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Day 5 of the 2012 UCI World Masters Track Cycling Championships at the Manchester Velodrome saw lots of scratch racing for the men and women as well as points races for men.

The morning saw qualifying heats for the Men's 40-44 scratch race and men's 45-49 points races with 24 riders from each going through to the finals in the evening. During that evening session, honours on the night were even between the USA and Britain with two race wins each. Other winners were France, Argentina, Canada and Sweden.

Men’s 35-39 scratch

Mickael Dhinnin of France was the winner of the title race after lapping the field on his own and then going clear at the end again to seal a decisive victory in the rather brutal first event of the evening. The race was over 10 kilometres or 40 laps of the track and after a steady start, the first attack started a very aggressive period during the race when the field split and split again.

There were just as many riders going backwards as forwards and the longer the race went on, the more it looked like the field would split even more.  Towards the end, a break of a dozen or so riders went clear and from that another rider, Jason Meidof took a lap to join Dhinnin on the same lap while the rest scrambled to just try and be in a position to compete for the final medal on offer.

The closer the finish got, the more the race fragmented and it was no wonder that it took a long time for the race result to be published such was the chaos on the track with riders all over the place.

The rider who had managed to survive the carnage to get that final podium place was Mark Jewell of Australia who denied Brit Graeme Lackford that final medal position.

Men’s 40-44 scratch

Like the first race, this race got off to a steady start and taking full advantage of that was Britain’s Alan Sheldon who went off for a lap and very quickly got within a quarter of a lap of making contact with the bunch.

Heads in the peloton though started to turn round to see him coming and that final little bit took a long time for Sheldon as the attacks off the front were non-stop. Sheldon made it through but just when he may have been forgiven for thinking he had the Gold in the bag, three more riders took a lap and then with the finish in sight, the hammer was well and truly down. 

The mad scramble to get to the finish first saw the riders who were a lap up and the peloton all racing for the line together with the gold going to Diego Alejandro Rozie ahead of fellow Argentinian Daniel Del Barco with Alan Sheldon racing home in third place for the bronze.

No more results of this race were available at the time of writing.

Men’s 45-49 points

American Kenny Williams won the Men’s 45-49 points race by only two points race where only six points covered the first seven riders. Another rider from the USA, David Klipper was the first to win a sprint followed by Italian Enrico Grimani in sprint number two before British rider Nick Noble won the third sprint with the main aggression in the race coming from riders sprinting for the points every ten laps.

There was another win for a British rider, Nick Abraham and Grimani’s second place saw him move into the lead but that wasn’t going to last long with the Italian losing no less than three laps in the second half of the race.

Kenny Williams started to make his move for the gold medal in winning sprint five and that moved him into second place behind Grimani with 30 laps to go and the peloton was still all together. The race was now moving up a gear though and with ten laps to go, Williams won another five points to go into the lead and despite only finishing twelve in the final sprint, his points tally was enough to clinch the gold medal from the winner of the final sprint Nick Abraham with Nick Noble in third place.

1. Kenny Williams(GB) 12pts,
2. Nick Abraham (GBR) 10pts,
3. Nick Noble (GBR) 10pts,
4. David Klipper (USA) 10pts.
5. Paul Wain (Gbr)
6. David Stevens (Aus)
7. Daniel Casper (USA)
8. Lee Rowe (Gbr)
9. Michael Blasczyk (Ger)
10. Darin Marhanka (USA) 

Men’s 50-54 points

Canadian Peter Toth was the winner of the Men’s 50-54 points after taking no less than two laps to give him a winning margin of 14 points on second placed Vladimir Zyryanov of Russia with another Canadian, defending champion, Stephane Le Beau in third place.

After Jorge Zoric (Arg) had won the first sprint, Peter Toth and Trevor Burke went off the front and at the next sprint after 20 laps, Toth and Burke finished first and second with the peloton breathing down their necks. Toth carried on with the effort and took the first of his two laps with Le Beau.

The race by now was split wide open in two groups as the chasing down of the breaks took its toll on the legs of the riders suffering at the back. There was though a lull in the race and the peloton came together for more sprinting for points before Toth and Zyryanov got a lap.

This left three riders all clear of the rest and Toth continued to rack up the points to ensure he stayed ahead of Zyryanov and Le Beau who were battling for the Silver. While Zyryanov never won any sprints, he did score in four of the six sprints and despite Le Beau winning the final sprint, it wasn’t enough to stop the Russian taking second behind Toth.

