UCI 2006 World Track Championships

Men's Sprint

April 15, 2006; Bordeaux (France) 

British Cycling's Larry Hickmott reports

2006 World Track Championships

Day 3: UCI World Track Championships

 

Day 2 of the Men's Sprint

 

 

It's amazing the difference a few days make. On day 1, the team were disappointed to win Silver in the Team Sprint but today, a delighted Craig MacLean came second in the Match Sprint, the best result by a British rider for a long long time. Unlike the Team Sprint where they know they can beat the best and now expect to be winning Gold medals, the Sprint has for a long time been an Achilles heel. Jamie Staff broke the mould a few years ago winning the Kierin title but the sprint one still eludes us.

MacLean though, for so long a rider with only team medals to his name despite having shown glimpses of brilliance in individual events like the Kilometre and Sprint, has finally come of age and has a medal to call his own. He has of course won World Cup sprint titles and the World Cup kilometre as well but the World Championships is always a different kettle of fish and today he showed everyone what a fine sprinter he is.

The day began with the semi finals where he faced crowd favourite, French rider Mickael Bourgain. Craig, perhaps through a lack of sprint racing recently, was caught out in the first run and despite making ground and doing a reported 10.0 flying 200 metres, he just failed to nail the Frenchman on the line. The second round was different as he stayed glued to the Frenchman's back wheel and put the gas on as the bell rang out. Bourgain never got close to him!

A similar tactic was used in the decider but the Frenchman fought harder this time to hold Craig off with the roar of the crowd on his side but Craig, like a true Scottish fighter, came at him and nailed him in a photo finish. What a moment that was and I for one felt the euphoria I hadn't felt since Chris Hoy's kilo Gold and few days earlier.

Craig came up against favourite Theo Bos next who had disposed of German Kilo/Team Sprint rider turned sprinter, Stefan Nimke. Bos had been streets ahead of everyone else and in the first heat against Craig, the British rider was out foxed as the Dutchman went very early a lap and a half out. Although Craig came at him and made up ground, the effort obviously gased him well and truly. Thank goodness the Madison event would be run off before he had to make another effort against the Dutchman.

 

 

Theo heads for home closely followed by Craig MacLean.

 

 

Craig gets close but Bos holds on to win 2:0 and is World Sprint champion for the second time and has now won titles in the Kilo, Sprint and Keirin ...

 

 

The two finalists celebrate their race in front of a packed stadium.

The second heat began with Bos attempting a standstill metres after being set off, lifting his rear wheel off the ground as did so which under the watchful eye of the chief commissiare was not a good idea. The gun was fired to stop the race and the start retaken after Bos was given a warning. The restart saw the riders cruise around, no dramatics until Bos let loose a lap from home and Craig held onto his back wheel, not giving an inch before coming around him on the short home straight. He got close but not close enough and the World title was Theo's again and Craig had a silver medal, his second of the championships. It was a special moment for sure.

As he came off the track, still taking in air after a massive effort to try and beat the rider no-one has got near in either the Keirin or Sprint, Craig said "I'm absolutely delighted, relieved and tired. The semi finals were such a big ride for me and took a lot out of me. Theo was going to be almost impossible to beat."

Asked if the result, and how far he was able to push Bos, gives him confidence for this event after a career concentrating mainly on the Team Sprint with only a dabbling in the Sprint a few years ago. "Definitely. It is something I'll be putting more of an effort into up to Beijing."

A new career? "Possibly. The way it seems to work for me is if I don't train for an event, I seem to go well in it! I train for the Team Sprint and anything else is a spin off from that."

Prior to the sprint event, a few days ago I saw Craig at the hotel and he was quite nonchalant about the event, so I asked was that because he didn't want to put pressure on himself? "Possibly. Getting up for a big event after the Commonwealths was quite difficult. The form wasn't too bad but coming into the sprint, it was so much of an unknown. I had no idea what I was capable of and the time trial (flying 200) gave me a lot of confidence."

In the past, Craig has had doubts about his tactical ability in the event, saying that he didn't have a 'feel' for it. What does he think now? "The more you do it, the better you are and that was one of the reasons I was a bit apprehensive coming into this competition because the last sprint I did was coming into Moscow World Cup back in November. Here I felt I was improving with every ride."

Congratulations to Craig - I know talking to a lot of people in the sport that there will be a lot of fans of his on a high after seeing him do this - me included. Well done.

 

Shane Sutton (Pictured with Craig above), Great Britain Cycling Team Performance manager is Mr Motivator who dishes out the tactics and tells it how it is to his riders. Here at the Worlds, the person behind the sprinters is everywhere you look talking to the riders, the staff and mechanics about what is needed in the next event. When the Team Sprint strategy was being planned for the final, he was there going through the video, waving his hands to demonstrate how he wanted the riders to do this and that.

When Victoria Pendleton or the other sprinters were getting up on the track, he was there, bending their ear right up to the point they left the line to begin their race. He is quite simply a bundle of energy that he focuses on getting the riders focused and tactically equipped to do the business. He was certainly smiling when Craig produced some stunning times to make it through to the final, beating a home favourite along the way which silenced the rather one sided crowd.

