leading it out. We’ve got Remy Dawson’s on the front of the bunch chasing. So, he’s got that hard task at the bell of needing to go hard to keep the pace on, but also not wanting to go too hard, saving a little bit for that final sprint so he can try and nab those two points. He’s just going to get rolled by Jamie Henderson on the line. But you see, even in that sprint, the uh the bunch took a good probably 20 m out of the guys out the front. So, it’ll be starting to hurt for uh the boys out the front. Question is though, what does the bunch do now? They sort of they were closing in a bit with the the momentum from that sprint. They haven’t pressed on with it too much just yet.
Start to see on the front bunch Alex and Max the shoulders are starting to rock a little bit. So, they’re starting to get under a bit of pressure. Hands up on the tops trying to suck in as much as what they can of that oxygen with Magnus starting to lead the front of the bunch now. And they’re just leaving them out to dry a little bit. Hopefully they’ll they’ll be aiming to try and reel them in in that next sprint. Gap definitely is closing. It’s Josh Revel on the front of the bunch now, followed by Oliver Key. And
I think they they’re going to come back into the bunch. Alex has given up. He’s given the white flag and said, “I’m going to try and get back in the bunch.” But given the pace that that bunch is moving, it’s going to be really hard for him to slot into a wheel.
Josh’s been on the front for a while now. There still two laps until the sprint. So yeah, he swings up. Oliver Keys now comes through. Now the hard job is trying to get on a wheel. He might be able to slot in there on Magnus’ wheel. And Magnus is actually going up the inside there. So he actually might have worked out not too bad for him after being on the front for a while there. Get a bit of recovery before this sprint as the pace really comes out of the field.
Yeah. Then we get the bell straight away. See Magnus trying to trying to kick there around the outside after moving up quite a few positions. Ke from New Calonia is is leading it out, but he’s uh just been rolled over. I think he’s going to take second in this one in the end. Sterling Janelle, he’s going to take that one. So, he’ll five points to his total. Magnus picking up third,
I think. Was it Jamie Henderson in fourth, I think, picking up the one.
I think you’re correct on that one.
So, it looks like there’s another move going underneath now as the pace goes off. Everyone will drop pretty easily back on though, so it won’t come to much. Magnus on the front now, giving it a bit of a squeeze. You can start to see some of those gaps starting to open up now. There’s everyone starting to hurt. A few riders are dropping off the back. And he’s actually opened up a really good gap here. He’s a very strong IP rider, Magnus. So, he he might be able to ride away from them. It looks like Alex Both is the ones come over to join him. That That’s a dangerous breakaway, those two. It’s also also a dangerous breakaway for the overall because uh the Ph can join up with Magnus and Magnus doesn’t really have too many points so far as Alex picked up a few earlier. Um yeah, so it’s his advantage to basically be away again but with a different rider and be the only one who’s kind of doubling up in this this breakaway situation. You got Joshua Greavves in chasing within there’s two of them trying to come over but they’ve done a lot of work especially Josh’s done a lot of work in this race so far so they’ll be struggling with Riley I think in tow with them. So they’re not really making a lot of gain. They’re kind of stuck in no man’s land between the bunch and the break.
Having said that, they’re going to get the bell this time and they’ll be they’ll be in those positions for third and fourth place points. So there still a reason to carry on with it for now.
Be interesting to see at the front here with the with Magnus and Alex whether Alex is contest this against Magnus or he’s just happy to roll a second given his position in the in the race.
Looks like Magnus is going to going to just be content to sit on the wheel and they’ll try carry on for the last sprint. try and get those double points.
Yeah, it is. It is that one. I think if you uh you bank on just going all in on the last Yeah, excuse me. On the final sprint, whereas double points and you just pick up points along the way, you can uh go a long way up the standings in the overall.
And you see the those chase riders of Riley and Josh, they’ve split. Riley’s gone off into third and he’s actually starting to make a bit of headway on the on the front two. Alex, you can see starting to hurt a bit there. He’s been in off the front twice now. Done a lot of work. Yeah, it’s Riley. Uh Riley is coming across to them as well. He was up in he won that first sprint, so he’s on on some good points as well. So, it could be a pretty important final sprint this one once again. And Josh is struggling there. Almost looks like he’s waiting a bit for the bunch to come back. Just trying to have a bit of recovery. But yeah, Riley’s definitely closing that gap. It’s uh it’s going to be close though. He’s he’s going to not get much recovery before the sprint. That’s for sure. Bunch is definitely picking up some pace now, but with about half of that behind, I think it’s probably too little too late.
Jamie Henderson leading the charge. He’s already popped round around Josh into fourth. It might be close. It just depends that the other thing that’s going to come to count here is these leaders might start picking up some uh some guys that have dropped off the back as well. Jamie Henderson definitely closing this gap faster than I expected. They are coming into one and a quarter laps to go though, so it’s it’s still a pretty big gap, but he’s got pace. These front three are going to start opening up the sprint very soon though, however. Yeah, he might just be a lap too late here.