1. Peter Toth, (Can)

2. Vladimir Zyryanov, (Rus)

3. Stephan Le Beu (Can)

4. Colin Parkinson (Gbr)

5. Ralph Carter (Gbr)

6. Jorge Zoric (Arg)

7. Keir Apperley (Gbr)

8. David Gulick (USA)

9. Rubiel Cortes (Col)

10. Michael Popplewell (Aus)

Men 55-59 points

Lars Myrberg of Sweden was the dominant winner of this race scoring well in most of the sprints and finishing eight points clear of his nearest rival James Host of the USA. Mark Sommers of the USA was third.

The first sprint of the race saw Sommers on top of the leaderboard after beating British rider Jimmy Rutherford to the five points in sprint one and that was followed by James Host getting the next maximum to put him on equal terms with Somers. Myberg them turned up the heat winning the third sprint which put him two points clear of both Host and Sommers.

Myberg won another five to extend his lead over Host and Somers who were now second and third respectively and while Myberg continued to dominant the race, Host and Sommers were having their own battle to see who got the silver.

Host tried a lone attack that backfired when he got swamped just before the line of the fifth sprint dropping him to third overall but he fought back in the final sprint to get enough points to end up on the same points overall as Sommers but by virtue of his better final finishing position, he got the silver medal while the bronze went to Sommers.

Overall

Lars Myrberg (SWE) 18pts,

James Host (USA) 10pts,

1. Mark Sommers (USA) 10pts,
2. Didiet Ramet (Fra) 7pts
3. Bernardo Figueroa (Col) 5pts,
4. James Rutherford (Gbr) 4pts,
5. David Park (Gbr)
6. Graham Barclay (Gbr) 3pts,
7. Lutz Mueglich (Ger) 1pt,
8. Raymond Gildea (USA) 0 pts.

Women's scratch race 35-44

After five kilometres or 20 laps of the track the medals in this race were decided in a bunch kick won by Kimberley Edwards of the USA from - Carolien Van Herrikhuyzen (Holland) and Rebecca Wheadon. 

1. Kimberley Edwards (USA),
2. Carolien Van Herrikhuyzen (Ned)
3. Rebecca Wheadon (Gbr)

Further results of this race were not available at the time of writing

Women's Scratch Race 45+

This race was yet another win for Britain’s Janet Birkmyre who was wearing the jersey of British Senior champion for this event. The pace for the race was kept high throughout but with no real splits, it was a gift for the sprinters and there were none faster than Birkmyre who won easily from Annette Williams and Makiko Hamada.

1. Janet Birkmyre (GBR)
2. Annette Williams (USA)
3. Makiko Hamada (JPN)

Men 60+ Brian Cossavella Memorial scratch

The final event of the night over 10 miles was the Brian Cossavella Memorial trophy event. With Cossavella’s favourite music, the Rolling Stones, playing in the back ground, the first attack came from Jim Robertson and when he was pulled back, Martin Bush tried a lone move of his own.

Behind him, the peloton was gathering pace and after seven laps, Bush was brought back before three riders escaped and then one by one, two by two, most of the peloton joined them at the front. The pace though was taking its toll and by halfway, the race had lost almost half of its number.

Then came a decisive move by Lance Ravehill and David Rutherford. The duo opened up half a lap lead and the bunch seemed powerless to stop them but then after a long time out front on their own, two more riders came across to them including former Olympic medallist Willi Moore.

By then the race comprised of the leading four and a chase group of five. That was all that was left and the race for the trophy came down to a battle between the four out front. Having already won a race on his during the championship week, Ravenhill showed yet again how strong he was by going clear on the final lap, winning alone ahead of Willi More with David Rutherford in third and John Moss (South Africa) in fourth.

1. Ravenhill Lance Gbr

2. Moore Willi Gbr

3. Rutherford David Gbr

4. Moss John Rsa

5. Bush Martin Gbr

6. Dupin Claude Fra

7. Freeman Malcolm Gbr

8. Holmes Terry Gbr

9. Williams Michael Usa

20 starters

Tickets

Tickets are now available at the door during the championships. Ticket prices are very modest with all day prices at £8 and £5 for concessions during the week and £10 and £5 for concessions for the final two days. All ticket holders will also receive a free souvenir programme together with a daily update sheet containing full details of the programme for each day.