2016 Junior Canadian Track Championships
After a long weekend of racing at the Canadian Junior Track Championships at the Pan Am Track in Milton, Ontario I am glad to be home.
This year nationals meant a little more, I had to approach it more seriously. As I am now a first year junior I am eligible to qualify for the Junior Track World Championships later this year in Switzerland.
One event was particularly on my mind, the 2000m pursuit. To qualify I would need to meet the standard of a 2:32 time. All the other events were just icing on the cake.
Mid February I attended a track training camp run under Cam Jennings, he is the Women's Track Endurance NextGen coach out of Milton. He invited four juniors to attend this week long camp, this was a pursuit focused camp mainly working on the technical aspects of team pursuing. at the end of the camp we were expected to take part in the astern Challenge put on by the O-Cup organizers and Cycling Canada. why was it so important, well the first event up was a 2000m pursuit, testing where we are in our training after a long week. my nerves were high for this, my previous best time 5 months prior at the 2015 Track Championships was a 2:37. Not even coming close to the standard. talking to my coach Jeff the night before we decided that this was the time to take a few risks, lets run a big gear. 94.5". before this camp I hadn't gone bigger then a 90". The pursuit went to plan and I was able to pull off a 2:31, I had done it. I had made the standard. But being a local event it was not the right time to be able to qualify. I had to do that time in a month at Nationals to be able to qualify for worlds. But now I knew I could do it.
The first day of the Championships was the team events. My team mate Maggie Coles-Lyster and I broke the Team sprint CR (2 lap race against the clock) and taking the title. not a bad way to start off the championships.
The morning of day 2 was the 2000m qualifiers. I arrived 2 hours before my race, giving myself time to prep my bike and get settled in. Envisioning my start was key for me in my preparation. My schedule was supposed to be similar to the one I had done in February, except a bit faster. the first three laps started out almost 3 seconds then what we had planned for, I guess nerves were higher then I had expected. But I did it, I made the standard, in that I set a new PB and a new CR. with a time of 2:27 I was finished, unable to stop myself coming off the track. I couldn't be happier, I am so proud of my ride, but I am also so proud of the other girls in my category who rode their hearts out. without the motivation, and competitiveness from everyone we wouldn't have this kind of opportunity. After the qualifier we had a bit of a break, but what i wasn't prepared for was a second ride, Finals. It was TaG rider Maggie on one side of the track and me on the other. Gold Medal round. After another hard ride maggie pulled out the win with a time of 2:29, my legs were shot. throughout the day we rode the flying 200m where Maggie and I set new CR's, Placed 2nd in the match sprints to maggie and came 2 in the points race.
Days three was fun, experiencing a few power failures during the kierins. we started with the 500m TT. This just happened to be qualifying for the sprint side of the team for Junior Track Worlds. I set a New CR with a time of 37.0 taking the nationals title.
I am coming away from this competition so proud, proud of the amazing support from friends and family, coaches, volunteers and competitors. Everyone raced absolutely incredibly, we would not be so fortunate to have such an event if everyone wasn't so committed in their part. so thank you to everyone who made my experience one that I will not forget.
Huge shout out to My team Bear Mountain Tripleshot for making it a smooth sailing through nationals and the wonderful support, I would not be where I am today without you.
