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UCI Track Cycling World Cup RD2
November 19-21, 2009; Melbourne Australia
Live Results: http://twitter.com/CyclingAus | Website: www.trackworldcup.com.au | Results |
Having enjoyed great success in the first round of the Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester last month, the Great Britain Cycling Team has sent a smaller squad to Melbourne to continue to race for qualifying points for the Track Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen next March.
Day 3 Melbourne World Cup
Women’s Team Pursuit - Silver for GB
After breaking the World Record in Manchester, and winning the Gold medals, two of the threesome that make up the World Champion winning Great Britain team travelled to Melbourne along with European Under 23 Silver medallist in the road race, Katie Colclough.
Like the men, the Women were expecting a tougher challenge in Melbourne and in qualifying, that challenge presented itself as early qualifiers New Zealand went fastest recording a time of 3.26.890.
Wendy Houvenaghel leads Katie Colclough and Joanna Rowsell in Melbourne. Photo: CJ Farquharson for 'PhotoSport International'
It was a time well down on the World Record the Brits set in Manchester but still faster than the Brits who rode a controlled qualifying round to do enough to make the final. They ended their 3,000 metre effort half a second slower than the Kiwis who they would race for Gold. The GB ride also pushed the Australian’s down the table and into the ride off for the bronze where they defeated the team from Ukraine.
In the final for Gold, the Brits lined up in their World Cup leader’s skinsuits instead of their rainbow ones as World Champions. With one of the World Championship winning line-up enjoying a much deserved holiday after a busy road season, Lizzie Armitstead, it was left to a talented academy rider to come in and resume her career in team pursuiting.
Twelve months earlier, Katie had joined Lizzie and Joanna by winning the event in Melbourne but as the rumour mill continues about the event becoming part of the Olympics in London 2012, the competition is gaining in strength and Melbourne in 2009 was certainly a sign of that.
In the final for Gold, the Kiwi team rode five seconds quicker than the Brits did in 2008 to win the event. The time of the New Zealand girls was still however three seconds down on the GB winning time in Manchester which established a new World Record but enough to put them in a position of being one of the favourites for the medals in Copenhagen next year.
The margin of victory, over a second, was a decisive one for the New Zealand team which had World Champion Individual Pursuiter Alison Shanks in the line up and they led the race for Gold from the start. After 1,000 metres, the women in black were almost three tenths up on the Brits and after 2,000 metres had increased that lead to almost a second and despite a fight back by the Brits in the final kilometre where they were quickest, just, the New Zealand team were the winners while the Brits retained their lead in the competition overall.
1. New Zealand 3.24.741 (Boyd, Ellis, Shanks)
2. Great Britain 3.25.938 (Colclough, Houvenaghel, Rowsell)
3. Australia 3.26.869 (Ankudunoff, Kent, Tomic)
4. Ukraine 3.30.156 (Kalitovska, Shpylova, Shulika)
5. Germany
6. Belgium
Men’s Sprint - 3rd & 4th for GB
Great Britain entered three riders into this competition and after qualifying, all three of them, Ross Edgar (4th), David Daniel (12th) and Matt Crampton (3rd), made it through to the 1/8th finals. In his race, Edgar beat Borisov of Russia to make it through to the quarter finals as did Matt Crampton who beat Josiah Ng of Malaysia.
David Daniel however came up against the big colourful German, Carsten Bergemann and the winner of the Men’s Keirin in Melbourne was too strong for the young Brit who would now race in the B competition to decide places ninth downwards.
In his B quarter final, a sudden death race unlike the other quarter finals which are a best of three, Daniel despatched Russian Borisov to make it through to the B semi final. There, Daniel was beaten by New Zealander Dawkins and then in the B final where David was racing for 11th place, he was beaten by 2009 World Championship Silver medallist Awang of Malaysia.
In the race for medals, Britain’s two other entrants, Edgar and Crampton, got through their semi finals with Edgar beating Bergemann two rides to nil. Crampton meanwhile did the same beating another German, Tobias Wachter, also in two straight rides.
Into the semi final and Crampton came up against Kevin Sireau of France and in the first ride, the Frenchman was too quick for the Brit who had finished second in Manchester to Sir Chris Hoy. In the other semi final however, Ross Edgar defied the crowd’s wishes by beating home favourite Shane Perkins in their first ride off.