If he can get in the draft, Alex is trying to come around Magnus, but it doesn’t look like he’s got that much. But Jamie is coming. He might be able to feature here. Remy Dton has made a great move around the outside there. He’s going to pick up fourth in this final sprint. But if we watch the front, Magnus is going to take that one ahead of Alex Both there and Riley Krampton in in third. So, let’s have a look at what he does to the overall standings. But I think I think those front three are all going to end up right up up the uh top of the standings overall. So just waiting on those confirmation. I’d say Alex both has probably won that quite comfortably judging off the points going into the final sprint, but we’ll uh we’ll wait and see. And we’re just waiting as well. We’ve got the two up team sprints coming up next. So in heat one I think on our sheet we’ve got Jackington which will be uh yeah those two boys are one one uh up in the seat and then heat two will go up to two up. So uh Just waiting for those a gray boys to wind down. They tend to take a few laps just to clear a bit of the lacto out of the legs after a race like that. That was a pretty hard race. Still waiting on the confirmed results, but I’ve got a feeling it’s Alex Bothan one and Magnus 2. So the start list we’ve got for the two up team sprint. So, it’s obviously uh Tin and Jack in heat one. Heat two on the front stroke we’ve got Mini Collins and Lily Cameron. And on the back stroke, we have Leighton Riley and Sarah Hartstrong. And then, uh heat three, we will have Joseph and Piper on the front straight and Alex and Hazel on the back straight. Uh heat four, we’ve got uh Ben and Miles. Uh although we do have a question mark over to whether they’re going to be starting or not. And uh on the backstroke we’ve got uh Flynn Island Wood and Riley Forner. So some good teams for action. Give the Enduros a little bit of a break before they come back up uh which will be for the uh women’s medicine chase and for the women’s and the AM B grade for the men’s. So uh you see I think it’s uh Tins in this uh in the start gate here and Jack will be in second. So, in a team sprint, that’s key. The uh the first rers’s job is to just get out of the get get up the team up to speed as fast as possible and get out of the way. And uh given it’s a two-up team sprint, little bit different to what you see at the World Champs Olympics where they have three. And this one, the second rider is just going to be trying to use first rider there as a carrot and really try and come under them with pace and speed and do a really strong, fast second lap. Uh the women’s team sprint used to be two up until a few years ago when they they went to three to match the men. Um it’s a good fast race and uh definitely not much room for error when it comes to the changes. They’ve uh got to be behind the front wheel of the uh rider ahead at the uh pursuit line for the change. Um and they can’t ride on the blue either. So they’ve got to it’s very very tight quite technical these changes in a team sprint. So, we’re just waiting for that countdown timer to start. Assuming they’ll just give them the 15-second countdown for this. We’re just waiting for the commas here to to with the flag. And once the flag goes down, the clock will go on. Just 15 second countdown for these riders. So, be nice and quick. And really nice start there from Tin out of the gate. Strong and straight. Very upright. He’s getting the speed up. You You’ll look to see Jack here in second. He wants to give a quite a good gap. wants a bit of a wheel to run at. He’s probably started running a little bit too quick at him here. So, he’s going to have to button off and then run again. And in an ideal world, you’re running strong the whole way on the power. And it was very, very tight change there from them. But I think it was still fine from this angle here. So, they’re running they’re going to have a really really strong second lap here. Jackie looks like he’s really stepping on it and he’s going to cross the line and it’s 370 for them. Pretty good time for those fellas.
Not very long between uh finishing that last race that Jack did too and uh showing up for this. So
yeah, it was really good effort backing up there. So I think this is going to be the our first of our two-ups. So one on the front straight, one on the back stroke. And like I mentioned earlier, we’ve got Minnie and Lily up in the front straight. So it looks like Mini is going to be in the gate and Lily is going to be in second wheel by the looks of it. So saying it’s going to be going to be tricky to Damian saying it’s going to be tricky to operate all the cameras and sort of uh figure out which which screen he’s showing you. How do you want to operate this stack? Should I commentate the front? You commentate the back and we’ll talk at the same time.
Yeah, I think that’ll work brilliantly. So, in the front straight here, we we see Lily getting wheeled up. She’s really showing the sprint credentials of her father there. Very, very good, talented junior sprinter, that man. And, uh, in the back straight, uh, we’ve got Sarah and Leighton. Uh, Sarah’s going to be in the gate on uh Boris’s favorite bike.
Yeah. Partis and Leon will go in the second wheel. So, this should be quite interesting here. We’re just waiting for Leon to roll on up. These sprinters tend to take an age with these straps. They’re very, very pedantic beasts. Uh, sprinters. So, they’re up there now. So, we’re just waiting for the clock to start. Everyone looks like they’re ready and good to go. Oh, no. We’re just waiting. A little bit of maneuvering. Typical sprinters, especially second and third wheels, they’ll try and get as high on the track for as much of an advantage for them to drop down in the start. So, the comm is just making sure they’re on the right mark and not getting uh too much of a free advantage. You uh if you give a sprinter an inch, they’ll take you a mile, that’s for sure.
Yeah, I was helping operate the gate for uh the schools racing on earlier in the week and we’re getting told off having the gator few centimeters too far forward. It’s a nice clean start there for both teams. You got Minnie doing a really good start. Lily struggling to get on, but she just looks like she’s going to make it work in the back of the backstroke. Sarah’s going well. L’s very much hard on the wheel. He’ll probably look to give a bit of a gap here. So, we’ve got the front straights up at the moment going through the first lap. Uh, but Lily’s coming back really nicely to Mini there. Really good with a 217 and then a 22 for the back straight for Sarah. Uh, this will be Lily’s really stalking this. So, it’s going to actually be quite close here between Lily and Leighton. Can Leighton drag this back or is Lily going to hold on? I think Lily’s just going to hold on in the front straight with 376 second fastest so far. And Leighton Sarah 381 the third fastest. Lily really showed some speed there in that last lap.
Yeah, definitely. She uh they actually ended up winning winning that heat quite convincingly.
That was uh she’s really got me. I thought she might have been in trouble at the start there. There was quite a big gap, but um she she brought drew it back really nicely. She’s a regular at the uh Wednesday night sprint sessions here at the Veladrome. Who runs those sessions, Zach? I’m not sure. Tell me more about them.
Uh that would be uh Dan Gardner and myself actually. He runs the endurance. I run the sprint and um yep, she’s she’s a regular at the sprint one. So, if uh anyone out there’s listening wants to improve their sprinting or endurance, come along. 6:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. Goes for 2 and 1/2 hours and you’ll leave uh with some having spent half the night talking and half the night riding bikes. It’s quite good fun. So,
what about the the endurance one? You spend like 3/4 of the night riding bikes.
