Building on the idea surrounding our Monday night Development rides, on Monday June 20 we will be running a sprint clinic. Sprinting or Match sprinting is usually a track cycling event for between two to four riders over a short distance.  For our purposes we will be using Maxey road where two riders will flip a coin to decide who leads and then sprint the 300m back to the finish line just before Durnin road.  The lead rider can choose to choose to ride slow and force the other rider to move in front allowing them to draft and save energy for the final sprint.  Alternatively, the lead rider can also choose to drop the hammer from the start and try to out pace their opponent for the entire distance.

If there are enough riders we will run team sprints where four riders take the course working in teams of two.  In team sprints one rider will typically do the majority of the work and pulling their team mate to the line where they can then accelerate to cross the line first at a much higher speed than if they were riding alone.

Any riders interested will meet up at six pm at the NIC, from there we’ll take a short warm up ride up Jingle pot road and down East wellington to Maxey road.  After a brief safety and coaching speech there will be a demonstration and opportunity for all riders to have a try at it.

Again everyone is welcome to come out.  Sprinting is a great way to work on your fitness and speed with lots of short, high intensity effort with time to recover while the next riders give it a go.

Hope to see you out there.

Next Friday, May 29th, the third event in the Sprint Series, presented by Michael Gill Wealth Investment, takes place on Maxey Road at 6pm, registration at 5.30pm. There will be prizes and some goodies for participants. For further information, email info@bikeracing.ca Go here for some good sprinting

Small turnout for tonight's sprints - only three participants; must be the long weekend!Jim Brown, John Lam and Mike Gill rode a round robin to give a bit of variety. Jim was beaten by both the other riders so the final was between Mike and John. Both competitors wer strong but Mike failed to draft in the finasl 200 metres and also used lower gears so \john took both heats and won ther series. They did have a third sprint too but John won again Next week, there will be a sprint clinic before the start

RESULTS 1. John Lam 2. Mike Gill 3. Jim Brown

Mike Gill is now the title sponsor of the series as his company is supporting the activity.

The first event in the NVA sprint series was a blast! Although only four competitors took part, there was also a mini contest with two kids competing and Patrick Burnham showed up to take some photos that will be up on Flickr. shortly.. Nick Kupiak came to watch and offered one of his new bottles as a prize - thanks Nick. We also had a local resident take some pictures. The event went straight to the semi-finals, with Kim Sutherland racing against Carey Mark in the first of three heats. Kim won handily, with Carey just failing to get onhis wheel in the final 200 metres. Then Justin Mark competed against Phil Birrer in the first heat of the other semi-final. This time, it was Justin comfortably beating Phil.

Before the second heats in the semi competition, it was the kids' turn. Peyton Mark and Chase Mark started their first sprint from the 200 metre mark and Chase edged his sister by a good margin.

In the second round of the semis, Kim again beat Carey but this race was much closer, with Carey drafting her opponent until fading just before the fiishfinishline. In the other semi-final, Phil started the sprint early but JasonJustin came around Mr. Birrer in the last 100 metres to take the race and move on to the finals with Kim.

Now the second of the kids' sprints took place and this time Peyton managed to outdistance her older brother so it was now one each.

In the first final ride for first and second, Justin won quite easily from Kim, giving Mr. Sutherland an incentive to provide more of a challenge to the younger rider which he did in heat two. However, although Kim managed to draft Justin and came through in the final few metres, Justin just managed to stay ahead by half a bike length to win the first event of the series, Kim taking second overall.

Everyone enjoyed the evening a lot and next week should prove to be more popular, with many more competitors.

In the contest for third and fourth, Phil was matched against Carey and managed to take two straight, giving him third place. Finally, the deciding race of the kids series proved to be a nail biter, Chase, on the bigger bike rode well, but Peyton revved at 100+ rpm to stay ahead of her brother and be declared winner of the first kids' sprint event.

RESULTS

Senior Contest:  1. JasonJustin Mark - BCBR, 2. Kim Sutherland - MIVA, 3. Phil Birrer - MIVA, 4. Carey Mark - Steed Cycles.

Youth Event: 1. Peyton Mark, 2. Chase Mark.

A number of big road events are often preceded byy a sprint competition among the riders. This year, MIVA, in cooperation with the new Nanimo Velodrome Association, is organising a weekly sprint series on Maxey Road, just off East Wellington.The format will be a double knockout competition, with 2, 3 or 4 person heats, the winner going through to the next round and the rest going to a repechage for a second chance to qualify. The specific format will depend on the number of competitors but everyone will be able to participate in 3 sprints. Further information from pakamac@gmail.com