Reflections on Manchester 2011
Track World Cup Classics, 18-20 Feb 2011 |
As the dust settles on the Manchester Velodrome after three truly memorable days of racing, it's a good time to ponder a few of the key moments and reflect on some of the things we've learnt over the weekend.
The Omnium is here to stay and, in the performances of the American Ouch Team rider Sarah Hammer, we had the outstanding athletic achievement of the weekend. She won four of six races, with a second and a third. Her almost arrogant win in the Scratch race, where she simply went to the front and held off the entire field for several laps, before a final push to the line gave her the win, will be an enduring memory.
The performances of GB's Ben Swift and Lizzie Armitstead, wholehearted though they were, left them off the pace and reminded us what a great job Ed Clancy and, in Beijing, Sam Harrison have been doing in the Omnium. Armitstead was competitive in her first attempts at the discipline, but the event has moved on and increasingly it is the preserve of the endurance rider with a sprinter's kick.
The script goes something like this: try to get top three in the flying lap, time trial and pursuit, then minimise your losses in the bunch races. Riders like Ben and Lizzie ought to favour the bunch races, but by their very nature these races are a lottery, whereas those against the clock offer more certainty. Ed Clancy knows he'll be there or thereabouts in the flying lap, kilo and pursuit and can therefore adopt a more conservative approach to the bunch events. It's a fascinating spectacle watching the teams and riders trying to work out this great test of all-round ability.
On the down side, the Omnium is not yet a spectator favourite. Its long-drawn out format doesn't lend it any tension and it's hard to keep up with the state of play unless you have direct access to the Tissot standings. Consequently the tension never really builds and even in the final race it's not always clear who is going to claim the medals until the final scoreboard is flashed up. It's time for the UCI and those who look at how results are presented to the crowd to come up with some alternative ways of communicating the situation and building some tension.
With one eye on London 2012 it was interesting to see how the GB sprinters performed. Victoria Pendleton has been quoted as saying she is struggling to maintain her motivation and she frequently mentions pressure during her interviews. Perhaps a relatively fallow year in terms of medals would be a good thing, removing the favourite's tag and giving her that "I'll show them I'm not finished" angle in London. She certainly deserves a break from the spotlight.
Her young team-mates Jess varnish and Becky James continue to advance in leaps and bounds and one or other could just be the finished article in time for the Olympics. James' will-to-win is particularly evident - heaven help the rest of the field if she does develop the speed of the top riders!
Chris Hoy will leave for the Worlds next month in good heart. His Keirin win revealed a new tactic: gone were the two lap runs for home, with the field trailing in his wake. With his opponents now wise to that and attempting to block and box him in at every opportunity, he simply sat back until the final lap and then rode round the top of everyone with a devastating turn of speed. Three successive final 200 metre times of 10.1 or 10.2 seconds were more than any of his rivals could cope with. Hoy will also have been mightily relieved to have avoided the big last corner smash in the final.
Jason Kenny, meanwhile, looks a more complete rider than ever before. In the Sprint he disposed of Hoy with apparent ease and then lost a very close final to Kevin Sireau. It could have gone either way. He alone looked unfazed by Sireau's breath-taking speed. Kenny, Sireau and Bauge, who contented himself with a run out in the Team Sprint, look to be in a class of their own at the moment.
Less re-assuring was the Sky/GB effort in the Team Sprint. Once again the Kenny, Hoy, Crampton combination, though great on paper, looks to lack the vital chemistry which turns this brutal event into an art form and slices that final, medal-winning half second off a team's time. It'll be interesting to see how the famously inventive GB coaches tackle this little problem
There was a lot less to worry about in the Team Pursuit and what a thrill it was to see the preferred line-up of many an armchair pundit - Clancy, Wiggins, Thomas and Burke - back together. It had the feel of a super-group re-union and their "stage performance" produced the loudest cheer of a very loud weekend. The prospect of an Olympic confrontation between this quartet of battle-hardened individuals and an exceptionally talented young Australian squad is mouth-watering. And with riders like Sam Harrison and Andy Tennant in the wings, there's strength in depth and pressure for places, a combination which always helps raise standards.
Finally a word of praise for Sarah Storey. Her progress from dominant Paralympian to contender for a place in the able-bodied GB squad has been one of the stories of the last 12 months. She played a full part in the Team Pursuit, where the national record went twice. She also gave more time to the media than any other GB rider over the weekend. Long may the Storey continue!