No, they actually get quite a bit of recovery to be fair.
All right.
And a couple of weeks ago, the sprinters did more start uh more laps than the enduros cuz the enduros did starts. So, believe it or not, I think a few of the enduros were considering becoming sprinters for the night. So, um we we have good fun. We get the motorbike out for both groups for different things and get start gates out. So, it’s quite a cool session. Do quite a lot in it. So, anyway, back to the action. We uh we’ve got on the front straight we’ve got Joseph in the gate, Piper in second, and uh in the back straight we’ve got Hazel Gardner in the uh in the gate, and uh we’ve got Alex and then second wheel. Hazelnut the uh comes from BMX, as I mentioned earlier. She’s effectively known as a hazelnut by most people. So that they all look to be quite a strong team, those two in the backstroke. But we’ll see what Joseph and uh Piper can do in the front. Got 10 seconds to go now. Nice clean start from both teams actually. Pretty even. You got Joseph starting well with Pip has slotted in really nicely. She’s actually getting a really good gap there. And uh the other guys we’ve got Hazel’s going well. Alex is just nice good gap on the big gear. He’s going to wait for that time that run and he’s got a very good run. Gave away a bike I think or two though at the change. and is also uh also looking over what the other team was doing for most of the front.
Yeah, he’s a bit a bit preoccupied. He’s uh he’s absolutely hauling it here against Hazel. It’s not very very fair to be fair. Um they’re going to stop the clock in a 347 for a fastest time. And you got Piper coming around here. She’s going to finish 395 for the fifth fastest there. That was a little bit of a one-sided matchup unfortunately. I think we should gear restrict um Alex next time. Yeah, I think so. My understanding is the enduros are all gear restricted here. But
sprinters aren’t
the sprinters aren’t.
No, no, no. This for the first few years of NTS the sprinters were um were gear restricted and then I think uh too many of them complained and they wanted to run discs wheels in open gears and uh so they they they relented. Um to be fair, a lot of these elite sprinters are running, you know, 120 in gears. So to make them come down to a 90in gear, they uh it did have a reason to to squeal a bit. So I think in the end of the day, like while leg speed’s important, like we know sprinting, having having that power and force is also a huge huge part of it. So uh completely changes the sport. It put on a on a gear that small. Oh,
exactly. Exactly. It makes them suffer a lot more. So, back straight. We’ve only got one team. The team of Miles and Ben is uh did not start. So, the uh two fellas that went to three in the match sprints were going to be riding together, but they’re not now. So,
wonder if they fell out after that. I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe one of them saving themselves for the Kieran tomorrow. One of them’s a bit sick. We don’t know.
You know, making a sprinter go to three is never a good thing. So, who knows? Uh but we’ve got uh we got Riley and we got Flynn. Uh this will be a really good team. Two two of the riders that are going to junior worlds next month actually with Riley being the sole female and Flynn the third wheel for that men’s team sprint. So it’ be quite interesting to see how these two guys I think they might even rival what Hazel and Alex did there. Actually, got the countdown timer on now. Waiting for those last 5 seconds. And really nice start there from Raleigh. She’s really got out of the gates really nicely. Flynn’s looking to give a bit of a gap. Maybe not as much as what Alex did in the previous one, but they are really going. Flynn’s he’s got to be careful on that. It’s good change in the end. So, it was a 199 start lap. So, very good from Riley. Oh, 336. Very nice into first place. Very good. Very good ride from the two of them. expected from those two given what they’re going on to next month, but very very good ride. So, you might be able to fill us in a bit more on this next race being a Madison chase and how it works.
So, basically, it’s a it’s a Madison scratch race,
Matt. So, they change still.
Yep. Yep. So, it’s Madison. You’ve got two riders. You you uh basically take turns in the race. So, you you throw each other in as you’ve uh you might have seen. So, looks really chaotic, but once you’re in the race, it does make some sense. But anyway, but basically, as a chase, it has no sprints throughout it, so it’s just uh well, I mean, it says one sprint, but it’s because it’s the final one.
Yeah.
So, what sort of tactics are they going to be running like this? Are they going to be looking to break away or just wait for that sprint or is it given that there’s two of them? It’s, you know,
uh pretty much like any normal race. Like so it’s like just like any scratch race depending on your your strengths and your your opponent’s strengths and and in this case your pairing strengths or your other opponent pairings strengths and weaknesses just going to change how you approach it. So
I think you see a bit of both. You you’ll see teams making moves. You’ll see teams waiting for the final sprint. Um, obviously it can be a little bit I wouldn’t say easier, but it in some ways easier to break away when you got two of you because you can really make a move, go deep, then throw your partner in there nice and fresh after having having some time at the top of the track resting. Um, so you sort of can uh keep the pace up a bit higher when uh yeah, trying to go for the breakaway. But having said that, obviously everyone chasing you is in the same boat. So it can be uh yeah, it’s an interesting one. It’s a very uh very can be a very chaotic race to watch, but uh trust me, when you’re actually out there, it makes a lot more sense and uh not as crazy as it looks. Eventually, you see the tactics that these girls employing here. Good size field as well. 18. So, uh 16 riders out there, so it can get a little bit chaotic.
Couple of uh interesting interesting team names here. Uh, so Light Speed being one. That’s uh Cassidy Compton and Eva Wyman. Then fix Amy Free and Sophie Best. I think that’s uh a little bit more creative than team gray which is Shaya Sers and and Hannah Payne. But at the end of the day, it’s it’s the uh the legs to do the talking, not the team name. I think to actually answer your question, Zach, like the the way to win this one is to to have the highest average speed and cross the line first at the end.