"We haven't had a sprinter of that significance on the squad for some time" he explained. "Someone with that amount of strength and speed. This result will give all the team a lift and show them we can do this and it will make guys like Ross (Edgar), Matthew (Crampton) and Jason Kenny realise it is doable. All be it you come up against superman (Theo Bos) in the final."

"Craig had to do a 10.0 in that first ride to get beaten by Bourgain. He went away and thought about it, changed the strategy and this medal was just as much about the thought process as anything. Which from my point of view was a highlight because I think tactically I think we have under achieved and Craig proved today it is doable. We have got the tools to do the job if we really think about it, whereas with Bos, I don't think anyone in the modern era can match what he has at the moment. Maybe Bayely but even Ryan I think would be the first to say, he has got to reassess what he has got to do to beat this guy."

 

 

Craig goes through his warmup on the rollers at high speed...

 

 

Shane Sutton continues his pep talk out on the track moments before Craig MacLean takes on Theo Bos.

 

 

 

Craig wasn't afraid to use the whole track to defend his position against  Mickael Bourgain.

 

 

After giving the Frenchman many lengths head start, Craig closes in with a 10 second 200 metre flying lap.

 

 

The decider photo finish...now that is close ...

 

 

Craig doesn't give Bourgain any room as they hit the gas for the final sprint.

 

 

Craig focuses in the start line pit alongside his opponent Theo Bos.

 

 

Craig versus superman -- Theo Bos.

 

 

Theo takes a flying a long way out and catches Craig out.

 

 

Craig crushes Bourgain in the second heat of the semi final.

 

 

It was a lot closer in the third and deciding round... but Craig did enough to go through to ride for Gold.

FINAL RESULTS TODAY

Semi-finals

Heat 1
1. Theo Bos (Netherlands) 10.801 10.376
2. Stefan Nimke (Germany)

Heat 2
1. Craig Maclean (Great Britain) 10.465 10.785
2. Mickael Bourgain (France) 10.464


Gold/Silver
1. Theo Bos (Netherlands) 10.374 10.510
2. Craig Maclean (Great Britain)

Bronze
1. Stefan Nimke (Germany) 10.576 10.683
2. Micka묠Bourgain (France)

 

 

Day 1 Sprint Action

 

 

Craig MacLean was our last hope of a medal at the close of competition today in the Mens Sprint.

Today saw the Men's Sprint competition kick off and Great Britain had three riders in it, Matthew Crampton, Ross Edgar and Craig MacLean. At the end of the day with the quarter finals having been the last race for them before tomorrow, GB only had one rider left in the competition, Craig MacLean.

The day began with the qualifying rides and the Brits did well with two in the top six, Craig MacLean (10.111) and Ross Edgar (10.189) and another, young Matt Crampton (10.348) in 14th. It was only a year ago he struggled to make it through the qualifying round at a World Cup and is now giving the best in the World a hard time.

All three went through to the 1/6th final and in that Craig MacLean and Ross Edgar disposed of their rivals with ease whilst Matt Crampton found last years Keirin champion Teun Mulder a little hot to handle and although he pushed him all the way to the line, the Dutchman went through to the next round.

Next was the 1/8th finals and Craig MacLean got the better of Crampton's conqueror Mulder while Ross Edgar had a tough fight on his hands with Arnaud Tournant. The first battled they had ended in a dead heat with the French coach fighting the rerun all the way. A rerun it was though and in that, Tournant managed to edge Edgar on the line to go through whilst Ross had one last chance, the 1/8 repechage.

It wasn't enough as he was beaten by Damian Zielinski and Ryan Bayley and MacLean was our sole survivor. The final action of the day saw Theo Bos continue his steam rolling act as he blasted past anyone who dared challenge him whilst Craig MacLean got the better of Damian Zielinski (Poland) in two straight rides.

 

Results follow the pictures below:

 

The Boss, Theo Bos, gets cheeky as I snap a picture whilst he waits to dispose of Olympic champion Ryan Bayley in the Mens Sprint competition.

 

 

Theo Bos was looking in dominant form and it would not be surprising to see him go all the way but the sprint competition is never predictable as we saw last year when Theo was knocked out of the competition without winning a medal.

 

 

Ross Edgar was going okay until he came up against Arnaud Tournant...

 

Teun Mulder and Matthew Crampton treat the big crowd to a standstill....

 

 

Craig MacLean was too fast to Teun Mulder.

 

 

 

Ross Edgar and Arnaud Tournant do battle in the Mens Sprint.

 

 

Craig blitzing a rival during th Mens Sprint.

 

 

Matthew Crampton is over taken by Teun Mulder in the 1/16th finals.

 

 

Theo Bos takes his time as he passes Ryan Bayley

 

 

1/8th final repecharge and Ross is trapped at the back with no where to go but out of the competition.

