CAPITAL teenagers Callum Skinner and Patrick Galbraith offered a glimpse of Scottish cycling's emerging talent with a record-breaking show in the Scottish Track Championships at Meadowbank over the weekend.
Skinner was first to rewrite the record books in the youths' sprint on Saturday, powering around the London Road boards in 11.81 seconds during qualifying and trimming three hundredths from his existing best.
That was a sign of things to come for
the 15-year-old Edinburgh Racers rider, who was untroubled as he progressed through the early rounds to set up a gold medal showdown with James Smith (Discovery Juniors).
Skinner dominated proceedings to emerge with his second gold medal of the weekend, having also won the 500 metres time trial on Friday.
And he was back in action seeking the treble yesterday when he lined up in the two-kilometre pursuit. But, despite looking in control, he just missed out on another record.
The owner of that best, Galbraith, was next on track and he showed his class as he hacked two seconds from the existing time. That set up a gold medal ride-off against Skinner. Both produced improved performances in the second ride, with Galbraith again lowering the record to clinch the title after pulling away from his opponent over the closing three laps.
Skinner was happy with his performance. He said: "I'm not a pursuiter and I don't think I'll become one – that was hard. I've been on holiday and I only came back three days ago, so to win three medals is good. I'm pleased with that."
For Galbraith, the win was more important than the time. However, with one more year in the same age category, he already has his eye on further improvements.
"It was a bit less windy in the final than it was in qualifying but I think I can go a bit faster," he said.
While it was the youngsters who caught the attention, there were also some exceptional performances from the established riders in a weekend of high-quality racing that was punctuated by occasional outbreaks of rain.
Evan Oliphant (Plowman Craven) has tasted success on the road but he was seeking his first track title in the 4km pursuit.
After going fastest in qualification, he lined up against Dave Martin of the Edinburgh-based Bicycleworks.com team.
Martin, who is one of the country's most underrated competitors, produced a typically committed performance, but he had no answer to the power of Oliphant, who caught his opponent with three laps to go and ploughed on in search of the track record.
However, the blustery conditions and race preparations that were interrupted by rain took their toll and he fell almost three seconds short before heading off to prepare for the big-stage races now looming on his schedule.
The women's pursuit also went according to expectations, with Kate Cullen in dominant form. She topped the qualification times then caught her opponent Daisy Sherwood (City of Edinburgh) in the final to secure her second gold medal of the weekend.
Cullen has now flown out to France where she will contest a stage race this week before competing on the Criterium circuit around Europe that traditionally takes place the week after the Tour de France finishes.
Another rider who faced a trip at the end of his weekend was City of Edinburgh man Matt Haynes, although his travel arrangements only involved a return journey to his Manchester base. His baggage contained gold medals from the individual and team sprint events. In the former, Haynes was second-fastest qualifier behind his team-mate Bruce Croall and the knockout stage went according to the seeding as they progressed to the final.
While Croall had the faster basic speed, Haynes displayed his greater racing nous to chalk up a 2-0 win in the best-of-three final. That duo combined with Toby Sherwood to extend City of Edinburgh's record of having won the team sprint title every year since its inception, although they were given a run for their money by a junior team from Dundee Discovery.
A satisfied Croall said: "My main goal was the kilo. I achieved all I could really have expected, so I'm happy with that."
Meanwhile, the strength of the kids' club, Edinburgh Racers, was underlined when 11-year-old Joe Evans led a clean sweep in the Under 12 Omnium, beating his club mates Rosie Yeats and Adam Stobbart into the minor places.