Pretty simple then to be fair.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, they’re underway for a neutral lap. So, you’ll see the the riders who are coming off the home straight here will roll away. And all the riders who are on the back straight, who are the the riders who will start not in the race, they’ll stay up on the fence there until the gun actually goes to start the race properly. And then even then, some of them will roll away straight away. Others will sort of delay it a bit depending on where the teams want to do their first change. So sometimes it’s nice to be kind of in sync with the the rest of the the group changing, but does make it a little bit more hectic if you’re all trying to do changes at once. And depending on where you want to do your changes, it can be nice just to to wait a bit and be a little bit away from other teams.
So, we’ve seen already at the start we’ve got three teams that have waited a little bit later to try and get a change in early and actually one team is going to wait even then to the bunch goes off. So, uh quite interesting there. Very different range of tactics as we’re going to come into the first a lot of changes now.
Yeah. Well, I mean, often I mean, when you think about it, the reason for changing is to to save the legs and give yourself recovery. When you when the the bunch has done about half a lap, there’s there’s not really too much need to change.
So, it was fixy chicks were the ones that did that. The the slightly different tactic. They’re the ones on the front of the bunch now as well. So, um just get a bit of an offset from everyone else, which isn’t a bad thing in this considering there’s no sprints every 10 laps.
No, definitely not. you sort of a lot of riders do sort of like to work on a schedule whether it’s their their um basically changing four times um every kind of two and a half laps or um other other teams or herrings will go kind of every basically like three three and a half laps or something like that. But at the end of the day basically as long as you’re doing your final change leading into a sprint at the right time then that’s the most important thing. And obviously with this there’s no sprints until till the finish of the race. So really, it sort of doesn’t matter trying to ride a schedule or anything like that unless you’re trying to practice it. But a lot of times riders um riders or pairings kind of get too sucked into trying to stick to a schedule rather than just sort of focusing actually on the race and the sort of working out just how much recovery do they need? Um things like that. They just there’s kind of no no need to be changing every certain amount of laps. doesn’t really achieve anything for you unless unless you need it to ensure that last change is at the right time.
So would you in an ideal world when would you want that last change be coming into the the final sprint and and would you be trying to work back from that from say 10 to go or are you just focused on that one last change going I need that to be here?
Uh so I guess there’s a couple of bits to that. So to start off with like where are you going to do the change like a lap and a quarter to go is a really good place to go. So basically as you’re really starting that final lap and opening up the sprint that can be one good place to do it if you get thrown in in at the end of this final corner. Uh another good way to do it is if you can get to the front of the race or really close to the front of the race actually changing with three quarters of a lap to go can be really good. So if you’re already at the front and then you get the momentum of the change and you’ve only got um 3/4 of a lap to go then it’s pretty hard for anyone to come around you. So, but for that to be effective, you need to be at the front rather than trying to make up ground. So, those are the two most common places you’ll see people try and change going into the final sprint. Um, and then in terms of like how you’re going to set it up, I probably would only really start focusing on it from sort of 10 laps give or take to go. However, one thing you need to think of is if you’re in a pairing where one of you is a significantly faster sprinter than the other, you obviously need to be in sync. So, you’re going to be throwing the right rider in for that final change. And you can easily sort of change by a lap or so like where you’re going to um where you’re going to be doing that final change by rolling faster or slower at the fence and things like that. But it’s pretty hard to fully flip between which ride is going to end up sprinting if you’re only leaving it to that last 10 laps. So it’s something you do kind of need to be thinking a long way ahead of make sure you get it right. So, would these girls have gone in with a plan of who’s going to be sprinting at the end in an ideal world or uh I
I would hope so, but uh whether whether they have is uh to wait and see. I’d hope they have talked about it a little bit.
So, coming in 20 laps to go now. Not really much happening to be fair. Pretty constant pace, just starting to feel each other out, getting used to changes. I’d imagine some of these girls haven’t actually done a Madison change together before before this race. So obviously probably a few changes learning about how each other changes and any little nuances there. Uh it’s got a little bit of a pace going on at the front now by the looks of it. So that looks like it’s uh TGC which I wonder if that’s Terry Dry coaching. I’m guessing
that would make sense
judging by the riders uh that have gone uh off the front a little. So it looks like we got a little four split of here. It’s just starting to go away. So, you’ve got that uh TGC in there as well as Light Speed, the Fixy Chicks are there, and I can’t see what that other team is in there. It’s a little bit hard on down the back straight, but it’s all back together now. Pace has gone right out of it. Yes, I think you’re right. Like a lot of these riders haven’t done uh haven’t done Madison before or at least not much of it. So, they had um they had some Madison workshops um yesterday. uh basically sort of uh they had a beginner one and an advanced one. So beginner one obviously is sort of learning the fundamentals of changing how to ride like ride safely, how to go around changes, things like that. And then the advanced one obviously sort of working a bit more on like more the advanced technique and tactics and stuff like that. But a ride like this is um yeah great way to get into doing matters and tell you the first matter you ride like even when it’s a relatively small field like this it can be pretty scary. So it’s yeah definitely a good way to get into it rather than jumping straight into a a massive field of what is there like 16 teams or something and uh where there’s a
yeah really really fast management is not the way to learn.
No no that’s when you start get probably the changes pressure gets put on so as I think you’ll see when we get to the agrade men and that bigger field um it can get quite hectic out there. Definitely a little bit smaller field like this, a lot safer place to uh to get into it.
And I suppose as well for a lot of these girls, it’s it’s there something they haven’t done a lot of as a medicine chase. You know, they’ve probably done a few traditional medicines uh but a medicine chase being such a different event. They’re probably a little bit unsure how to approach it cuz you don’t want to go too hard too early.
