News from Evan Burtnik!

Hey Juventus, 2017 is almost over, but somehow my season isn’t!

I just got back from Geneva, where together Aidan Caves and I raced the 4 Days of Geneva. The velodrome is 166 m and has the steepest banking of any velodrome in Europe! 4 days of straight Madison racing, where racing starts at 6 or 7 pm and finishes around midnight. It was a brutal and stressful 4 days, but some of the most fun I’ve ever had racing.

We finished 4th overall, and were improving in every single race. Aidan and I were unable to recover a lap lost to 2nd and 3rd, and it cost us 2nd overall. Twice - we were so close to gaining it back . . . but one amateur butchered exchange would tragically foil our plans. In the final race, on the final night, after many near death experiences and close calls, fate finally caught up to me. I got stuck behind an exchanging team and hit the deck with track burn all along my right side. Aidan covered for me, while I jumped up and down and yelled profanities at myself on the infield - before promptly getting back on the bike, thrown back into the race with my ass hanging out of my shorts, and won the next 2 sprints to a nice applause from the crowd!

Coming up, I’ll learn if I’ve been selected to the 2018 Commonwealth Games team in Australia, on The Gold Coast in April! My prospects at making it as a team pursuit rider are slim, but the addition of Madison to the Olympic schedule has opened up another pathway for me as a track cyclist. This is very exciting for me, as we build towards Tokyo 2020. The first race that counts for Olympic qualification will be the 2018 Pan American Championships, so the clock is ticking!

Right now I’m in Spain getting ready for my final race of the season in Grenchen, Switzerland. It’s a C1 track race where I’ll have the opportunity to earn myself UCI Points to qualify for future World Cups and World Championships. After that, I go home for Christmas - but then it's right back to Spain to begin the build for the Commonwealth Games and World Championships!