The Aussie however hit back in the second ride to level it at one all by beating Edgar much to the delight of the Aussie crowd while it didn’t get any better for Matt Crampton as he was beaten by Kevin Sireau to be denied a place in the Gold/Silver final. In the deciding ride for Edgar against Perkins, the Aussie used the crowd support to its maximum to win through and relegate Edgar into the Bronze medal final against Crampton.
The final for the Bronze medal between Crampton and Edgar saw the tall rangy Crampton beat Edgar in match 1 to go one up and then in match 2, Crampton made it two medals in two world cups with a bronze to go with the Silver from Manchester. Shane Perkins won the Gold to make it a great World Cup for the home nation Australia.
1. Shane Perkins, Australia
2. Kevin Sireau, France
3. Matt Crampton, Great Britain
4. Ross Edgar, Great Britain
12. David Daniel, Great Britain
Women’s Keirin -- 6th for Jess Varnish
Jessica Varnish was GB’s sole entrant in this event and the Halesowen young lady rode brilliantly in the first round to make it through to the second round by finishing second in her heat.
Into the second heat with some very experienced and powerful girls in her heat, Varnish showed great fight to make the Gold medal final by finishing third behind World Champion Guo and former world champion (2005) Sanchez. The other three to go through were Aussie favourite Anna Meares, German Muche and another Aussie, McCulloch.
That is some final and Jess certainly gained a lot of experience racing such experienced riders for a Gold medal and although a sixth place may not have seen her stand on the podium, I am sure when she looks back at the video over and over, she will get a lot from seeing the race and her tactics and performance in it. Unsurprisingly the race was won by the Rockhampton rocket Anna Meares in front of her home crowd and ahead of the World Champion Guo of China.
1. Anna Meares, Australia
2. Shuang Guo, China
3. Christin Muche, Germany
4. Clara Sanchez, France
5. Kaarle McCulloch, Australia
6. Jess Varnish, Great Britain
Men’s Madison - Fenn & Burke 12th
Because of scheduling in Manchester, Great Britain did not enter a team in this event but in Melbourne, with the Team Pursuit out of the way, the Brits entered Andy Fenn and Steven Burken into what is one of, if not the toughest event of the world cup track programme. There was no fairy tale ending for the Brits however with the event being won by New Zealand and Burke and Fenn not finishing in the medals as they ended the race in 12th place a lap down on the three teams that dominated the race.
1. New Zealand (Ryan/Scully)
2. Germany (Bengsch/Kalz)
3. Ukraine (Lagkuti/Radionov)
@ a lap
4. Spain (Tauler/Elorriaga)
5. Denmark (Madsen/Kreutzfeldt)
12. Great Britain (Fenn/Burke)
Women’s 500 Metre Time Trial -- 5th for Jess Varnish
It was a busy day for Jess Varnish as she also had the TT event to ride as well as the Keirin and after having made it through to the second round of the Keirin, the West Midlander rode a great 500, getting inside that magic 35 second mark with a time of 34.979 to put her fastest at that time of the competition.
Jess’s reign at the top however was ended by the Australian Kaarle McCulloch who did a very fast 34.2 to go to number 1 and Jess dropped to third when Frenchwoman Sandi Clair finished with a 34.3. These times however were well and truly eclipsed by former World Record holder Anna Meares who finished with an Australian record of 33.583. Jess however had finished in 5th place, a very good ride by the young academy athlete.
1. Anna Meares, Australia, 33.583
2. Karrle McCulloch, Australia 34.267
3. Sandi Clair, France, 34.339
4. Lin Junhong, China, 34.781
5. Jessica Varnish, Great Britain, 34.979
Day 2
Men’s Team Pursuit
There was a great debut for second year academy rider Andrew Fenn when he combined with the super fast trio from Manchester of Andy Tennant, Steven Burke, and Ed Clancy to go fastest in qualifying with a 4.01.9.
After GB recorded the second fastest 4,000 metre Team Pursuit ever in Manchester (3.54.3) to smash that track record, they travelled Down Under where they expected to meet the toughest opposition yet with the Aussies and Kiwis expected to field strengthened line-ups.
In Manchester, there was a time difference of 11 seconds between the fastest (GB) and second fastest qualifiers (Spain) but in Melbourne the Aussies were under a second slower in qualifying to make the Gold medal final with GB while New Zealand were just over a second slower than GB and three seconds faster than World Champion country Denmark.
