Geoff Stokers Report on the State Keirin Championships
Just a quick report from last weekend, I don’t normally give you all the news from a state championship but there is no Keirin at Worlds and it is just a bit different.
I have attached a video but before you watch it if you aren’t familiar with the history of Keirin racing read the form guide.
So, Keirin racing is a great form of racing that was developed in Japan started in 1948. It’s a huge business because betting is a huge part of this form of racing. So in Japan if you race Keirin you get locked away from everyone for 5 to 6 days prior to the event. Barrier draws happen prior to the event and the reason for the pacer or derny in front of the first rider in the event is to make it all even, every rider has a wheel to follow.
The derny picks up the riders at around 35kph and gets out of the way with 3 laps remaining (750m) at 48kph.
So, I didn’t get locked away but we did have a barrier draw. Shoot, I drew position 5 out of 5 riders. Sometimes makes it hard to get to the front especially if the first rider keeps the pace on after the derny is out of the way.
So, the starting order with a bit of a form guide was,
1 Stephen GENDEK (Nowra VC)
Mostly a Crit racer with a good sprint and good length because of the Crit background.
2 Gary MANDY (Illawarra CC)
Gary at a rough guess would have won close to 10 World Championships, that’s a nice start spot to be in.
3 Ian GRANT (Bicisport)
Similar rider to Stephen GENDEK road, crit, good length and good a sprint finish
4 Tony UNICOMB (St George CC)
Tony has an awesome resume in Triathlon just getting into the shorter faster races on the track.
5 Geoff STOKER (Parramatta CC)
World Champion a few times.
So now you have all this information pick the rider you would like to back with your money and enjoy the event.