European Track Championships 2006

 

July 19-23; Athens Olympic Velodrome

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Junior Mens Individual Pursuit

 

Alex Dowsett, GB's top rider in the Pursuit.

 

Great Britain was represented by Alex Dowsett and Russell Hampton, two riders who have come onto the program from the road and acquitted themselves well on the track. First up on the track was Russell who started quickly which had his coach Darren Tudor advancing up the track to signal to his rider he was up on his schedule.

Russell then slowed slightly, pulling back time on his rival but finishing around half a second down on his schedule with a time of 4.30.246, an improvement of six seconds plus on his personal best. Afterwards he admitted he wasn't as nervous as he was before last years nationals but added that the ride wasn't great. Having gone out too fast, he then dropped off too much and says that picking it up after that was difficult.

In the GB pits meanwhile, Alex Dowsett was left to wait for the rest of the competitors to go through their qualifying heats before his, the last but one heat, was called up to the line. Up against an Italian rider who went out of the blocks quick and started to make up time on Alex from the word go, the GB rider started by going down on his schedule for the first two laps before picking it up and going up on his schedule all the way to the line to do a 3.26.803, another personal best by a huge margin.

 

His coach was well pleased with Alex's ride saying he rode an excellent race to finish 5th fastest overall. Talking to Alex after the race, he too was really pleased with an 8 second improvement on his personal best. "I had no idea what I was able to do because I haven't done much 3K work but Darren assured me that I'd be okay based on what I had done in the Team Pursuit. I think there's more to come for this."

Saying that he rode on feel, he says he went out on a 4.28 schedule, and once he had a couple of laps under his wheels, started to push on, aware the Italian was gaining on him. Happy to ride his own race, Alex did realise that a 4.28 was not going to be enough, so he started to pick it up, riding two seconds quicker in the end on what they had scheduled. Fifth though was a cruel position as it meant he was unable to go any further in the competition.

 

Russell Hampton.

 

Qualifying
1. COLEDAN Marco ITA 3:22.634
2. KOVALEV Evgeny RUS 3:23.206
3. LEMAIR Alexandre FRA 3:23.690
4. NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas LTU 3:25.127
5. DOWSETT Alex GBR 3:26.803
6. MYKCHAYLOV Rostislav UKR 3:27.954
7. NAWROCKI Michal POL 3:28.604
8. MOCKUS Algirdas LTU 3:28.607
9. KRYSZTOFIK Tomasz POL 3:29.687
10. KALINOV Mikhail RUS 3:29.950
11. BRISSE Vivien FRA 3:30.231
12. HAMPTON Russell GBR 3:30.246
13. VERMEULEN Jeff NED 3:30.606
14. STARK Dominique SUI 3:30.778
15. MOSER Kilian SUI 3:31.658
16. MAS BONET Luis ESP 3:31.913
17. MACCARI Raffaele ITA 3:31.950
18. PAPADEROS Dimitrios GRE 3:32.095
19. MARCET ALVAREZ Omar ESP 3:33.813
20. FALTIN Bastian GER 3:33.888
21. MARTYNENKO Oleksandr UKR 3:33.911
22. POLIDOROPOULOS Dimitrios GRE 3:35.419

 

FINALS

1. COLEDAN Marco ITA 3:24.424 52.831
2. KOVALEV Evgeny RUS 3:24.458 52.822
3. LEMAIR Alexandre FRA 3:24.852 52.720
4. NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas LTU 3:26.986 52.177

 

Mechanic Ernie Feargreive who after the championships, has a four day drive back to the Britain with carer Sarah Heal and the GB van.

 

Natalie Lejeune looks after Russell Hampton as he gets ready to step up to the line.