In the finals of the Team Pursuit, New Zealand did as expected and won the Bronze medal after recording a 4 minute dead time for the 4,000 metres. In the Gold medal final however, a closer contest was expected between two of the countries who have dominated team pursuiting for a decade -- Australia and Great Britain.
With the British team without Geraint Thomas who was so strong in Manchester with long turns at the front helping them keep their speed all the way to that time of 3.54, the Aussies took an early lead and led by three tenths after 2,000 metres. At 3,000 metres, the strength of the Aussies was easy to see as they increased their lead to almost a second and at the finish, the gap was well over a second with the Australian's winning the contest and the British taking the Silver medal.
The time of the Aussies was well down on GB's winning time in Manchester but with Thomas having implied he won't be at the Track Worlds due to Team Sky road commitments, the guess work continues as to whether GB has the strength in-depth to field a Gold medal winning team in Copenhagen to erase the memory of finishing out of the medals in 2009.
1. Australia 3.59.599
2. Great Britain 4.01.935
3. New Zealand 4.00.237
4. Denmark DNF
Qualifying
1. Great Britain 4:01.914
2. Australia 4:02.755
3. New Zealand 4:03.166
4.. Denmark 4:06.784
Men’s Keirin
Great Britain had two riders in this event, Olympic Silver medallist Ross Edgar and winner of the Japanese (JKA) Keirin at Manchester two years running, Matt Crampton. In the first round, both Crampton and Edgar sailed through the first round after they both won their respective heats and progressed through to the second round.
In the second round, things didn't go well for Matt Crampton and in a frantic finish where Australian Alex Bird crashed on the finish line, Crampton was 4th and was out of the final for the medals. In Heat 1, it was the same result for Ross Edgar, 4th, and like Matt, Ross was out of the final for the medals.
Both the Brits lined up in the minor final racing for 7th place and Ross Edgar showed what might have been by winning that race with Crampton finishing 4th, 10th place overall.
Men’s Scratch Race
After his excellent showing the night before in the Points race, GB’s Chris Newton lined up in heat 2 of the Men’s Scratch race and like he did in the Points, made it through to the final after finishing 5th in his heat. In the Points, Newton missed winning the race after not being one of the riders to take a lap, something he put right in the Scratch race as he was one of seven riders to do so but in the rush for the line, Chris was 6th and there was to be no medals for him at this World Cup.
Men’s Kilometre
After his Silver medal at Manchester, there were high hopes of a Gold medal for Britain’s David Daniel but the Middlesbrough rider was unable to repeat the time he recorded at Manchester (1.01.6) and David finished the competition in 4th place behind Aussie Scott Sunderland 1.02 who had been 5th behind Stefan Nimke at Manchester three weeks ago.
Daniel started well in his effort and was sixth after one lap but his fastest of all the riders second lap saw him lift himself to fourth and after three laps, the second fastest third 250 metre stint saw him in the medals.
The final lap, the worse in this event as many riders ‘park’ up under the pressure of giving in to the pain in their legs, was telling on David and his fourth best time for that last agony filled 250 metres saw him drop to fourth.
The effort by the Chinese rider Chongyang Wang was interesting. He was only 11th after the first lap but then pulled his deficit back lap-by-lap to finish with the Silver medal. It was a very similar effort to Taylor Phinney's at the Copenhagen World Cup this year where he also started conservatively (16th after one lap) but raced back to win the event with a '1.6' which is a sensational time for anyone to do for the distance, never mind an endurance athlete.
1. SUNDERLAND Scott, Australia 1:02.171
2 .WANG Chongyang, China1:02.204
3. MULDER Teun, Holland, 1:02.404
4. DANIELL David Great Britain 1:02.708
Day 1:
The first day of competition, a Thursday, saw Great Britain win Gold thanks to a victory by Wendy Houvenaghel in the Women’s Pursuit where she beat the World Champion from New Zealand. Chris Newton and Jessica Varnish were also in action.
Women's Pursuit
In the Women's Pursuit, Olympic Silver medallist from Great Britain, Wendy Houvenaghel, started the competition well by beating the World Champion Alison Shanks of New Zealand to make the Gold and Silver medal final against the same rider who had beaten her for the World title in Poland early this year -- Shanks.
With so little between them from the qualifying, thousandths of a second, it was going to be a tough battle for the winner of the Manchester round and so it proved. Over the first kilometre, just how close this race was going to be could be seen as both riders covered the distance in almost the same time.