Yeah, I’ve seen the same thing. I think uh we haven’t seen too much happen yet and I think I think normally in a matter it’s dictated by those sprints and
every 10 laps you got something to be aiming towards or thinking about whereas I think uh this one I think everyone’s a little bit unsure what to do. It’s like no one quite wants to make that move so far to go and so everyone’s just kind of waiting coming through with come around with about 12 laps to go this time. So starting to get to the business end of the race you might start to see a little bit more moves bit more pressure going on. The pace has definitely picked up a a click or two. So, that’s normally a sign of something’s about to start doing. So, you can hear uh well, you might not be able to hear on the live stream, but we can hear um few riders yelling at each other and things like that. So it’s um obviously quite important to be communicating with your partner. So whether it be you’re yelling at them to drop down earlier or or as you’re doing the change often you can exchange a couple of words as we see a pretty big attack go off the front here. Which team is this?
M doing it is Yep.
So it’s Elena Warren and and Tegan uh Finga
and you got Team Gray chasing as well as I think it’s Fixy Chips as well in third. Oh no, they’re in fourth there chasing. So with maybe light speed up there as well. So pretty pretty good chase. Team Gray is going. I think that’s Hannah Payne for them at the moment chasing. So the race it’s sort of got to 10 to go and the girls have gone up. I know what this is like. This is normally 10 to go in a Madison. So they’ve lit up again. But uh Gray starting to close in there. Although there’s a fresh rider starting to come in now for MQ. So that’ll be really good. They’ll actually start to pull away now with a fresh rider. So uh Hannah within with team gray there is really going to be looking for other rider to come in here quick as there’s actually another really really quick move coming laser around the outside. Yeah, she got got got through there well like so something when you’re chasing in a matter you got to be really careful of is um obviously riders changing in front of you and she managed to really actually get ahead before that 14 gray started that change and uh yeah if it been much later she would have been trying to ride through the middle of the change and first of all it’s not allowed and second it’s super dangerous. So we actually might have laser catching MQ here pretty quickly. So this could become quite an interesting race with two of them at the end.
So that’ll throw a bit of extra challenges in there. And yep, they look like they’ve got together now. So that’ll make the end of the race a bit different with coming around with five to go now as well. Yes. So it looks like Laser is going to going to try and go I thought they going to go around the outside for a bit, but no. M swings up. Laser is coming to the front now. So they’re going to work together. I think they can pretty confidently say they’re they’re going to take first and second here. So, I don’t think I’ll be riding riding too hard. I’ve been starting to think about the finish. Having said that, it looks like the the MQ team is starting to struggle a little bit.
Yeah, I think Laser is going with the strategy now of go hard and early. Throw a fresh rider in. Let them go because they’ll probably have one more change, you’d imagine, with three to go.
Yeah, I’d imagine. So, they haven’t I mean, they lost a bit of ground there in that change to MQ. Having said that, both teams are changing give or take at the same time. So
kind back on now. So you’d almost be better in this situation is laser laps up just sitting up playing a bit of cat and mouse. So they’re going to come in and get the bell this time.
You see the rider that’s out of for Laser is actually slowing down massively here to try and get herself into the race.
Yes. So, if they now list, they’re going to go for that um 3/4 to go change. Oh,
there’s a rider in the way. This could get interesting. Oh. Oh, and there’s Oh, this is going to be interesting. W’s got to do a change with half to go. Oh, it’s just killed the momentum. Oh no.
That’s the thing. A change is beneficial overall, but for changing with half a lap to go, it’s just uh like you’ll definitely lose more than you’ll gain at that stage.
Anyway, Laser takes the win there and the matters in chase. Might occur on second. That was a really good race from the girls and
I think it was Gray might have been second there. Oh, sorry, third. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
So, we’re waiting on the men’s B grade now. Believe so. I think that is correct. Let’s have a look. So, we got the Clark boys teaming up for CBHS there. That’s one team. They got Spoken, Blackpoke, Roller, Oakland, Grammar, Consult, Canterbury, CMC, and Red Castelli. nine teams in this one. So, one more team makes a little bit more chaotic. So, just waiting while the girls finish up, finish rolling around. And just confirmation of the results as well for them. And then we’ll get the V grown men out for their last race of the night. And another seven and a half case. It’s 30 lap chase. How many chunks? All right. So, we got the riders starting to line up here. So, once again, half rider will take the take the railing on the the front straight, half on the back, and then the uh the riders on the front will be the ones who roll away for the neutral lap. Don’t get in my way. All right, it looks like they’re all lined up. So, Mark Allen, commier here is just coming up to to talk to all the boys and then they’ll be underway. So, same thing again here. 30 laps, 7 and a halfk. There’s no sprints through this one. It’s simply a Madison, which is a scratch race essentially. So first cross the line at the end wins. to come around to get the gun this time and he’s happy with them and they’re away. So, we see an similar mix to the girls here of rolling away straight away, those not rolling away straight away. Funny enough, a lot of them not even doing a change the first time. So, making that first change a bit further into the race. Definitely definitely a fair bit of pace here already for such a um early on in this race.
Yeah, they’re uh they’re going good. We’ve got um Jack Ellen on the front there again after his teen strength. He’s done quite a bit of racing this afternoon, has Jack, so he might be a little bit tired.
I think it’s Oliver Clark actually.
Is it Oliver? Oh, sorry. I saw I saw a very tall body and thought straight away, but no, they both look very similar on a bike, those two.
I saw that cuz it’s Oliver Clark and George Clark. Fantastic last name then that team. I’m not surprised. They’re really pushing the pace though. They’ve actually um opened up a little bit of a gap.
I think there was a little bit of a mischange there nearly uh with Roller there actually. So that was uh that was Jack Allen. He’s coming around. He’s top now, I think.
