Day 2 at Velodrome

Day 2 at the velodrome was an amazing day full of great races.

By this time we knew where to go, how long it would take to get there and what the security check points would be like. The organisation also seemed to be improving with more consistency. There was food available (chicken burgers only it seemed) all day and water and soft drinks available all day outside of the venues.

Sean has not yet recovered from his bugs and is now on another set of antibiotics. Really he has not had a great time of it but he has remained in good humour. I can only presume his normal Sunday morning hangover had provided him with training to keep smiling despite lack of sleep or energy !

The Keiren racing was awesome, what an amazing event it is to watch. We had Simon van Veldhoven competing and he has just returned from many months of Keiren racing in Japan. Simon went smoothly through his heat into the semi final. He seemed very comfortable in the semi final and made it to the final..
The second semi final had some drama with two riders crashing, eventually Shane Perkins of Australia who won the semi final was relegated for coming down on Awang (Malaysia) who in turn came down and hit the front wheel of the South African rider who went down taking out ??? the last rider).

The final was packed with really good riders and racing was fast and furious. At the end Simon was 4th much to our disappointment. There had been some argy bargy in the last lap with Simon being impeded and eventually the winner of the race Awang was relegated for a head butt on Simons hip in the last lap. The lift Simon to a bronze medal. Massive ! What proud parents and a delighted crowd of Kiwi's.

The mens points race was amazing to watch Cameron Meyer from Australia put on  a masterful display and won by a huge margin. In my view Aaron Gate from New Zealand was the second best rider there. Aaron was unlucky with the breaks not to lap the field. If he had managed this then he would have been amongst the medals. We were delighted that Aaron came up into the stands and sat with us for a few minutes after his racing was over.

Obviously for us the Individual Sprints was going to be the highlight of the day with Sam, Ethan and Eddie all riding. In qualifying flying 200m Sam ride 4th fastest, Eddie 6th and Ethan 7th. The times were 10.3, 10.4 ish which are not PBs for the boys but only Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland went a lot faster.

All went smoothly in the first ride off. The difference in ability of the riders was pretty pronounced. Eddie Dawkins rode a very respectful ride letting his Indian opponent lead him out and only passing in the last few metres. Eddie made many friends in the crowd by indicating the applause should be for his opponent on the slow down lap. Unfortunately in the next round Eddie and Ethan were drawn together. It was a good race and I was really impressed with Ethan ride, he was positive and initiated the sprint when he wanted it. Eddie had to work very hard to pass him.

This then put Ethan into the Repechage. Both of the Repechages were tough with 3 strong riders in each. Once again Ethan was very positive and initiated the sprint, he was beaten but showed that he is getting stronger with each outing.

The day also featured the team Pursuit qualifying, really there is only new Zealand and Australia fielding capable teams and they have qualified for the gold silver ride off. Australia broke the Games record in qualifying but I know New Zealand didn't have to set a fast time to get the ride off tomorrow so we will see how it goes.

There are more Kiwi's in the crowd as most of the cycling parents are here. At lunch time I met a English guy who the brother in law of Wendy Houvenagl (likely to be the greatest competitor for Alison Shanks in the Individual Pursuit). No NZ TV cameras present to day but maybe tomorrow with the finals. Still a few NZ reporters with Andrew Saville from One news and others making contacts with the parents

After the events it was straight back to the hotel for a quick meal and bed.