Bell wins four gold, one silver at cycling nationals

Once Zach Bell gets rolling there are few in this country who can stop him.

Once Zach Bell gets rolling there are few in this country who can stop him.

The Watson Lake native dominated the 2010 Track Cycling Canadian Championships at the National Cycling Centre in Bromont, Que., last weekend.

Bell won all the titles up for grabs in the Elite Men’s Endurance category, including gold in the individual pursuit, points race, scratch race and men’s omnium, and a silver medal in the team pursuit as a member of the B.C. team.

Bell’s focus has shifted at national competitions, an event that once jangled his nerves.

“There wasn’t pressure to perform this time like there has been at other nationals,” said Bell, who rides for Kelly Benefits Strategies Pro Cycling team out of Minneapolis.

“Nationals is more about helping the younger riders compete at a higher level, pushing them.

“There’s always the more experienced guys there. I’ve always tried to take the lead of the good role models in the sport and tried to pay it forward.”

Bell raced aggressively, he said, with “reckless abandon,” to put himself into situations on the track which he had to fight to escape.

Evidently, racing like there’s nothing to lose suits the 27-year-old.

“Every year I go back to nationals and perform a little better,” Bell said.

And he’s adopted his coach’s attitude for the event.

“You always want to win a race by as much as you can,” Bell said.

In the omnium, cyclists competed in six different events over two days, during which Bell won five of the events and finished second in the last one.

Honing his skill in the omnium was another priority for Bell last weekend.

“That was the focus at nationals,” he said. “It’s not an event that’s been around at a really high level for very long.”

Bell will be looking to the omnium as the event he hopes to compete in at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, qualifications for which will begin over the coming months.

If he qualifies, Bell would compete in his second Summer Olympic Games, having competed at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, where he finished seventh in the points race.

Over the next month, Bell will devote himself to training for the 2010

Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in October. He was named to the team in July, and will be one of 12 on the team travelling to the games.

Bell is no stranger to those games either. In 2006, he competed in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia, where he set a Canadian record in the individual pursuit, racing over four kilometers in four minutes and 31 seconds.