Yeah, he is between him and Angus. I think there’s a little bit of a dodgy change there. So Angus has been coming down uh quite regularly the last few weeks to the Wednesday sessions doing when they’ve been doing medicines in the last month or two. So from uh from Oakland with uh quite a few of the guys in the Agrade one as well. He’s making the most of the track time. So pace is still pretty steady at the moment. Uh there’s not really much happening, but they’re keeping it pretty constant. There’s definitely a few on the front there.
Definitely riders trying to force the pace here. And like you can see um sometimes even when they’re not really forcing the pace, a team does a change that’s they just lose the wheel a little bit through the change. Maybe not confident to really keep the pace on while they’re changing. And then you see actually some gaps opening up here.
Yeah, you see definitely some of these guys aren’t the most confident when it comes to changes like Boris was saying and the they definitely if some of the other teams if they use it, they can uh make it to exploit it. So make the most of it. So, we got three teams off the front now with Roller chasing it, trying to make it four. I
think we’re actually going to going to end up now with uh now with five teams at the front and then Spoken’s coming across. It still could be six. So, it’s pretty much coming back together, but the pace is definitely on. So, it’s actually quite strung out and that’s uh does make it a little bit less hectic when there’s less teams trying to change at the same time and things like that. But been a pretty fast race so far. They’ve really got stuck in from the get- go. Yeah, you’ve got a few of those teams there that are really starting like Canterbury and Kenny Boys High, the teams really starting to push the pace quite aggressively, which has been good. It’s it’s actually made the race really splinter up here. So sometimes you see at the end of a end of an elite Madison like normally 40 to 50k and uh basically it’s almost like a time trial with uh just the way the fields split up and riders going everywhere. It’s a brutal race. So you got on the front here from Rick Castelli in second and Rer in third having a really good ride at those Red Castelli boys. They’ve just they’ve started to come into the race a bit more in the last few laps. making a break for it off the front on their own here. They just did a change and then got a gap and they’ve really rolled with it.
So you got Canterbury on front and Red Castelli in second. And then Roller, I think it’s in third. That’s just starting to struggle. But I think Jack’s starting to suffer a bit from that team sprint effort as well after the last race. Just taking a bit too much out of him, but he’s about to throw his partner Angus Simpson here. So that’ll that’ll be good. He gets a bit of a break. Definitely a clear two uh two two teams out front here though with the uh the Canterbury team and the recelli team.
Yeah, working well. Very hard to tell them apart actually out there those two teams
and Roller really is kind of chasing on their own. But having said that, at least in the Madison, like you’re always swapping out every kind of half the race, every couple laps with your with your partner. So, it’s not quite as bad as just chasing on your own. But it’s still essentially a two against one there. Yeah, a little bit of bad change for Rick Castelli there. They lost about 10 m. So, they’re going to have to work hard. And if you do that too many times, it does take that edge off your legs and make it just sap a little bit more energy out of you that you pay for towards the end of the race. also the Canterbury teams sort of just they look like they’re about to get caught and they’ve made a bit of a move there. Now the the uh CB CBHS team has joined the front again. So there’s uh there’s about five teams actually back at the front of the race now.
Spoken’s basically right there as well. So six Oh, the recelli team kind of nearly came together and they changed, but they got it done fine. They’re still still up there in this front group and it’s uh almost back to just being three teams. Although the uh what team is this? The team 18 consult they’ve joined rejoined the front as as spoken. They’re just dangling off the back. Sometimes when these changes are happening, they lose a bit of ground and they get it back and sort of not quite cohesive as a unit. But that’s kind of what what this racing series is about is actually doing these changes, doing these matters in a race environment and that’s the way you really get skillful at it. So we’re about to come around to 10 to go now. So third of the race left must say the Canary boys are the look the freshest out of that front group at this stage. Rena just looking a little bit more ragged. They definitely do. They’re sort of forcing the pace and they’re looking pretty good in the changes and yeah, they just have to front along, but still looking smooth with it with that pace slowly dying off. You can see the teams that are a little bit more fatigued as they roll through the front, which something not super common in a Madison is rolling through. Uh you sort of seeing the teams that are a bit more fatigued slowing it down a bit whereas the teams that have got a bit more to give are really starting to up the pace. is just hurt those teams that are hurting.
It’s good they actually are rolling through those. That is one mistake because it’s a bit less common in a matter and it can be quite tempting just to if you’re on the front just sit there and just know like oh yeah I’m going to throw my partner in shortly as well so I’ll just stay here at the front. But
thing is you’re still giving giving every other team a nice draft and sit. So
yeah, it’s good to see them actually aware of like, okay, I should actually swing off and especially when there’s only sort of four or five teams at the front. You’re not going that far back either.
Especially another thing in Madison, you don’t want to drop too far back cuz in an all bunch race, you go to the back, it’s not ideal, but you’ll kind of come through to the front. Whereas Madison, because there’s less swinging off, if you go to the back, it’s very, very hard to get back to the front again. Then add to that the fact that obviously with all the changes going on, you can end up stacked up the track and you’ve got to go a long long way around potentially. So still got these uh five teams at the front. Looks like they’re going to be fighting out in a in a bit of a sprint finish unless someone makes a a last minute move here. Starting to see a bit of pace by Christ Church on the front there. Starting to squeeze it a wee bit. There’s four in there. It looks like there’s just one team starting to get tailed off a little bit.
Yeah, team console. They’re just off the back. They have just done a change. It might be enough for them to come back.
