Greg Townsend shows us 3 bikes he brought to the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show. His personal bike, a freshly painted customer bike, and a grass track racing bike.

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Townsend Cycles Ltd.

Jeremy Shlachter shows us one of his track bikes and give us an insight into what inspires his bike designs and the philosophy behind his style of build.

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Gallus Cycles

‘CH2050’ is the latest painting by artist Lee Jones, whose striking image of Cheryl Cole as the ‘Angel of the North’ has recently achieved widespread press coverage and captured the public imagination.

‘CH2050’ is part of the ‘Beyond Human’ series, portraying elite athletes as superhuman beings. This unique painting of newly crowned BBC Sports Personality of the year Chris Hoy MBE - Olympic gold cycling medallist, World Champion and Commonwealth champion - depicts the Scottish hero with bulging gold biceps and legs, in a reference to his astonishing coup of 3 gold medals in Beijing this year.

According to BBC News ‘Hoy’s achievements at the Beijing Olympics were simply superhuman’, and Lee Jones’s painting of Hoy as ‘Beyond Human’ is a fitting artistic interpretation of this exceptional athlete. Chris Hoy’s agent - Ricky Cowan at 110 Sport – has said that he is ‘delighted to be associated’ with the painting by Lee Jones.

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Canadian Cam MacKinnon finished in the 12th place in the men’s keirin standings on Saturday at a track cycling World Cup competition in Los Angeles. It was MacKinnon’s keirin debut at the World Cup level. He participated in the Kilometer TT and Team Sprint World Cup competition in 2006 in Bordeaux, France, and also won the Pan American Champion in the Kilometer TT that same year.

MacKinnon was fifth in his first qualifying heat. Only the winners in each heat advanced forcing MacKinnon to a repechage heat which he dominated and advanced to the semi-final or second round. In the second round, MacKinnon needed a top-three finish in his heat to qualify for the final round. He took fifth spot for 12th overall.

MacKinnon has been racing track for seven years. He feels that he’s “had the most success at keirin, but starting to like sprinting a little bit better, match sprints.”

About the race

“I’m fairly satisfied especially how I rode in the morning, getting through to the semi-finals.” said MacKinnon about his results. “Once I hit the semis, I just didn’t feel right, I didn’t feel comfortable. I’m happy with it, I learned a lot of different things that I could improve for sure.”

He learnt that he “definitely needs to work on positioning and making sure to react quicker to different moves in the race” because waiting too long, even “a split second late and that’s completely over at this level.”

There is “lots of pushing, that’s legal. You have to do whatever you can to get positioning.” explained MacKinnon about the strategy in the Keirin. “The other half of the strategy is pure speed and being able to hang on. Positioning is important because even if you’re the fastest guy, if you’re starting your run at 10 meters back you have no chance the race is over.”

About the plans for the rest of the year and his frustration with the CCA

MacKinnon is unsure about future competitions for the rest of the year as it is up to the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA). And according to MacKinnon, “they haven’t been too good to us this year so we’ll see what happens. I’ll have to speak to them. It’s likely that this was my last race of the season. I have no idea, really no idea what to expect. I’ve been expecting that. I’ve been dealing with them all year, and it really hasn’t improved at all despite many promises.”

“I want them to establish a program and they don’t have to go nuts and provide everything right away but they need to start somewhere and they’re not at all.” said MacKinnon when asked what he wants the CCA to do. “They should have started four years ago, the process to get started for Beijing, and I’d say it was at its peak four years ago, and it’s only gotten worse every year which doesn’t make any sense. It’s how they are managing their budget, I’m not really sure, but it’s unacceptable, they need to find corporate sponsors, they need to go and work for it and not just say ‘we don’t have it so we can’t do anything’.”

A frustrated MacKinnon explained that he had to pay his way to get to the World Cup in Los Angeles, “I had to pay my whole way to get here along with pretty much the rest of the team. And we’ve had some good result…world cup medalist are paying their own way to come here. Every other rider is being paid to be here, so it’s kind of a big difference. A lot needs to be done.”

Cam MacKinnon placed 22nd in the men’s sprint qualifying and did not advance. He did post a personal best 10.616 seconds.

by Stephanie Gutowski and Lyne Lamoureux

Ukraine wins the Women’s Team Pursuit, USA takes bronze

The three Ukrainian team composed of Yelizaveta Bochkarova, Svitlana Galyuk and Lesya Kalitovska won the third road of the World Cup Women’s Team Pursuit by beating the Russian team of Evgeniya Romanyuta, Olga Slyusareva and Elena Tchalykh. Winners in Beijing last month, the Ukrainian team took over the World Cup leadership from the Russian with just one World Cup remaining this year.

