10 new records set at the Ontario track cycling championships

The province’s best track riders competed this past weekend at the Ontario track cycling championships, at the Forest City Velodrome in London, Ont. It was a particularly deep field with 54 riders in attendance. Many  had targeted the weekend’s racing, which led to fast times and no less than 10 new course records.

In the elite women’s field, Sara Byers (Invita-FCV) broke the women’s 500-m pursuit record. The old one stood with a time of 38.97 seconds, while Byers clocked at a time of 38.21 seconds.

In the elite men’s field, Jordan Broad cut a rather large chunk of time off a short event. He completed the 1-km time trial, also known as the kilo, in a time of 1:10:34. The old record was 0.16 seconds slower at 1:10:50.

The highlight of the weekend was in the elite men’s individual pursuit. The record was absolutely smashed on Saturday. The previous track record for the 4-km time trial stood at 4:57:10 until Ed Veal of Real Deal/Gears powered his way to a new time. Veal completed 4,000-m in 4:52.55, taking almost a full five seconds off the previous benchmark. Following his record setting ride, Veal posted on his Facebook wall, “Won the gold medal at provincials in the 4-km pursuit and set a new track record at Forest City Velodrome! Great way to end the season. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.”

It was undoubtedly a record-setting weekend at the Forest City Velodrome in London. With growing attendance, perhaps this is a precursor to of things to come with the building of Milton’s new Olympic-size velodrome.