Track World Cup Day 1 Report

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UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics 2011 - Day 1 Report

Day 1 Report, 18 February 2011 | Event Home-Page | Day 1 Results

DAY 1 VIDEO & IMAGES

Images: Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3

DAY 1 REPORT: EVENING SESSION

Women's Team Pursuit Finals: The gold medal final saw GB win a truly epic contest by less than 1.1 seconds, just missing a world record by less than 2 tenths of a second in the process as they recorded 3:19.757, their second national record of the day. GB lead all the way, but the gap was under half a second for the first 2000 metres and even at the end, the New Zealanders were pulling back every time Alison Shanks was on the front.

The bronze medal final went to the Ouch trio, who fought back brilliantly after the Dutch took an early lead. Ouch timed their ride perfectly going into the lead only in the last couple of laps.

Men's Individual Pursuit: Australia's Dennis Rohan 4:15.614 beat Geraint Thomas 4:16.477 in a brilliant final. Rohan began very quickly, going half a second up, before Thomas came back at him in the missdle two kilometres. Thomas had almost 1.5 seconds lead, but Rohan finished the stronger, reeling the Welshman in to win at the death. New Zealand's Marc Ryan led from start to finish to claim the bronze medal from Huizenga of the Netherlands.

Women's Team Sprint: Australia won the Women's Team Sprint final from China, reversing their qualifying form and going close to dipping under 33 seconds as they finished in 33.017. France beat the young GB duo of Jess Varnish and Becky James for Bronze. Earlier, China qualified fastest for the gold medal final alongside Australia, with the French lining up against GB duo Becky James and Jess Varnish in the bronze final. But the story of the round was the young GB duo's eclipsing of former world champions Shanaze Reade and Victoria Pendleton - the margin a massive 4 tenths of a second. Six teams went under 34 seconds.

Men's Sprint: Jason Kenny won the first heat of the gold medal final with a great defensive ride from the front against Kevin Sireau, holding off the Frenchman brilliantly in the closing half lap after he drew level with 150m to go. The second heat was just as close, with Sireau going for a long one after Kenny left a few lengths gap. Kenny almost got back, but just lost by half a wheel. The third race was a repeat of the second, with Kenny again allowing a gap, then almost catching Sireau on the line - there's really nothing between these two on this evidence! Meanwhile, Chris Hoy disposed of Maxamillian Levy in straight heats to win the bronze medal.

France's Kevin Sireau destroyed German's Maxamillian Levy in their Sprint semi-final, simply riding clear of his rival in both heats. Meanwhile Jason Kenny blasted past Chris Hoy in the last two thirds of a lap to take their first semi-final heat, making it look amazingly easy! He then led out their second heat and just held off Hoy by perhaps as little as 12 inches to claim a place in the final.

Men's Omnium: The Points Race was a terrific scrap, close right to the end. The effects of a nasty cart-wheeling crash eventually forced Tim Veldt out, whilst Ben Swift missed a crucial break when half the field gained a lap on the rest. From then on he was stranded with little chance of making any impact. The race was eventually won by New Zealand's Shane Archbold - his second win - taking him into a clear overall lead. Rafal Ratajczyk of Poland was second.

Full Day 1 Results

REPORT: MORNING SESSION

Women's Team Pursuit: It was the young 100% ME trio of Danni King, Laura Trott and Katie Colclough who set the competition alight with a time of 3:23.355. That put them on top of the leader-board for the best part of an hour, before the GB trio of Joanna Rowsell, Wendy Houvenaghel and Sarah Storey got up and rode an impressive 3:20.962, a national record and just 1.4 seconds off the World record. Sarah Storey's remarkable cross-over from the Paralympic ranks looks to be really gaining momentum! In the closing minutes of qualifying, Sarah Hammer's Ouch Pro Cycling team slipped inside the 100% ME time to go second, followed quickly by the Dutch. Finally, the New Zealanders just missed going fastest by 26 hundredths of a second, to go into a final with GB, leaving Ouch and the Dutch to contest bronze.

Men's Sprint: Kevin Sireau, Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Maxamillian Levy all made straightforward progress through to the semi-finals of the men's sprint, none of them losing a heat as they disposed of Mulder, D'Almedia, Zhang and Kitatsuru respectively.

The 1/8 round of the Men's Sprint competition saw easy wins for the three favourites, Sireau of France and the Sky duo Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny. They were joined in the quarter finals by Levy of France, Kitatsuru of Japan, who knocked out Scott Sunderland, Lei Zhang of China, D'Almeida of France and Mulder of Holland.

Earlier, Kevin Sireau of France justified his world number one status with comfortably the fastest time. Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny of the Sky Track Cycling team were second and third respectively.

Men's Omnium: The first round of the Omnium, the flying lap, saw New Zealand's Shane Archbold taking the first win, with a time of 13.291 seconds. Ben Swift was 12th in 13.586 seconds, underlining just how tight the competition is in this event.

Men's Individual Pursuit: In the Men's Individual Pursuit, Marc Ryan (NZ) was the first rider to lay down a competitive time with 4:21.637. Aussie Dennis Rohan then upped the ante, doing a world class ride of 4:15.519. Going off in the penultimate heat, Geraint Thomas was second fastest all the way for a time of 4:16.883 and a place in the final against Rohan.

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Full Day 1 Results