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Report: 2010 UCI Track World Championships - Day 3
26th March 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark
Report: Eddie Allen | Images: Larry Hickmott
Day 3 -- Men's Team Pursuit, Women's Sprint, Men's Kilometre, Women's Scratch
Evening Session
MEN'S TEAM PURSUIT
Australia took Gold in the Men's Team Pursuit in a nailbiting, thrilling contest with the GB team of Clancy, Burke, Swift and Tennant. The youthful Aussie squad of Meyer, Bobridge, Hepburn and Dennis went out hard from the gun and were 4/10th up after the first 500 metres. From then on in the gap fluctuated in and out, with each team responding to the other in a surging, see-sawing track-duel.
There was never more than a second separating the two teams. At the halfway stage Australia were up by 6/10th but the result was impossible to predict. Within a few laps the GB's team's deficit was less than 1/10th of a second. Then, Australia lost a man and British hopes were raised. Yet incredibly the Australians again put time into the Brits and at the bell, GB had 3/10th of a second to make up. In the end, only 1/10th separated the two teams, with Australia taking another gold medal in one of the most thrilling Team Pursuit contests for many years.
In contrast, the bronze medal ride-off between New Zealand and hosts Denmark was a clear-cut affair. The Kiwis started strong and were up by 3/10th of a second after the first lap. By the halfway stage the gap had risen to almost a second. In the end, the accomplished New Zealand squad crossed the line over two seconds ahead of the Danish foursome to claim a well deserved Bronze.
1 AUS Australia 3:55.654
BOBRIDGE Jack
DENNIS Rohan
HEPBURN Michael
MEYER Cameron
2 GBR Great Britain 3:55.806
BURKE Steven
CLANCY Edward
SWIFT Ben
TENNANT Andrew
3 NZL New Zealand 3:59.475
BEWLEY Sam
GOUGH Westley
LATHAM Peter
SERGENT Jesse
4 DEN Denmark 4:01.664
BYRGESEN Niki
CHRISTENSEN Michael Faerk
MADSEN JensErik
QUAADE Rasmus Christian
WOMEN'S SPRINT
Quarter Finals
Victoria Pendleton kept GB medal hopes alive in the Women's sprint, comfortably overcoming her quarter final opponent Baranova in two straight rides. Pendleton was never troubled - on both occasions Baranova sat up and conceded victory - having no answer to Vicky's speed.
Victoria Pendleton comes round GB teammate Jess Varnish to go through to the next round.
Australian Karlee McCulloch had a nightmare quarter final session against Krupeckaite - suffering from cramp and riding through the pain in race one and making a huge tactical blunder in race two, taking her eye off the classy Lithuanian, allowing Simona to jump away and snatch a semi final ride against Pendleton.
Kaarle's team mate Anna Meares didn't have things all her own way in the quarters either. Having beaten Kristina Vogel in the first, Meares was relegated in the second race for moving out of the sprinter's lane. However, Meares didn't panic and controlled the decider to qualify for the semis.
After her stunning sub 11 second qualifier, Guo of China was the final rider to qualify for the semis, beating Belarus' Olga Panarina in a clinical 2-0.
Heat 1
GUO Shuang CHN beat PANARINA Olga BLR 2-0
Heat 2
MEARES Anna AUS beat VOGEL Kristina GER 2-1
Heat 3
PENDLETON Victoria GBR beat BARANOVA Victoria RUS 2-0
Heat 4
KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU beat MCCULLOCH Kaarle AUS 2-0
MEN'S KILOMETRE TIME TRIAL
The Netherlands' Teun Mulder showed his class and experience in the kilo, posting an incredible 1:00.341 to snatch the world title and the sea-level record from Germany's Stefan Nimke. Mulder lit up the competition at around the halfway point - prior to the man in orange hitting the track Alonso of Spain held the top spot with a 1:03. Then Mulder's smooth, technically faultless ride blew everyone into the weeds.
France's D'Almeida came closest to stealing the show, also dipping under the elusive 1:01 barrier, eventually claiming silver, while his team-mate Pervis slotted in behind in bronze medal position. Outgoing champion Stefan Nimke had no reply to the flying Dutchman, finishing a disappointing fourth.
GB's young academy rider Dave Daniell (below), called the Diesel by Jamie Staff, posted a 1:02 time to claim an eventual seventh position. Whilst slowing on the last lap as most riders do, David met his performance goal of being top 4 at 750 metres which is the critical distance for a GB rider. That being the distance they train for at Man 3 in the Olympic event, the Team Sprint.
1 MULDER Teun NED 1:00.341
2 D'ALMEIDA Michaël FRA 1:00.884
3 PERVIS François FRA 1:01.024
4 NIMKE Stefan GER 1:01.086
5 DAWKINS Edward NZL 1:01.372
6 ZHANG Miao CHN 1:01.520
7 DANIELL David GBR 1:02.033
8 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS 1:02.291
9 ALONSO CASTILLO David ESP 1:03.004
10 BOLIBRUKH Yevgen UKR 1:03.038
WOMEN'S SCRATCH RACE
French rider Pascale Jeuland won the Women's Scratch world title in an incident packed race which was dominated by a huge crash involving around half a dozen riders. Attacks came thick and fast in the early part of the race with Ukranian Shpylyova, Aussie Belinda Goss and others all making bids for freedom. In a 10km race, the chances of a lap gain are always slim and none of the attacks came to anything.
Half a bike (left) flies through the air as riders slide across the running track in crash which affected a lot of riders. Full marks to the Aussie for getting up and grabbing the Bronze despite being on the deck here.
It looked as if a final bunch sprint was going to be the dramatic highpoint of the race until a rider was felled mid pack, slid down the track, causing a horrible domino effect. USA's Shelley Evans came-off worse, bike splitting in half and rider remaining flat on the apron for the remainder of the race. In the end it was Jeuland who got herself into a great position at the bell, holding off outgoing champion Gonzalez of Cuba to take Gold. Belinda Goss, who was felled in the mid-race pile-up showed her class by remounting on a new bike, shaking off the ghosts of the crash and taking bronze.
GB's Anna Blyth, still early in her endurance career, having been remodelled from a keirin and 500TT rider, had a hard time staying in touch, but managed to avoid the pile-up and came home in 20th position.
1 JEULAND Pascale FRA
2 GONZALEZ VALDIVIESO Yumari CUB
3 GOSS Belinda AUS
4 DRUYTS Kelly BEL
5 MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE
6 WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL
7 NA Ah Reum KOR
8 SHARAKOVA Tatsiana BLR
9 LETH Julie DEN
10 DIAO Xiao Juan HKG
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session of day three saw Great Britain's Team Pursuit squad of Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Ben Swift and Andy Tennant comfortably post the fastest time in qualifying. The GB quartet were over 1½ seconds faster than the Australian outfit of Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Michael Hepburn and Leigh Howard, who would join the Brits in the ride-off for gold.
Another half second back, and qualifying for the bronze medal ride-off was the Kiwi train of Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Peter Latham and Jesse Sargent. The Danish hosts were fourth, almost four seconds distant and would join the New Zealanders in the hunt for bronze.
The afternoon session also saw the opening phase of the Women's Sprint competition, in which Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton progressed to the quarter finals. After posting the seventh fastest time in qualifying (which was won by China's Guo, who put in a monster 10.9 effort) the cruelty of the draw saw Pendleton face team-mate Jess Varnish. Pendleton went on to eliminate Varnish in the 1/16 final before dispatching her 1/8 final opponent, France's Clara Sanchez, the latter rider knocking out GB's Becky James in the 1/16 final.
