Recently, Argyll Velodrome Racing Association (AVRA) Coach Alex Ongaro was invited to Milton for discussions with Cycling Canada's Development Pathway Coordinator. A nice bonus was that the trip was on the weekend of the Milton Track World Cup, and he was able to bring along Zac Lipinski, and Mikael Goh. All three had a fantastic 4 days; check out their report!
Captains Log Day 1 – Zac:
As we embarked on our journey, security believed that I seemed the most appropriate for the full strip down. After ten minutes, security finally deemed my pack of gum and calculator not a threat to the plane, and we were on our way. The three hour flight was action packed, from watching Atomic Blonde to the one wheel landing…. We arrived in beautiful Milton, Ontario: a rain jacket instead of parka would have been a good idea indeed!
Upsides: It was interesting to be greeted by someone from Cycling Canada when we arrived. We also enjoyed being chauffeured around in one of their Lexus cars. On top of that, Mikael and I were given guest passes to go behind the scenes at the velodrome and see the everyday work of the staff.
Front and backstage passes!
Alex Ongaro and Curt Harnett
Downsides: “no coffee?!?” -Alex
Interesting facts: They bag milk here in Ontario. Would not recommend adopting that. Very hard to drink out of a bag.
Day 2 - Mikael:
Kinley riding in the Team Pursuit
After sleeping through my alarm and being awakened by an overly-aggressive Zac, we left to see the first day of racing. One of the highlights of the day included the Team Pursuit qualifiers, with the Canadian women’s team topping the leaderboard (yay Kinley!!).
Zac, Curt Harnett, and Mikael
We also had the opportunity to talk to Ari from Zizu Optics about a potential sponsorship deal. They have some really high quality sunglasses, and both Zac and I are very excited to work with them long term. Later in the day we got to watch the Team Sprint qualifiers and Points Races.
It was amazing to watch the world’s best compete up close, including Kristina Vogel and Francois Pervis. When the racing ended, the three of us met up with Stefan for coffee, and watched a movie.
Upsides: Great racing, Meeting up with Zizu, finally coffee!!
Downsides: Zac’s method of waking me up (body slam)
Interesting facts: A small round piece of bread is known as a roll (Zac was unaware). “well Stefan calls them buns, and a World Champion is never wrong” -Zac
Day 3: Zac:
An interesting day of racing; we got to see Kinley and her pursuit team race to gold. It is a totally different experience to watch that in person.
As well, it was amazing to see the men’s team pursuit set a new Canadian record.
Mikael, never having been to this track, watched some of the greatest riders in world complete the 200 m qualifiers. He left this week with an abundance of match sprint tactics to work on in his upcoming events.
Mikael's face as he watches a Keirin crash!
Juventus at the World Cup
Day 4: Zac
It's pretty much a straight forward story. Getting ready to leave, we told Mikael to make sure that he had double checked his room and bag - to ensure that he had everything. We checked out, arrived at the airport, checked in for our flight, and continued to our terminal.
Mikael, being slow to respond and all, decided to check that he had everything at the terminal. He was shocked to NOT see a small black booklet called a passport in his bag!! We then scrambled for the next two hours figuring out how Mikael was going to get on the plane without any documentation - other than the still missing passport . . .
The face when your athlete is missing his passport . . .