After the first kilometer, Ukraine was already ahead of Russia by over one second (1:564), and the gap increased to almost two seconds (1:909) after the second kilometer. Finally, after the final third kilometer, the Ukrainian women’s advantage grew to two seconds and a half (2:580).

The American team composed of Kristin Armstrong, Lauren Franges and Christen King beat the German team of Charlotte Becker, Christina Becker and Verena Joos to win the third step on the podium. The American team made it to the final round by finishing fourth in the qualifying heats with a time of 3:35:946 with an average speed of 50.012 k/hr.

“In the qualifying we had Armstrong taking 2 lap pulls. She was by far the strongest of the three of us. For us, being mainly endurance riders, it’s easier for us in the second round… to flush everything out in the first round.” said Lauren Franges on the difference between the qualifying and final rounds.

In the head to head race for third place, the American team pulled out in front in the first kilometer with a small gap of a third of a second (0:306) which decreased to 0:041 after the second kilometer. The American trio finished with a time of 3:31:453 with a small gap of 0:067 ahead of the German team.

A very happy Franges after the podium ceremony confided that “It feels awesome you know having a former world TT rider on the team… it’s a lot of pressure so we knew we had to really step up our game coming into the final. I knew we had to leave everything out on the track.”

Kristin Armstrong could not attend the podium ceremony and according to Franges, “She is okay. The effort she put in took a lot out of her but she’s okay.”

Women’s Team Pursuit
1. Ukraine 3:27.438
2. Russia 3:30.018
3. USA 3:31.453

Italy’s Roberto Chiappa win the Men’s Sprint

Roberto Chiappa easily won the final of the Men’s Sprint beating Frenchman Kévin Sireau of Cofidis in two rounds. The Italian made it to the final by eliminating Shane Kelly, Mickaël Bourgain et Teun Mulder.

Chiappa was very confident going into the final. “My condition this week is very strong. I had good feeling for the keirin yesterday, and today my condition was getting better all the time, stronger for each qualification heat, ” he explained. “But it was not easy because I respect my opponents.”

Second-place Kévin Sireau made it to the final by beating, in three rounds, his countryman Grégory Baugé in the semi-finals.

“Again, I pushed my limits, I learned a lot compared to the two last World Cups, and it was pretty hard especially against Gregory (Baugé). Three qualifying rounds before starting the final makes it very hard” said Sireau.

When asked about his goals for the year, Sireau replied “everything (World Championships and Olympic Games). I hope to go to the Olympic games, but the selection is difficult given the talent.”

With his win in Sydney and his fifth place finish in Los Angeles, Mickaël Bourgain of France kept the lead in the World Cup standings.

Men’s Sprint
1. Roberto Chiappa (ITA)
2. Kévin Sireau (FRA)
3. Teun Mulder (NED)

Jennie Reed wins the Women’s Keirin

American Jennie Reed, of the Momentum Cycling Team, won the final heat on the Women’s Keirin ahead of the Netherlands’ Willy Kanis, China’s Jinjie Gond, Cuba’s Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez. Russia’s Swetlana Grankowskaja and Australia’s Anna Meares. “I love the keirin. I have a good feeling for it, and I ride on instinct.” said a very happy Reed after the podium ceremony.

“I think I got more feeling in my legs, I knew what I was capable of today.” explained Reed who won both her first and second qualifying heats to make it to the final. “In the morning session, I did not feel that well. Tonight I felt better, I knew I had the legs. I just thought I’d go out there and be patient. I read the race and decided to go for it.”

“It really helps because I train here every day. I know the best position to be in… it’s really hard here to pass if you are too many people back. I knew that I am strong for long sprints so they would have to worry about me. I know that if I got on the front they would have trouble getting around.” said Reed about the advantage of racing with home-court advantage.

Reed’s next focus is the World Championship in England. “I’d like to win the World title in the Keirin in Manchester.”

With her win last month in Beijing, her seventh place finish in Sydney, and her second place finish in Los Angeles, Dutch Willy Kanis takes over the lead in the World Cup Standings.

Women’s Keirin
1. Jennie Reed (USA)
2. Willy Kanis (NED)
3. Jinjie Gong (CHN)

Belgian duo wins the Men’s Madison

The Belgian duo of Kenny De Ketele and Tim Mertens won the Men’s Madison with 8 points and more importantly by taking a lap over their opponents early in the race.

“It was kind of a plan of me and the coach but Tim didn’t really know about it because I was planning to do the attack.” explained Kenny de Ketele about the team’s strategy to lap the field early on.

“He (Tim Mertens) needs something like that because sometimes he is too … nervous when he knows.  He’s better just following through a race and he did a great job.” continued twenty-year old De Ketele about surprising his teammate.