Wendy went through the 1,000 metre marker only hundreths of a second down on Shanks and at two kilometres, there was still less than a tenth of a second between them. The final kilometre was the telling one though and Wendy was the clear winner here, covering that final 1,000 metres in 1.10.044 to Shank's 1.10.497. Wendy was the winner of the Pursuit for the second time in the series. Third was Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine who beat Aussie Omnium World Champion Tomic.
With two wins, Wendy continues to lead the World Cup series and has twice won the series overall.
Men's Points Race
Chris Newton continued where he left off at Manchester in the Men's Points by winning his qualifying heat and earning his place in the final. At Manchester, Newton had won that final by being the most consistent rider in the sprints, and in Melbourne, he again was scoring well but after failing to gain a lap as six of his rivals did during the final, Newton finished the race in the Aussie World Cup round in 5th place.
In the final, Newton had started his scoring spree in the second sprint when he finished behind Kovalev in second place and was second again in the fourth sprint behind eventual Silver medallist, Tamouridis. 
Britain’s Newton was continuing to lay down his laws of sprinting however when he was second in the fifth sprint of the event but there was disaster for his medal hopes when a short time later four riders took a lap in the final quarter of the race. Newton, a former World Champion in the event, continued his chase for points however and he was third in the 7th sprint and for the first time in sprint eight, crossed the line first.
Had he not lost that lap, he would have been leading the race by a large margin at this point but his race became further unstuck as Aussie Cameron Meyer and Tamouridis took a lap in the dying throws of the race to give six riders a lap on the rest including Newton. The final sprint of the night saw Newton showing his speed again over the boards with another victory but the Gold medal went to home rider and World Champion Cameron Meyer ahead of Tamouridis who finished on the same points but behind Meyer in the final sprint.
Chris Newton leads the World Cup series overall for this event after two rounds.
Final
1. MEYER Cameron AUS 33
2. TAMOURIDIS Ioannis GRE 33
3. BUJKO Lukasz POL 28
4. FREIBERG Michael SAL 26
5. NEWTON Chris GBR 24
6. PEREZ Walter Fernando ARG 24
Men's Points Race Qualifying Heat 1
1. Chris Newton (Great Britain) 12 pts
2. Lukasz Bujko (Poland) 10
3. Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 7
4. Thomas Scully (New Zealand) 6
5. Cameron Meyer (Australia) 6
6. Erik Mohs (Germany) 6
7. Roman Kononenko (Ukraine) 5
8. Viktor Shmalko (KTA) 5
9 Tosh Van Der Sande (Belgium) 4
10 Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 3
11 Hyeong Min Choe (Korea) 2
12 Ki Ho Choi (HKP)
Men's Points Race Qualifying Heat 2
1. Muhamad Adiq Othman (Malaysia) 25 pts
2. Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 25
3. Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur (Spain) 23
4. Kazuhiro Mori (Japan) 22
5. Arno Van Der Zwet (Netherlands) 21
6. Tristan Marquet (Switzerland) 11
7. Ivan Kovalev (Russian Federation) 11
8. Michael Freiberg (SAL) 11
9. Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 8
1.0 Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong, China) 5
11. Jacob Schwingboth (Canada) 4
12. Timothy Llewellyn (Ireland) -20
Women's Sprint
Great Britain had only one rider in this event, Academy rider Jess Varnish who in qualifying recorded a flying 200 metres time of 11.728 to place her 10th behind the fastest qualifiers Shang Guo of China, Willy Kanis of Holland and Australian Anna Meares. With only the fastest 8 going through to the quarter finals in the medal competition, Jess continued her race in the B quarter finals where in a sudden death ride off, she beat Korea's Eunmi Park to go through to the semi final.
Up against a new name in the Australian senior team, Emily Rosemond, Jess found the local girl too tough to beat and was beaten into first place and denied a place in the B final where the riders would race for 9th place in the competition. Jess however raced for 11th against the experienced French rider Sandi Clair who she beat to finish the competition one place down on where she qualified.
The Women's Sprint was won by Anna Meares, the Olympic Silver medallist who had been 5th in Manchester.
Other Events
In the other events, there was a new name in the Men's Pursuit, Australian Dennis Rohan, at the top of the leaderboard after qualifying when he beat Kiwi Jesse Sergent by only half a second to set up a meeting with the same rider in the final for Gold. Both riders recorded a '19'. well off the time of Geraint Thomas who because of road commitments, is not expected to contest the World Track Championships in Copenhagen.
