Last weekend was the first of four summer track meets in Alberta. Day one was a UCI omnium which consists of five events held in one afternoon. Then on Sunday there were a smattering of events including a road bike omnium. Despite only having two riders out for the race it was really successful for Team H&R- Kona.
Mark Macdonald competed in the omnium on Saturday, posting a final score of 8 to take the overall win (best possible score is 5, lower the better). On his way to the win he won the scratch, points and kilo events. On the way, the also recorded a second in the pursuit and third in the sprints.
Chris McNeil brought out his road bike on Sunday and took his first ever laps around the velodrome. The same omnium format was being used with only three events instead of five (no bunch races on road bikes). He took the pursuit in decisive style, lapping his closest competitor. The 500m event was also successful with bronze. However, the sprint event hurt his chances of taking the overall title.
Mark competed in both the points race and Madison on Sunday. The points race blew apart even before the first sprint lap and Mark took a solo lap on the field. He easily cruised home in the pack for the win. In the Madison he teamed up with Tara Whitten (Silver medalist from the world championships in the omnium). Again the strategy was simple, make it hard enough that the field shatters. It worked as they took a lap on the field early and kept the pressure on until the final laps.
After another successful weekend we’re looking forward to some bigger track meets in the coming months.
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