Bellville velodrome – Page 2

TrackCyclingSA ends the year on a high

TrackCyclingSA club competed in our final event of 2021 at the Paarl Boxing Day meeting on 26 Dec 2021. The event was held at the Faure street velodrome.

The veterans bunch at the Faure street velodrome, Paarl

Dirk van Zyl, Matthew Ferguson and Jaco Scholtz represented the club in the veterans category.

The club scored podium results in all of the events with Dirk and Jaco finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 800m scratch race. Jaco then finished second in the 1500m scratch race before going on to a solo victory in 5km scratch race.

TrackCyclingSA club is based in the Western Cape, South Africa, and the next major track focus is the South African national championship that takes place at Bellville velodrome towards the end of March’22.

Practice makes perfect

The TrackCyclingSA team pulled off a surprise victory at the Western Cape track cycling championship in the masters category 3000m team pursuit. We fielded two endurance riders and two sprinters in our team. We practiced several combinations and settled on our optimal race strategy before the event.

We started the race at a measured pace. Our first endurance rider took two laps at the front. The first sprinter then took two laps and ramped up the speed before dropping off. At this stage the opposition closed in on us, but our final 3 riders kept our pace. We did not falter and pulled ahead towards the end of the race for a well deserved victory.

The 4 gold medalists are: Jaco Scholtz, Devaroux Jacobs, Callie Greeff and Dirk van Zyl.

The time was 3:46.9, beating the old club record by 6.5 seconds. We are looking forward to build a squad and to improve our time significantly.

TrackCyclingSA club 500m tt championship (11/9/21)

TrackCyclingSA cycling club held our 8th annual 500m TT club championship at Bellville velodrome today. The 500m is one of the first events that our new riders experience. It is part of our Ride the Wall track intro. It is incredible to see how riders progress over the years.

The overall winner is crowned based on a handicap system that takes age in to consideration. This year overall winner was quickest on the clock and on the handicap system.

Well done Dirk van Zyl on retaining the club champion trophy for the 3rd consecutive year and on setting a new club record of 36.54s. Photos courtesy of Jarred Brown.

Awards:

Final podium l to r: Devaroux Jacobs, Dirk van Zyl and Jaco Scholtz

Fastest new riders from left to right: Simon Augustyn (2nd), Nelson Sardinha (1st) and Sean Howard (3rd)

Winner of the fastest lap, Dirk van Zyl. First lap 20.26s and second lap 16.28s

Ride the wall

It was awesome to introduce new riders to the track at Bellville velodrome on Sunday. Big smiles all around.

TrackCyclingSA club hosts regular intro sessions at Bellville velodrome. For more detail email us at jaco@trackcyclingsa.co.za

Congratulations to our virtual track league winner!

Our first virtual league has finished. Thanks to the riders who pioneered the inaugural series. There is definitely more to come.

It was a tight finish. Two riders ended on 42 points each and with 5 wins each. The winner then had to be decided by the rider who supported the league throughout.

There was one rider who completed all 11 stages to take the title. Well done to Dirk van Zyl from TrackCyclingSA club who was the only rider to complete all of the stages. He is the first ever TrackCyclingSA virtual track cycling champion! 2nd was the Spaniard, Jolasher. Pierre van Zyl who started on the track with TrackCyclingSA earlier in the year finished third.

Dirk van Zyl at the Bellville velodrome (photo: Owen Lloyd)

Overall virtual track leauge results:

Dirk van Zyl (RSA) 42 pts
Jolasher (ESP) 42 pts
Pierre van Zyl (RSA) 27 pts
Jaco Scholtz (RSA) 17 pts
Per (SWE) 17 pts
Mick (GB) 16 pts
Marco (AUS) 12 pts
Michael H (AUS) 5pts
Michael (RSA) 4pts
Anton (RSA) 2 pts
Luis (ESP) 2pts
Reuben (ESP) 1pt

The virtual track series took place on the Virtual velodrome.

Join us for a POWER HOUR!

Join us on BKOOL this week for an hour on the velodrome. We have one hour sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. The sessions are open to riders from across the world and you can join any time during Tue 9 Feb or Thu 11 Feb 2021.

You can ride it at any time during the day. There are some “bots” for company and also a “ghost” rider. You can draft the “bots”, but not the “ghost” rider.

Are you looking forward to an hour of this? We are!

Join the TrackCyclingSA virtual training group on BKOOL to see when we are training. All BKOOL riders are welcome.

Join the TrackCyclingSA virtual group and follow our training calendar.

Join the TrackCyclingSA virtual group on BKOOL. Our rides will be displayed on the Group option when you open the app.

Group rides are displayed on the app. See you soon!

Pedal with us

Racing is still not permitted in South Africa and the national federation is not sanctioning events yet. The call to race or not will be made in mid Feb’21.

This means that we are innovating and exploring some new avenues. TrackCyclingSA members have been training on several online platforms during the initial lockdown last year.

We are actively exploring online options to complement our real life training and to make up for the lack of racing. We have tested the velodrome option on BKOOL and have done a few trials in terms of training and racing. More feedback to follow.

TrackCyclingSA (in the 6-day jersey) training with riders from across the globe. Picture: BKOOL screengrab

Our members are also currently training at Bellville velodrome in small groups with Covid-19 regulations in place.

Our new rider program will kick off soon and will follow the appropriate Covid-19 measures. Contract jaco@trackcyclingsa.co.za to find out more about the new rider program (Bellville velodrome) and how to join us for online training.

Congratulations

Well done to Matthew Ferguson, Dirk van Zyl and Jaco Scholtz who were awarded Western Province colours in 2020 for their achievements at the Western Cape track cycling championship.

They earned the colours by winning races in their respective age groups.