A laughing Mertens chimed in, while mimicking the madison exchange move, “He said ’surprise’ and I said ‘asshole’.”

At the end of the race, the Belgian team finished ahead of Denmark’s Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen and Germany’s Roger Kluge and Olaf Pollack.

“We gained our lap and they gave us some space to do some recuperation and after that we just had to keep our lap in front of the group, and then with 40 or 50 laps to go I watched our points. We also were very high in points, so I know that there were only two teams that we didn’t want them to get a lap because they were better on points, and that was just one of the teams that went on the attack at the end so we just knew we had to go and just keep going.” explained De Ketele on the strategy after the duo lapped the field.

With this win, Belgium takes the top of the standings in the World Cup Men’s Madison, and the team is “definitely defending the World Cup Madison title in Denmark.”

“For the Olympics Madison and Worlds, we have three riders, we have also Iljo Keisse, he’s actually our top rider. It’s kind of between Tim and me to get the second place but it’s really a friendly competition.” said De Ketele about the upcoming Olympic Games. “All of us went for it and we’re still in the race to get team pursuit into the Olympics and that’s our next goal.”

Men’s Madison
1. Belgium 8
2. Denmark 18, -1
3. Germany 12, -1

Quotes and Photos from the podium at the LA Track World Cup Day2

By Lyne Lamoureux

Australian Team wins Men’s Team Pursuit

In the Men’s Team Pursuit, the Danes and the Australians qualified for the final where the four-man teams went head to heard on a distance of 4 kilometers.

“We were the eighth team off, really due to our standards, (we had) average results for us in the last two World Cups so we had to go out and really put it on the line which we did. We rode a really good time of 4:09 just short of the fastest qualifiers.” said Peter Dawson about the qualifying heat which brought the Australian team to the final.

The battle ensued between the Danish team of Casper Jorgensen, Jens-Erik Madsen, Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen and the Australian quartet of Jack Bobridge, Peter Dawson, Mark Jamieson and Bradley McGee. The Danish team led off with an advantage over the first few laps with a gap of one second (1:105) after one kilometer, and less than two seconds (1:929) after two kilometers, but then the Australians kept the pressure on and reduced the gap to only 0:344 after three kilometers. The Australian team won the Team Pursuit with a time of 4:06:171 with an average speed of 58.495 kilometers an hour. The Danish team finished with a three second (3:207) gap to take the silver.

According to Dawson, everything went according to the team’s strategy. “The game plan was to go off nice and even, 1:06 for the first kilometer, and then see how we went for the second one and then race the Danes who we knew were going to out really hard, and we were almost one hundred percent certain that they were going to go so hard that they weren’t going to make it to the finish as a team. And it turned out that way which is very good for us.”

“Our coach is on the sideline, he walks a certain amount of steps on the line so we know exactly where we are. so if he’s in front of the line, we know that we’re in front, if he’s behind the line, like two steps, then we’re two ticks down.” explained Dawson on their tactics to keep track of their time.

The team was quite happy with their results and “I think that a 4:06 on this track is pretty impressive.” said a smiling Dawson.

The Ukrainian team finished third for a bronze medal with a fast time of 4:05:770 beating the
Dutch team by more than four seconds.

Men’s Team Pursuit
1. Australia 4:06.171
2. Denmark 4:09.378
3. Ukraine 4:05.770

Czech Jamila Machacova wins her first World Cup in the Women’s Points Race

Twenty-two year old Jamila Machacova from Czech Republic won the Women’s Points Race by garnering 27 points beating Hong Kong’s Min Hye Lee with 23 points and 12 points for China’s Li Yan. With her third place in the last World Cup in Sydney, and her first place in Los Angeles, Machacova takes the lead in the World Cup Women’s Points Race with only one World Cup left in the series.

Machacova did not feel well before the qualifying heat in the morning where she finished fifth in the second heat, but “then I qualified and I started to feel positive and relaxed, and then I try again, and I don’t think what will happen in (the) future, so I try and go and then it was just… amazing.” said a beaming Machacova after the podium ceremony.

Machacova has an affinity with the velodrome in Los Angeles. “I took my first medal (here) when I was a junior, second place in Scratch, so this is my town”, continued a laughing Machacova.

Machacova’s focus is now the World Championships, in March 2008.

Women’s 20-kilometer Points Race
1. Jamila Machacova (CZE) 27
2. Lee Min Hye (KOR) 23
3. Li Yan (CHN) 12

Frenchman Arnaud Tournant wins his second gold medal with the Men’s Keirin

Already a winner on Friday with the Team Sprint with his Cofidis team, 12 time World Champion and 1km world record holder Arnaud Tournant won the Men’s Keirin on Saturday night. He won his first qualifying heat and finished second in the second round of qualifications to move to the final where he took on Italy’s Roberto Chiappa, Australia’s Ryan Bayley, the Netherlands’ Teun Mulder, Greece’ Christos Volikakis and his countryman François Pervis from France.