 

 

Craig comes from behind to over take Damian Zielinski.

 

RESULTS
Qualifying - 200m Time Trial
1. Theo Bos (Netherlands) 10.100 (71.287 km/h)
2. Craig Maclean (Great Britain) 10.111
3. Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.116
4. Maximilian Levy (Germany) 10.149
5. Stefan Nimke (Germany) 10.177
6. Ross Edgar (Great Britain) 10.189
7. Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.230
8. Gr駯ry Bauge (France) 10.237
9. Damian Zielinski (Poland) 10.238
10. Micka묠Bourgain (France) 10.256
11. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 10.276
12. Ryan Bayley (Australia) 10.339
13. Jos頁ntonio Escuredo Raimondez (Spain) 10.346
14. Matt Crampton (Great Britain) 10.348
15. Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 10.377
16. Travis Smith (Canada) 10.404
17. Kazunari Watanabe (Japan) 10.427
18. Roberto Chiappa (Italy) 10.427
19. Andriy Vynokurov (Ukraine) 10.506
20. Michael Seidenbecher (Germany) 10.510
21. Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) 10.512
22. Tsubasa Kitatsuru (Japan) 10.542
23. Christian Stahl (USA) 10.551
24. Qiming Wang (China) 10.553
25. Zhang Lei (China) 10.553
26. Takashi Kaneko (Japan) 10.589
27. Pavel Noskov (Russia) 10.591
28. Denis Dmitriev (Russia) 10.608
29. Sergey Borisov (Russia) 10.618
30. Lin Feng (China) 10.648
31. Steven Alfred (USA) 10.657
32. Adam Ptacnik (Czech Republic) 10.657
33. Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) 10.666
34. Benjamin Wittmann (Germany) 10.688
35. Kasper Jessen (Denmark) 10.709
36. Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 10.806
37. Krzysztof Szymanek (Poland) 10.834
38. Ivan Vrba (Czech Republic) 10.836
39. Vasileros Reppas (Greece) 10.852
40. Wilson Meneses Gutierrez (Colombia) 10.890
41. Benjamin Barczewski (USA) 10.924
42. Kostantinos Pentarakis (Greece) 10.977
43. Ren頗olff (Germany) 11.001.

1/16 Finals
Heat 1
1 Theo Bos (Netherlands) 11.410
2 Qiming Wang (China)

Heat 2
1 Craig Maclean (Great Britain) 11.169
2 Christian Stahl (USA)

Heat 3
1 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.906
2 Tsubasa Kitatsuru (Japan)

Heat 4
1 Maximilian Levy (Germany) 10.755
2 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)

Heat 5
1 Stefan Nimke (Germany) 10.870
2 Michael Seidenbecher (Germany)

Heat 6
1 Ross Edgar (Great Britain) 10.723
2 Andriy Vynokurov (Ukraine)

Heat 7
1 Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.864
2 Kazunari Watanabe (Japan)

Heat 8
1 Roberto Chiappa (Italy) 10.682
2 Gr駯ry Bauge (France)

Heat 9
1 Damian Zielinski (Poland) 10.929
2 Travis Smith (Canada)

Heat 10
1 Micka묠Bourgain (France) 10.924
2 Matt Crampton (Great Britain)

Heat 11
1 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 10.800
2 Matt Crampton (Great Britain)

Heat 12
1 Ryan Bayley (Australia) 11.038
2 Jos頁ntonio Escuredo Raimondez (Spain)

1/8 finals
Heat 1
1. Theo Bos (Netherlands) 10.623
2. Ryan Bayley (Australia)

Heat 2
1 Craig Maclean (Great Britain) 10.978
2 Teun Mulder (Netherlands)

Heat 3
1 Micka묠Bourgain (France) 10.822
2 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland)

Heat 4
1 Maximilian Levy (Germany) 10.919
2 Damian Zielinski (Poland)

Heat 5
1 Stefan Nimke (Germany) 10.692
2 Roberto Chiappa (Italy)

Heat 6
1 Ross Edgar (Great Britain) dead heat in 10.827
1 Arnaud Tournant (France)

Heat 6 rerun
1 Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.904
2 Ross Edgar (Great Britain)

1/8 repechage
Heat 1
1. Damian Zielinski (Poland) 10.869
2. Ryan Bayley (Australia)
3. Ross Edgar (Great Britain)

Heat 2
1. Roberto Chiappa (Italy) dead heat for 1-2 in 10.888
1. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
3. Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland)

Heat 2 rerun for 1-2
1. Roberto Chiappa (Italy) 10.989
2. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)

1/4 finals
Heat 1
1. Theo Bos (Netherlands) 10.540 10.778
2. Roberto Chiappa (Italy)

Heat 2
1. Craig Maclean (Great Britain) 10.753 10.691
2. Damian Zielinski (Poland)

Heat 3
1. Micka묠Bourgain (France) 10.895 10.771
2. Arnaud Tournant (France)

Heat 4
1. Stefan Nimke (Germany) 11.082 10.468
2. Maximilian Levy (Germany)