Race Report
Can/Am Challenge
November 28, 2009
By Rob Good/Joe Brennan

Over 65 riders battled it out on Saturday night at the Forest City Velodrome in London Ontario, a 138 meter indoor Velodrome built inside an ice hockey arena. This race night was the highlight of the 2009 racing season. Riders came up from NY, NJ, PA and Connecticut, 17 were from the Province of Quebec and the rest of the field were Ontario racers. The field included Kissena riders: Joe Brennan, Lance Woodbury and Kim Edwards.

Two of Canada’s cycling royalty, World Champion Gordon Singleton plus Tour de France competitor and Director of Planet Energy, Steve Bauer were in the house. We were almost at capacity with the number of spectator’s watching the show. They were cheering for their favourites all night. It was like a party, with many new cycling fans in attendance.

In women’s racing, there were many attacks going off the front. The average speed was 40 kph for 40 lap endurance race. Once the race settled in, Amy Biskaborn eventually came away with the hard fought victory, Biskaborn rolled off the front and none of the other women were able to match her speed. Biskaborn won by 10 bike lengths, Kimberly Edwards from Hartford, Conn. was 2nd.

In sprint action, It was an all London final as 2009 Canadian Junior sprint Champion, Allan Leparskas and Mike Nuttall (Cycles London) easily made it through to the final. The 750m event was very tactical with neither rider wanting to show their hand too early. With 3 laps to go, Nuttall attacked over the top in an effort to gain the advantage, Leparskas countered with a quick burst of speed and continued to accelerate to the finish just nipping Nuttall at the line by ½ a bike length…. Very exciting and the spectators were on their feet to congratulate the riders as they high fived each other at the start finish line.

The 138 lap CanAmQue Challenge began with 4 heats to set the field for the 2 – Semi Finals. All of the favourites advanced easily with Planet Energy and 2009 Canadian U23 Road Champion Guilliam Bovin leading the way. Joe Brennan (NJ) was the only American to advance to the semi-finals.

The 138 lap challenge started off as you would expect, Fast…. with a $100 preme for the first rider to lap the field. Dave St James (London) attacked on lap 1 and gained ¾ of a lap very quickly, only to come within 10 metres of taking home the cash and…… you guest it, he blew hard as the pace picked up as the big guns wanted the cash for themselves. It was a valiant effort by St James, he paid dearly for the effort and had to withdraw from the event (cramps). Many attacks went off the front of the race however it wasn’t until Planet Energy’s, Guilliam Bovin rolled off the front and was the first rider to lap the field. Guilliam pocketed the $100.00. There was still over 90 laps to go and Bovin was on his own a lap up on the field, that was until local junior Ryan Aitcheson (Jetfuel Coffee) made a hard effort from mid pack. Aitcheson immediately put a ½ lap into the field before Bovin could get to the front to try to close the gap. With in 3 laps Aitcheson was at the back of the pack, he was on even terms with Bovin – 1 lap up on the rest of the riders.

The final 10 laps for the 2 leaders keep an eye on one another like they were in a short sprint race. Bovin and Aitcheson marking the movements all over the track. The crowd was going crazy. Many of the racers were still on the infield, they were all on their feet cheering it was quite a show…….. (5 to go) the battle between Ontario and Quebec would come down to who had the most speed in the final 500m. Aitcheson took the lead, and steadily picked up the pace. 400m to go Aitcheson attacked and opened up a 4 bike length lead, Bovin closed the gap and with 1 to go started his charge over the top of the junior…. Elbow to elbow down the back stretch, both riders on the rivet, Aitcheson took the advantage in the final corner and crosses the finish line and the victory was his. The margin of victory was .087 seconds. The average speed for the race was 43.625 kph. That’s after almost 25 minutes of racing. The fastest lap of the event was Aitcheson on the last and final lap with a time of 8.56 seconds or 58.037kph.

138 Lap Finale
1 Ryan Aitcheson (Jetfuel Coffee) Ontario
2 Guiiium Boven (Planet Energy) Quebec
3 Dave Byer (Jetfuel Coffee) Ontario
4 Phillip Raymond – Quebec
5 Garnett Abbey – Ontario

For complete CanAmQue Challenge results go to www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca