Scratch + points state champs
May 7 saw another round of Adelaide Track League racing take over the Superdrome, with the Aussie Olympic team out in force!
In the first race of the night a storming Alex Manly took out the Elite Women’s Points Race from fellow South Australian Annette Edmondson and Olympic TP squad compatriots Ash Ankudinoff and Georgia Baker. Meg Marker took the State U19 crown ahead of Eloise Sandow and Jacqui Voltz.
Kell O’Brien was the only rider to take a lap in the Elite Men’s Points Race, and subsequently took the win over the first-placed SA rider, Alex Porter and fellow TP squad teammate Sam Welsford who showed off some horsepower to take the final sprint and leapfrog Luke Plapp and Oliver Bleddyn for the third spot on the podium. Zac Marriage took the U19 gold medal ahead of Leo Zimmermann and Aston Freeth.
Keirins for our Junior and Support riders saw Henry Pearce, Charlie Abel, Ava Schmidtke and David Miller take high-speed wins, before the Elite Women lined for a couple of keirins of their own - and almost completely Endurance field made for interesting racing with PPA athlete Chloe Moran taking the win in Keirin 2 and fellow Academy athlete Lauren Perry upsetting the women’s Olympic squad with a massive turn of speed to take out the win in Keirin 1!
It was a frenetic Scratch Race for the Elite Men in the penultimate race of the night with an average speed of 52 km/h for 11 minutes before a late attack from Kell O’Brien looked sure to hold on for victory before an inhuman final lap from Sam Welsford (and by my watch, a 10s final 200m) saw him reach the line first over the top of O’Brien.
Not to be outdone, the two South Australian women from the Olympic Podium squad had a hard-fought battle in the final race, the Scratch Race State Championship, with a late attach from Nettie enough to hold off a charging Alex Manly and Lauren Perry came home third to cap off a successful night for the young Tasmanian.
A great night of racing and great food and drink! Another Adelaide Track League in the bag, and only a month to wait until our next one on June 4. Kicking off a big weekend of racing out here at Gepps Cross with the National Cyclocross Series on Saturday and Sunday, and with plenty of interstate riders in Adelaide for a Madison camp the program is sure to see some fireworks!