Final Day of Road Racing: Relays

The relays took place today. Both the Canadian junior (Jesse, Jade, Alex) and senior (Andrew, AJ, and I) managed to finish the heats. For my relay, we lucked out and the USA, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and Netherlands took it easy, so we were able to stay in the pack for 8 1/2 of the 12 1/2 laps. The pace got too quick for AJ and a gap openned up, but we managed to stay in and finish.

I hope you're checking out the videos on PatinCarrera. They're awesome. Also, I've got my videos and photos linked in the bar to the right.

Oh, before I go on, I forgot to talk about yersterday's 20km elimination race. It was pretty nutty because they lined all of us, 60 or so skaters, in a specific order. The race was started but a false start was called! Everyone was laughing it off. We all sort of went back to our original spots, and after some confusion, the race was off. I was really happy because I was able to stay with the pack the entire time and actually feel like I could keep the pace all day long. I was not moving up much though. I skated 19 of the 50 laps in the pack and I was called off then. One of my goals was to get eliminated from the pack rather than being dropped, and I met that goal. They did put me 4 or 5 positions lower in the results for some strange reason.


Jesse Pauley, Jade Pauley, Alex D'mello, and Alex Perrie before the junior men's relay.


Race officials preparing the timing system before the relays begin.


Senior women's relay heats: top 3 teams move on to the final here, including the USA, Korea, and Chinese Taipei.


Alex D'mello was molded for Luigino boots. Andrew, Sigrid, Jesse, and Jade went to get molded for Schankel boots.


Junior women's relay final: they are starting to crank it up. The USA was poised to win the gold medal, but the skater crashed less than 50-meters to the finish line. The gold medal went to Colmbia, with Argentina taking the silver and Germany the bronze.


Senior women's relay early on. I was eating my dinner and taking pictures, and next thing I knew, the Colombian team was quite a ways back and the Chinese Taipei team was disqualified. The USA won the gold medal.


The spirit of sportsmanship- Ceclia Baena went over and congratulated the USA team after their victory in the senior women's relay.


Dash to the line for the gold medal! This is about 20 meters before the line. New Zealand won the race, Italy placed 2nd, and the USA 3rd. New Zealand also won the gold in the junior men's relay. What a night for them!