UCI Sydney Track World Cup 2006

 

March 4, 2006; Day 2; >Sydney World Track Cup
British Cycling's Larry Hickmott reports |

 

Day 2 Results in detail >>>>

Day 2 GB Reaction >>>>

 

Day 2: Gold for Houvenaghel; bronze for Newton and young Pursuiters

 

Women's Pursuit

 

After a Silver in the Moscow World Track Cup, Wendy Houvenaghel went one better in Sydney to win the Gold. The dentist from the south of England qualified well, the fastest by over two seconds and although not a hundred percent pleased with the ride and time, being fastest was still something that brought a smile to her face and that of her GB coach, Dan Hunt.

Before the final, Wendy spent a long time on the rollers warming up but appeared also very relaxed for an athlete who is still very new to this level of competition. In the final itself, she was down a little to begin before she got the big gear going and started to make inroads into her opponent's lead. Once she had her wheel in front, it was game over for Wang, who had no answer to Houvenaghel's relentless pace.

After finishing, she came rolling around the track and raised an arm to acknowledge the cheers, a big smile filling her face: it was a look that belied the fact she had just ridden 3,000 metres for a Gold medal. And the icing on the cake was that not only did she win the Gold, she was also crowned the World Cup Champion for the event with a second and a first to give her the same points as American Sarah Hammer.

Gold final

1 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.41.316 (48.799km/h)

beat
2 Li Wang (China) 3.45.524 (47.888km/h)

Mens Points Race

 

Great Britain had three current World Champions in this race: Chris Newton (also World Champion for the Points Race in 2002), Rob Hayles and Mark Cavendish.

The race took a few laps to get going and in the early stages Rob Hayles was up there in the sprints, taking a few points in the first sprint and even trying to get a break going. By the time the race had covered 17 laps, the field was starting to line out, with small gaps appearing, the tell-tale signs that it was becoming tough for some of the riders.

A break formed briefly, including Rob, and with it looking dangerous, Newton and Cavendish joined forces to bridge across to it. The race was now at full speed, and the pace saw a group of six or so riders tailed off and they soon got lapped by the large leading group which had come back together. There were still 90 laps to go at this point and a few laps later, Mark Cavendish found himself in a break of four trying to get away. Niki Terpstra was also involved - indeed he was in everything throughout the race!

These four leaders were the first to lap the riders who had been dropped before and at the 80 lap to go point, Mark Cavendish scored the first of his two sprint wins and when the commitment of the four was called into question by Terpstra as the chasers closed in on the break, the Dutchman counter attacked straight away to get away alone.

With 76 laps to go Chris Newton (pictured right) made a move, chasing the Dutchman, but it never came to anything and within a few laps, the race was back together, ready for the sprint at 70 laps to go. It was an amazing sprint for Mark Cavendish, who seemed to get squeezed as he led the sprint out, but he was still able to make room for himself to take the second of his two sprint wins.

Another 10 laps and Newton was on the attack again but quickly caught by a Russian rider, then Terpstra and Finning of Australia made their way up to them. An Italian then joined them. They finally got dragged back with 36 laps to go, only for a new break to go almost immediately, once agin involving Newton. This break stuck and Newton got his lap: he now had to get some points to ensure a medal. This he did at the next sprint.

It wasn't going to be easy though to keep the medal-winning position and Chris found himself chasing the race at times as riders let wheels go. He did however stay in control and after the final sprint had been decided, Chris had achieved his goal of a place in the Worlds with a bronze medal as the bonus.

Mark Cavendish looked good throughout, had his moments in the sprints and finished a very respectable seventh, with Rob Hayles eleventh.

Results

Men's points race

1 Niki Terpstra (Netherlands) 34 pts
2 Kazuhiro Mori (Japan) 31
3 Chris Newton (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 28
other
7 Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) 12
11 Rob Hayles (GBr) Science in Sport 7

Men's Sprint

 

Jamie Staff was in Sydney to try and get more sprint qualification points for the British team at the World Championships and started well, sitting atop the leader board for a long time in the 200 metre qualifying Time Trial. His time was good enough for 4th fastest and Jamie admitted although it wasn't a brilliant time, considering where he is in the training phase, it was a good indicator.

Into the first round and he faced the Japanese rider Nangai who he dispensed with emphatically. In the quarter finals he came up against Poland's Damian Zielinski who has gone all the way in World Track Cup Sprint competitions in the past, winning at Manchester in early 2005. Staff found he was unable to prevent the Polish rider from coming past him in the closing meters of both heats and so lost out.

So whilst Damian Zielinski went on to the semi finals (and final for Gold), Jamie found himself in the minor final where he finished 8th.

Results
Qualifying
1. Lukasz Kwiatkowski, Poland, 10.248
2. Gregory Bauge, France, 10.330
3. Arnaud Tourant, Fra, 10.390
4. Jamie Staff, SIS, 10.440

1/8th Final
Jamie Staff, SIS beat K Nangai, Japan

1/4 Final
Damian Zielinski beat Jamie Staff 2-0

5-9 final
8. Jamie Staff

Team Pursuit

 

Lining up for Great Britain was an Olympic Academy (Under 23) quartet, lead by "elder statesman" Ed Clancy, all of 20 years old! He was joined by World Junior Pursuit Champion Andy Tennant, 2004 World Junior Scratch champion Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard, who was part of the Silver medal winning Junior Pursuit team at last year's Worlds.

 

GB line up for Bronze (l to r) Stannard, Tennant, Clancy, Thomas

Sixth off in the qualifying, the team got off to a steady start, gradually pulling back time on the Danish leaders until they lost a rider in the final 1000m, which had little effect on the result. They had done enough to ensure a finals place, which was great for a team of such young riders.

Once they had finished their qualifying ride, all they could do was watch the remaining teams decide who would fill the finals spots. There was a big shock when the Dutch team had two false starts and an automatic disqualification. They had been the favourites but their DQ did open the door for the Aussie team to scrape through to the final for Bronze, where they would meet the Brits.

Into the Finals and the Gold ride off was between the new favourites Ukraine and Denmark and although Ukraine had qualified fastest, the Danes fought a dogged race, not giving anything away to the Ukraine team and the Danish squad's determination paid off in an exciting final as they jubilantly took the Gold medal.

In the ride for the Bronze, the Brits started well and bit by bit made inroads in to the Aussies' early lead and then started to draw away. Ed Clancy had a final flurry on the front before he pulled off and left the other threego the distance and claim the bronze medal.

Being trackside to see this great performance by these riders only just out of the junior ranks was a joy. I was able to witness the build up, the quality of the opposing teams and then see the pain and determination these riders went through to clinch that medal. Andy Tennant was explaining later how he just wanted it to end such was the pain they were being through but then as Bryan Steel explained years ago to me - in the Team Pursuit riders have die on their bikes before letting the wheel in front go and these young lads were able to put themselves through the ringer whilst coming out the other side with a medal as their reward and their smiles on the podium said it all.

Congratulations to the boys for a great ride when they had to beat the Aussies on their home turf and it was a great experience to see them perform the way they did.

Results

Qualifying
1. Ukraine 4.09.477
2. Denmark 4.11.781
3. Great Britain, 4.11.936
Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard, Andy Tennant
4. Australia, 4.13.674

Bronze final

1 Great Britain 4.09.673 (57.675km/h)
beat
2 Australia 4.13.457 (56.814km/h)