Scully makes his appearance in Invercargill

Feb 13th, 10.

Tom Scully during his scratch race heat ©RoadCycling.co.nz

The 20 year old won five World Cup medals across the Beijing and Melbourne events, and won a stage at the Jayco Bay Criterium series early last month.

Instead of working towards peak condition for these nationals, NZ head coach Tim Carswell chose to put Scully in a solid block of endurance training to prepare him for the big load ahead.

"This was the only opportunity," Carswell said.

While Scully was visible out the front early on in Heat 2 of the 7.5km scratch race, at the pointy end of the race it was Marc Ryan, Peter Latham and Jason Allen who were all action.

In Heat 1 it was Christchurch teenager Michael Vink who took line honours over Westley Gough and Anthony Chapman.

However, with 12 riders from each heat going through to the finals, most of the field will have another chance to change the headline order in tonight's final session of the RaboPlus Elite National Championships.

The scratch race is one of the simpler track events to understand.  All riders start at the same time and whoever crosses the line first after 7.5km in the heats and 15km in the final, is the winner.

The only complication is where a rider(s) takes a lap on the rest of the field. In those circumstances the whole pack still finishes together and the rider with the extra lap wins regardless of where they are in the bunch sprint.  

The scratch race is considered an endurance event where top jostling skills to get in a good position for the final sprint is critical.  Although the sprint is important, pure sprinters find the 50km/h+ speed the endurance riders achieve difficult to maintain.

Hayden Godfrey was the 2009 National Scratch Champion and Sam Bewley holds the record from the 2008 championships.

East Coast team mates Westley Gough and Jeremy Stephens in Heat 1 of the scratch race

Heat 1 - top 12 through

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Heat 2 - top 12 through

Marc Ryan and Peter Latham in Heat 2 ©RoadCycling.co.nz

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