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The third and final day of the opening round of the 2012-13 UCI Track World Cup series in Cali, Columbia, saw more promising rides from the young GB sprinters and an outstanding bronze medal in the Points Race for Welsh Team SWI's Jon Mould.
Mould was one of three riders to gain three laps over the 30km distance and that was enough to give him the bronze medal at the end of the 120 laps. Austria’s Andreas Graf won the gold. A short tweet soon afterwards summed up Jon’s feelings: “Well that was some bike race! #chuffed”. GB Coach, Iain Dyer was impressed with the ride, tweeting “Beautiful bronze for Mouldy in the points race!!! Gained a lap at the death. Well done @TeamSWIWC !!!”
Following his crash in the Keirin on day 2, it was a somewhat bruised and battered Kian Emadi made it through to the main draw of the men’s sprint after qualifying in 10th place with a time of 10.419s for the 200 meters. However, he then went out in the first round proper to the Russian Ilya Okunev. The competition was won by fastest qualifier Philipp Thiele of Germany from home favourite, Fabien Puerta. Kian’s coach, Iain Dyer was upbeat about the young rider’s debut at World Cup level, where his first day silver in the Kilo was a stand-out performance, and after his elimination he wrote on Twitter “10th for @kianemadi in the end. Good series for first World Cup.”
The Women’s Keirin saw the GB duo of Becky James and Jess Varnish tackle their third day in a row of competition and it all started well for them as they both won their first round heats. James continued to look in great form as went through to the final with another win in the second round, whilst Varnish also progressed with second in her heat.
However, the final proved to be a race too far for both Becky and Jess as Juliana Gaviria of Columbia won from Luz Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez of Mexico and Virginie Cueff of France. James was fourth and Varnish fifth, a quiet end to an otherwise excellent weekend of racing for the pair of them.
Afterwards Varnish summed things up with this tweet: “Sketchy kierin final, lucky to not get wiped out! Good week overall.” Whilst Becky James was obviously not happy with her final race of the weekend, if a little more accepting of the three days as a whole: “Frustrating keirin final finished 4th..but will learn from my mistakes! Racing done and dusted! Nice to take a gold and a silver!”
The second day of competition in the Women’s Omnium saw junior world time trial champion Elinor Barker picking up more useful experience, with fifth in both the Pursuit and the Scratch race the highlights of her day which saw her finish in 8th place in the event.
Results
Women's Keirin Round 1
Women's Keirin Round 2
Women's Keirin Finals
Women's Omnium Final standings
Men's Points Race
Men's Sprint Qualification
Men's Sprint Finals
