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 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 Scholtz1st woman – Donna Marriott
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
Riders have up to 31 March to complete the first 4 rounds of the TrackCyclingSA virtual track league. The events are 250m, 1500m, 3km and 40km long in distance. Join the TrackCyclingSA group on BKOOL to compete.
Riders can ride the rounds of the league on their own or they can link up with friends to push for better times and faster racing. Riders can view the times for group efforts on the TrackCyclingSA group calendar on BKOOL.
Here are the top 8:
Pos.
User
Time
Difference
Country
1
Jo
1:10:36,0
0:00:00,0
2
Jaco
1:13:06,0
0:02:30,0
3
Dirk
1:19:28,0
0:08:52,0
4
Mick
1:30:43,0
0:20:07,0
5
Per
1:34:04,4
0:23:28,4
6
Marco
1:35:18,4
0:24:42,4
7
Michael
1:36:16,9
0:25:40,9
8
Pierre
1:39:23,0
0:28:47,0
Notice – riders need to make workouts open to groups and friends for it to appear on the league table.
Here are the virtual standings to date. Our club champion, Dirk van Zyl, moved in to the top spot after setting the fastest time in the 40km race. That is a great effort since he specializes in the sprint events ranging from the 200m qualifying up to the keirin race in distance.
Dirk van Zyl leads a race at Bellville velodrome.
Rank
Name
Time
Difference
Country
1.
Dirk
1:19:28
0:00:00
2.
Jaco
1:21:49
0:02:21
3.
Mick
1:30:43
0:11:15
4.
Per
1:30:45
0:14:14
5.
Pierre
1:34:45
0:15:17
6.
Michael
1:35:04
0:15:36
7.
Anton
1:35:34
0:16:06
8.
Marco
1:36:03
0:16:35
Can I still join?
Yes! The events are open to riders from across the globe. Ride the event any time that suits you or link up with others in the group to ride together. Be sure to finish it before the end date to set your own time. A rider will be allocated the time of the last rider +5% if he/she missed an end date. The league runs up to 31 May 2021.
The TrackCyclingSA virtual league runs on the BKOOL platform.
Race with us in BKOOL
– Virtual track league from 1 March to 31 May 2021
Set your best time over events from 250m to 160 laps.
Ride when it suits
you. Ride each event as many times as you want before the end date.
Resistance trainers with Ant+ speed and cadence sensors are allowed
Smart trainers are allowed.
How to start?
Register as a user on BKool if you are not registered yet on BKool.com (they have an one month free subscription and then one can subscribe monthly thereafter).
Download the BKool app to a device of your choice.
You might need an Ant+ stick to communicate to your pc or laptop.
This week TrackCyclingSA had our first training sessions on BKOOL. Both sessions were 1 hour velodrome rides.
Jaco Scholtz kicked of the POWER HOUR ride on 6h30 (GMT +2) on Tuesday. He also kicked off the second ride which took place on Thursday morning at the same time.
Each rider can circulate at his / her own pace. The aim is to cycle for an hour. Both rides had several “Bots” that act as pace makers and there are generally 3 groups of pacemakers which will help riders to draft.
The 1 hour velodrome challenges are open for the whole day to riders from across the world so any rider can join at the time it suits them best.
Riders from France joined in on both of the morning sessions.
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 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!
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.