Spoken making a move around the front here. So, they’re making a move. There’s a there’s a bit of a move in front of them from a team that’s actually being lapped, the county’s team, though I don’t think they’re they’re involved in the front of the race. Yeah. So, so as far as we’re aware, Spoken’s at the front with all that coming into a lap to go. Spoken from Christ Church Boys and Canterbury. And Christ Church Boys are going to do a change here with about half lap to go. Oh, it’s got to be a good change. And it is. It’s really nice change, but they’re going to have to go around another change of a lap team, which makes it a bit different. Spoken’s going to win that. Christ Church Boys and Oh, that was very close between Rick Castelli and Canterbury on the line.
I give it to Red Castelli from where I was sitting, but you’ve been wrong before.
I’ve been wrong many times before. So, we’ll wait for the judges on that one and then we’ll be on the last race of the evening which will be the A grade men’s Madison chase which will be 40 laps over 10k. Seven teams.
Yeah, not as many teams as I actually thought there might be in this one. Got the team of uh Sudal Quickstep is team number one in this one. Remy Dalton and Riley Crarampton. Then advanced personnel we have Max Allen and Alex both team Otago Magnus Jameson Josh Gre CMC Jamie Heenderson Cole Finga P the Corser Robert Turbull stealing Jarnell MQ is Oliver Ke and Benson boys and team green Mry and Ruben Shepard. Another thing you’ll notice is uh so each of the riders will have the same number on but one one rider in each pairing will have a black number or the writing on the number will be in black and the other other number for the other rider will be in red. So that’s how you can tell which rider is in the race at which time if you’re just trying to look at the numbers. Obviously you need a start sheet with that on it if you want to want to pick that out. But it does help you differentiate which one’s which. It’s starting to roll out on the track now. the uh Agrades boys. Some very very good teams there. So it should be quite a good race this one. Quite close. So we got a full 40 laps to this one as well. So a little bit longer race for the Ara men. Still a chase though. So no sprints, just first cross the line at the end win. quite often at uh like six day events things like that you see matters in chase. So, same thing, but often it’s done done for uh done as time rather than rather than distance quite a bit of the time. So, they’re just getting their final instructions here, the seven teams, and then they’ll get underway on a neutral lap to start. And there we go. Rolling away. Right, we’re underway for the final race of the evening. Seeing one team holding back a long way on the railing there, just uh just waiting and the rest of the teams shot off pretty much straight away. That one team that waited just uh they didn’t actually do a change just then. wait elected to to wait until next time around. Little bit of jostling early on here as well. Advanced personnel, interesting enough, decided not to change there in that first one. I’d expect to see this one quite fast and uh some someone will take the race to everyone else I’d say very reasonably early test everyone out.
Yeah, I’m quite surprised um with this advanced personnel team how far how hard they’re riding on the front but not really attacking. They’re just kind of riding hard but everyone’s just in the wheel at the moment. There small gaps opening up just there because of the change, but overall they’re just kind of stuck on the front at the moment. You
see that still reluctant to pull up or swing up and everyone’s still just in their draft. So yeah, not really putting anyone under too much stress at the moment, but
I’m hoping they realize soon. And uh this is definitely a lot of energy just to to not really hurt anyone. So that’s what I was talking about just before is that teams get reluctant to swing up because you feel like well I’m going to change my partner soon anyway but you’re still just using a lot of energy for no real reason. You’re not not hurting anyone else. Everyone else is just in the wheel. You’d never ride like this in an individual bunch race. Suspension and see what they’re doing here. So they’re going to do a change. So will they will they finally get off the front or they just keep time triing everyone around? There we go. They’ve they’ve uh swung up and there is a small gap opening up there in the bunch, but I think it’s just occurred because of uh some changes that were just a little bit sloppy rather than rather than anyone actually being on the limit. Everyone looks pretty comfy so far at this stage. Just coming up around with 32 laps to go, 2ks down of the 10ks. See the pace has come off a wee bit now in that bunch. They’re just slowly starting to jostle a bit more for position. Advanced personnel is making another move here. So they’re trying to open up a bit of a gap. That’s a good one. Really really uh make the move attack into where you’re doing a change. So you use the last of your energy to get a bit of a gap and then use that momentum to sling your partner in. Unfortunately, everyone else has been wise to it and is still on the on the wheel at the moment. This time they have swung up though, so that’s a really good move. Like give something a go. It doesn’t work out. Get off the front, stop wasting energy. So really uh good move and and better tactics there from advanced personnel and trying to make that move this time. It seems like the Otago team sort of taken up that mantle now of sitting on the front a bit more than the other teams.
Definitely does appear that way. At least the one good thing is I don’t think they’re riding super super hard, but I think I’d still be Yeah, there you go. Swinging up the front, getting off the front. It’s been a little bit less aggressive so far than I anticipated.
Yeah, I did expect one team to probably try and make a fly by now, but I think they’re just being a bit measured. I know you 40 laps, 10k, it’s a long enough race that if you go a bit hard early, you’ll probably pay for it in the back end. So, probably just trying to be a little bit measured at least for the first half of this race and then maybe look to light it up after that. The other thing is while it while it hasn’t been super super fast and hard looking, it is it’s been a pretty solid tempo. So, it’s actually quite hard to attack from this sort of pace. It’s it’s too it’s too hard to make a big attack and it’s it’s too easy to um to just be easy. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of just that enough that pace just to deter everyone enough. They’re coming around now. 25 to go. Go. Making a making a move around the front. Now there’s a few little gaps starting open, but I don’t think a lot of it’s anything to do with fatigue. I think it’s just people just taking their time to react. Pace isn’t too high. It’s just a nice good steady tempo. So it’s Oliver Ke on the front with for MU. He’s been there for quite a while. He swings up now. This is uh which team is this that’s just coming to the front. Sudal quick step I believe. Looks like a little bit of a move coming from counties around the outside, although it might have fizzled out by now. Thought
we were going to get our first attack of the evening. And that pace is just really drowned out of that bunch. Now,
this might be what’s necessary though to to actually set up an attack is is actually have it ease off, have everyone recover, have the pace go, then someone can actually try and take a flyer. So, wouldn’t be surprised if in uh the next sort of
four or five laps we see someone try something. It’s also just getting that little bit closer to the end where you actually believe that yeah, maybe we actually can make it to the end. Whereas when you know you’ve got sort of six, sevenk to go, it can be can be pretty daunting to think you’re going to have to go that far and potentially just with your partner. See there might darting a wee bit more now to lift the pace up as they’ll come around and get 20 to go this time. So halfway and there’s the mer move. Halfway.
