This past weekend saw seven members of CUCC travel to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester for the 2010 BUCS Track Championships. Making a welcome return to this auspicious venue after several years in the wilderness, the Track Champs featured a full programme of endurance and sprint events ably managed by Paddy Hill.
First impressions of the venue were mixed. The car park was occupied by Team Sky vehicles alongside dilapidated caravans; dingy subterranean corridors featured portraits of Olympic heroes such as Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, and the offices of famed coaches sat next to cleaning cupboards. Once the lack of gilding and red carpet had sunken in, however, the unpretentious but premium quality facilities appeared a perfect fit for a BUCS event – and for the CUCC team.
Lacking a local velodrome, CUCC cannot be considered a specialist track club. Though our equipment was significantly better than that used for last year’s Track Champs, it was still a notch below that of more dedicated universities, particularly Birmingham. In terms of track experience, all of the team bar George Bate – a former national medallist in the Team Pursuit – were novices when it came to banking and sprinters’ lines. It did not take long for the quality of our athletes to overcome these hindrances.
First event of the weekend was Men’s Individual Pursuit qualification: sixteen laps of the track from a standing start. Despite never having ridden on an indoor track before, Llewellyn Kinch, Wojciech Szlachta and Toby Weatherall all made it into the second round, with Mark Holt and George Bate just a few seconds behind the cut. This was a welcome confidence boost for the team, with Kinch and Weatherall both going on to qualify for the second round of the Men’s Sprint based on their flying 200m times. Sprint qualification also witnessed a very special ride from Dave Readle of the University of Staffordshire: 11.171 seconds for 200m, a new BUCS record.
The Men’s Kilometer Time Trial rounded out the first day of racing, with Kinch securing a creditable fourth place with a time of 1.11.390, and Toby Weatherall in sixth place with 1.12.040. Another great ride by Dave Readle saw a time of 1.06.327. Giving him a further BUCS record, this was previously held by Sir Chris Hoy.
After a solid first day, the medal hunt began in earnest on Sunday, with a hectic six hours of finals planned. The CUCC compound in the track centre was running smoothly now, with changes of wheels and handlebars fluent and precise, rehydration that bit more regular and roller technique a little more bravura. Kinch’s opponents in the next two rounds of the Pursuit might have divined that he was on a good form from his freshly-shaven legs, but there was little that they could do with that knowledge: in the second round he took four seconds off of his qualification time, reaching the gold medal final of the event with a 4.54.152, eight-tenths of a second faster than Xavier Disley, his opponent for the ride-off. Toby Weatherall continued to advance through the rounds of the Men’s Sprint with some punchy riding, eventually securing a place in the bronze medal ride-off against Dave Sinclair of Cardiff University.
Before the finals of the individual events, the technical team disciplines were up. If experience and practice matter anywhere in track cycling, it is in the Team Sprint and Team Pursuit: the first event requires great force and precision in the starting effort, and the second exceptional pacing and communication. The team’s lack of practice was evident in qualification for the Team Pursuit, with Cambridge A riding hard but occasionally losing men from the front and back of their train. They qualified for the final nevertheless, nine-tenths of a second behind arch-rivals Birmingham. The Team Sprint was again an imprecise but forceful ride, with Cambridge A reaching the final alongside Oxford.
Just before the men’s finals began, Hayley Simmonds took to the track for the Women’s 500m Time Trial, covering the distance in 50.271 for seventh place, a strong ride from another CUCC track novice.
It was time now for the medal rides. First up, Toby Weatherall’s bronze medal ride-off in the Men’s Sprint. This was perhaps the most entertaining race of the day. Forced to lead off, Toby was first awarded a false start by the eager commissaire for riding at less than walking-pace. They start again. This time, Toby takes off slowly, eyeing his opponent closely, before slipping to the ground as he enters the first bend, neutralising the race again. Third start. Toby sets out more briskly this time, but still lentamento, and his opponent allows him a ten metre gap as he gains height on the track, expecting another go slow. The ten metre gap never closes: Weatherall surprises Sinclair coming into the last lap with a snap acceleration, and the race is all over, bronze medal won in style.
The Cambridge team was developing some momentum once the Team Pursuit final arrived, and Szlachta, Bate, Weatherall and Kinch lined up with swagger. The start was much more proficient than in qualification, Birmingham slightly ahead but Cambridge riding as a tight unit. The teams were more or less even until the halfway stage, at which point the timing displays on the velodrome’s jumbotron gave out: the team would have no pacing information now. This was all the incentive Cambridge needed, increasing the intensity of their ride, dragging Birmingham into sight for the final four laps. From this point on the race was won, and Cambridge finished effortlessly, celebrating BUCS gold across the line, Birmingham broken.
Both the tension and the heat in the velodrome were ramping up by this stage in Sunday’s programme, and there would be no let up for the next event: the Men’s Individual Pursuit final. Xavier Disley of Birmingham had made no secret of his desire to take the BUCS title in this discipline after disappoint last year, and his recent 5.49 at the National Championships indicated strong legs. Llewellyn Kinch had qualified fastest, but had also ridden more events than Disley, so fatigue was a worry. The race began as expected, with Kinch starting faster than Disley, pulling out a 0.5 second lead in the opening laps. Disley is known, however, for his slow starts and gradually increasing pace, so this lead was not emphatic. By the halfway stage, the situation was unfavourable: Kinch had gone from 0.5s up to 1.3s down, Disley riding a tight line around the track with real focus now. Perhaps Kinch’s experience of road racing’s fast finishes came to bear at this point, because he began to respond with a substantial increase in pace, hoovering air in. The last laps were electric. Both riders were on terms going into the final four laps, just one kilometre left to press anything they had left home. Finally, Disley blinked, and in the last two laps his shoulders began to roll, his eyes dropping to the front wheel. Kinch came through to win by 0.6s in a time of 4.50.642, shaving a further four seconds from his personal best and defending his BUCS title. Birmingham broken again.
With legs still burning from the Individual and Team pursuits, the next event up was the Team Sprint: Cambridge against Oxford over 750m. This time a much cleaner start for the Cambridge team, but the sheer pace of Oxford’s Alex Siegel in the closing stages was too much. Nonetheless a great ride, and a well-earned silver medal.
The final event of the Championships was the Men’s Points Race, reduced in distance to eighty laps after delays to the schedule. Road specialists Holt, Kinch and Szlachta were the riders to watch here, and all three were active in the early stages. Szlachta secured five points with a daring three lap attack for the fourth intermediate sprint, unsuccessfully chased down by Endura rider Ross Creber, whilst Kinch gained a lap along with Dave Sinclair and Finlay Young, ensuring a podium position. A single point separated Young and Kinch going into the final sprint, but despite a strong final attack by Kinch, Young was able to hold onto his silver medal, Sinclair taking the gold and Kinch the bronze. Szlachta finished an excellent fifth place in his first Points Race – admitting that he didn’t really know what was going on for most of it – and Holt finished eleventh in a field substantially reduced by the fierce pace.
And so it was over. CUCC had secured a great haul of medals and BUCS points with meagre experience but strong legs, and not even McDonald’s and a four hour drive home with Kiss FM could dampen the resulting high spirits. Special credit is due to Mark Holt for riding much of the championships with a broken index finger from a fall on Saturday. Paddy Hill deserves many thanks for his dedication to this and other BUCS events. The team would also like to extend their gratitude to the Bate family for their encouragement, mechanical support and sage advice on the subtleties of track riding throughout the weekend.