“The Keirin is not an easy event because there are a lot of riders on the track. We are 6 riders at the same time, in a sprint discipline which makes it very, very fast and sometimes brings heated and even dangerous sprints. For me today, the strategy was to take the lead of the race, to put myself in the first positions. I found myself in the lead, and I wanted to keep this position but I did not give it full gas immediately. At the beginning of the last lap, I gave it everything and it worked.” said Tournant.

Tournant was confident before the final, “I finished second at the last World Cup in Beijing, so I knew that making it to the final was within my reach. So after I qualified for the final, I didn’t have anything to lose, being in the top 6 already, so might as well give it everything to win.”

The 29 year old Frenchman has announced that 2008 will be his last season after eleven years as a professional cyclist, and is focusing on the World Championships and the Olympic Games.

“First, the World Championships because they are coming really soon. In longer term, there is the qualification for the Olympic Games and the Games are really important. I’ll have to focus on all those and try my best. It is difficult as there are 6 or 7 men for three or four spots.”

Men’s Keirin
1. Arnaud Tournant (FRA)
2. Christos Volikakis (GRE)
3. Ryan Bayley (AUS)

by Lyne Lamoureux

The second day of the third round of the 2007-08 UCI Track World Cup Classics in Los Angeles started early at noon with the fourth Session including the qualifying rounds for Men’s Team Pursuit, Men’s Scratch and Women’s Points Race. As a newcomer to the sport of track racing, I find it difficult to follow and understand certain events, so to help me out I asked a cyclist to explain certain events. The first thing to remember is that track events are divided into two disciplines, sprint disciplines and endurance disciplines.

Proman-Paradigm’s Shelley Olds was relaxing watching the races and took the time to explain the differences between the Points race and the Scratch, with both considered as endurance disciplines. Olds recently achieved 2 podium spots at U.S Track Nationals including bronze in the team pursuit and fifth place in the points race. She finished thirteenth in the Women’s Scratch held on Friday, January 18, 2008.

Lyne Lamoureux: What are you trying to accomplish today?

Shelley Olds: First off, I’m trying to make it to the finals, that’s the number one goal, nothing else matters until the final is made. And then, what I am trying to accomplish is…race my heart out trying to make it an aggressive race if I could, it is to my advantage to do that. I can’t hold back out here.

Shelley Olds animating the Women’s Points Race - c. Lyne Lamoureux

Lyne: You race both Scratch and Points race – what is the difference?

Shelley: Scratch is the winner at the end, the first rider across the line wins. In the points race, you accumulate points every 10 laps. Every ten laps there is a sprint and first, second, third and fourth score points, the first scores five points, then 3, 2, 1. And if you lap the field you get 20 points, so it’s cumulative. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

Lyne: Do the riders race as a team in these events?

Shelley: All track racing is individual as far as mass start events go. There’s actually a rule that says you can’t work together as a team. The Chinese were relegated in the Beijing final for working together, (it was) just two girls. One girl led her teammate to the front and that’s called collusion, and that’s not allowed.

Lyne: Which one do you prefer, scratch or points race?

Shelley: I don’t know right now, I used to think the points race as more suited for me because it’s longer but scratch race is fun too, it’s shorter. But both races are really, really fun, incredible. I love them.

Roman Kononenko winner of the Men’s Scratch Qualifying Heat #2
Photo c. Lyne Lamoureux

Lyne: What’s the strategy in a Points race? How do you keep track of points?

Shelley: You’re supposed to keep track, the idea is to race at the front of the race as much as you can so you are aware of who is scoring points. It’s a very mathematical race, you should be keeping track of who has points and how many points you have…and laps, how many laps too.

Lyne: Can your coach help?

Shelley: Every team can have a coach up here yelling at you. The men’s race can be really difficult to watch and understand because riders can lap or go down a lap and you don’t know who can contest the sprint. Because if you’re being lapped you cannot context the sprint. It’s (can be) tough to watch but fun.

Women’s Points Race, Qualifying Heat - Photo c. Lyne Lamoureux

Shelley Olds finished eighth in the Women’s Points Race, third Qualifying Heat with five points, and made it to the finals, still to be disputed later tonight.

update: Shelley Olds was victim of a crash after a couple of sprint laps in the Women’s Points Race final which started on a fast pace. Shelley was down for a while but managed to get up and walk away and was taken to the hospital where she received x-rays, morphine and a CT scan. According to Nicola Cranmer, Proman’s owner and directeur, Shelley is very banged up but the results of the tests were good, with no breaks, and her spleen is okay.