There we go. Advanced personnel. And this is a a very good move. Nice big attack there. Muse wise to it.
Yeah. So is is that Lotto as well coming in and
Sud quick step in fact. Zack I don’t think lot that for quite a while now.
I’m showing my age there. All I can hear in the background is Pink Pony Club playing with the Junior World Sprint uh men’s sprinters on repeat. So, it’s more just art giving me more questions than answers.
Yeah, I can tell you one of my flat mates absolutely hates that song. Useless fact for the evening as we go back to the racing quick step still on the front. again. Just another team consent content just to sit on the front and just uh wait till they see their partner. Just doing a lot of work there now as they’re sort of fatiguing that instead of swinging off they’re just just slowed up on the front.
I wonder if it’s a bit of a tactic for some of these teams that are unsure if they’re going to make it to the finish. if it’s fast is they’d rather sit on the front and slow it down potentially
try. But
I also think they don’t want to give up bunch position. But like we said at the start, this this bunch is actually quite a bit smaller than than I thought it was going to be. So kind of going to the back is probably not the end of the world here.
There are only six teams in front of you. We’ve got an attack from team green now. Good little move there. Everyone’s sort of wise to it though and responding, but it might be the the spark that likes to fuse this one and gets everyone going. Yeah, Mu is going to going to try and carry on with this by the looks. Although maybe not. They have a look around just under the shoulder.
Yeah, it looks like they’re stopping now unless anyone else is really keen to take it. But everyone else on the wheel seems pretty comfortable. So, we’re about to come down to sort of, you know, 3k to go now. Starting to get towards that territory. If someone took a flyer, they might be able to hold off.
Does look like these teams are all actually relatively evenly matched the way they’re able to to just just jump with each other when there is an attack. So, I wonder if it’s actually just just no one’s really able to make a difference at the moment.
I do wonder with advanced personnel given how they’ve they’ve raced so far in this race, whether they might be the team to maybe take it to everyone and take a fly, take a risk. I do wonder that it’s it’s getting to that point where uh maybe in a couple of laps time, it’s that point where you take a flyer and it’s that awkward distance where people people don’t want to chase cuz it’s too close to the finish and but it’s it’s also close enough to the finish that you can basically just expend all your energy at one go without too much risk of blowing up. So, it’s getting to that point if you want to play that tactic, it’s the time to do it. and 10 to go now. So we’re inside coming around inside that final 10 laps to go now. So this is when if something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. And they’ve been very for for agrade men. It’s been quite a quiet race to be fair. Got to agree. We were talking about uh one of the races earlier was talking about how a lot of them just riding hard for the sake of riding hard. I think uh this been been a little bit tame, but maybe they burnt themselves out early. Here we go. It’s starting to kick off though. This is Sudal Quickstep making a big move here. Advanced personnel is pretty much straight on them though as is team green and mitogo not too far behind as pisto and CMC. So everyone’s still pretty much together. Yeah, everyone seems to have it covered all that was quite close call there. They’re all starting to even when they’re sitting on the front now. The pace just isn’t lulling as what much as what it was earlier. So coming into one and a half to go still all together. So definitely definitely team starting to think about that final sprint and how they position themselves. Whose wheel do you want to be on? Where are you going to do that final change? Who’s going to do it? Some of that kind of needs to have been set in stone already if you’re going to plan it, but wait and see who nails it in the finish. So, they’re going to come around here now. Five laps to go. Now they’ll be they’ll be starting to think about that final change in positioning where they are as we actually got a move coming now from counties. Very good opportunistic move coming into a ch Oh, and they’ve missed the change. Oh no.
Oh no. It’s one where the partner just needed to to really assert themselves and just just drop in and force everyone to go around them. Um but in the end the riders made the attack still going with it. So it’s not not the dream scenario, but it’s still working at the moment. They’ve got a bit of a gap, but Sudal quick is closing them down a bit as is I think that Otago in third wheel.
That’s where you really if you’re the partner of in that counties team, you really need to be slowing down now to try and get onto that front now.
Yeah, which is what they’ve done. So, he’s uh the partner’s now dropping in.
Oh, here we go.
Yeah, that was a good drop in. Just get it get down there. Make everyone go around. Unfortunately, going to get swamped. Yep.
A Tiger nails that final one and a quarter lap to go change. So they got a got a bit of a lead and good pace here. That’s good too from I think it was pissed the Corsera there in second to just not bother doing that final change. I think that was a good call and that’s got them second place.
Advanced personnel there takes third, CMC in fourth, MQ fifth, Sale Quickstep in sixth and team green just not quite in the sprint there after that attack a few laps ago. So, that’s our final race there. I think we’re back on tomorrow morning from I believe it’s 9:00 a.m. kickoff. I’ve just heard over the speaker. I won’t uh I won’t be here commentating. I’ll be
I won’t either, unfortunately.
Yeah, I’ll be in the lab doing some uh testing. If anyone wants to sign up for a sports drink study, I’m still looking for two more participants.
Get amongst it, people. Get amongst it. And uh we will yeah we’ll be tuning into the live stream tomorrow no doubt to who Dammo’s got lined up to commentate. So cheers for the evening everyone and we hope you enjoyed. All right catch you later and looking forward to more racing tomorrow. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.