Good evening from Manchester,
Apologies for the late newsletter, but it was rather a late night last night, with us booking in at around midnight, at which the local time was amended by an hour here in the UK. As such we are now two hours behind South Africa.
We were up early yesterday morning, as I had arranged breakfast for 05h30, with a scheduled departure of 06h00. The previous evening I had purchased some French loaves, ham, chicken, etc., etc., so made some fresh loaves for the team to snack on as we traveled up to Manchester. It rained for the first half of the trip, with it only becoming daylight at about 07h30.
We arrived at the Manchester track as scheduled just before 10h00 and off-loaded the van. I was lucky enough to have arrange that we could source our storage container that we would use for the World Cup. As such our equipment is all safely under lock and key.
Registration commenced at 11h00, whilst racing started at 13h30. In summary today was a combination of highs and lows. Maroesjka started the day by riding the 200meter sprint and qualified in eight place.
Next up were our two sprinters, “Janie and Smittie” whom both rode personal best times of 10.41 by Jeanne Nell and 10.64 by Jean Smith, which I believe is an awesome result. Both felt a little unhappy, as they wanted better, whereas yours truly was ecstatic. Smithies’ lines could have been smoother and tighter which would certainly have improved his time.
Endurance followed with Evan and Kellan riding the point’s race for Rouleur, which is a bicycle magazine. Both lads rode a highly commendable race for the first third of the bike race, when unfortunately the monkey climbed on Kellan’s back when he tried to take a lap. At this stage, Kellan was actually on top of the leader board with eight points, whilst Evan had three points. Evan finished with the bunch earning ??? Points whist Kellan’s, who never gave up, along with his monkey was lapped a couple of times.
Neither “Janie nor Smittie” made it through to the final qualification of the Kerin, whilst Evan rode the flying lap on behalf of the endurance team in a time of 14.25?????
The organizers had arranged supper for the invited competitors, for which we were hugely appreciative of. This allowed the athletes to relax and enjoy the delicious salads, lasagna and beef stroganoff with rice, before laying down to relax and recuperate.
The evening’s session started at 19h00 – shoo, what a vibe as the velodrome filled up with enthusiastic spectators and supporters. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to video our team at the head of the Revolution Team introduction, but please see the attached picture of the Rouleur invitation team which was made up of two elite riders (Evan & Kellan), two future stars girls and two future starts boys, all under 17 years of age. There were 10 team in total, which each category earning points for their team.
Maroesjka’s was wasn’t having a great evening, not feeling herself, was the first athlete eliminated from her elimination race, which was followed by the Minor Sprint finals for the elite men, where Janie had qualified in eighth place and had a sudden death ride off against Matt Crampton, just the type of competition that he needs J.
Event 16, men’s elimination, after a heavy two weeks, both athletes had made the decision to save their legs for the up-coming two events of the 1Km Madison and Scratch races, as such opted out early in the race.
The Kerin minor final for the elite men was an awesome race won by Jeanne Nell – please see the videos on uTube the last lap can be seen on http://youtu.be/WHUgVf9aTSQ, whilst the final 50 meters of the sprint can be viewed on http://youtu.be/kwsKXGKSZWg – The Kerin ended of an evening of racing which provided and awesome and much needed experience for our young sprinters.
Maroesjka had a more pleasing scratch ride, finishing just behind the main bunch. Thereafter competing in the 1 kilometer Madison for the first time ever the duo of Carstens and Gouveris posted the credible time of 58.4 to be place second in their heats and fourth overall J,
Sitting in the wings, well… not really in the wings was young Bernard Esterhuizen. Bernie was awesome as he used his professionalism and passion in support the lads as our mechanic – it’s awesome to see our focused young lad relaxed and in his element.
The men’s scratch race was a fast hard event, will Kellan deciding to up his gear to 101, which backfired a bit. Evan had an awesome ride finishing fifth overhaul and was the second non-pro rider home.
We packed our equipment into the storage container as quickly as possible before departing for our hotel accommodation, which is the Airport Hilton, two minutes from the airport.
A very special thanks to Phil West and James Pope for facilitating our invitation, as well as Sarah Fletcher for arranging our accommodation. Thanks Revolution organizers for the awesome experience and hospitality that you have afforded us. Bless you.
Sleep tight all
Best Regards
Roger
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