2007 UCI World Track Championships

 

29th of March to 1st April
Palma de Mallorca

Home Page for Track Worlds Coverage

 

Men's Sprint

 

 

Finals: In the ride off for gold, an awesome first heat went to Theo Bos with one of the fiercest last 50 metres you will ever see in which Bauge's sheer power almost overwhelmed Bos, only for the World Champ to just hang on for the win. In the second heat Bos finally threw off the questions over his form and confidence by coming round Bauge with a blistering turn of speed to retain his title.

 

Both finals were close nail biting finishes. Left, Craig MacLean does his best to come past the only rider to go under 10 seconds for the Sprint (Bourgain) while right, Theo Bos has the gas to come around a powering Bauge to win the Sprint title for the third time.

In the first heat there was a big clash of shoulders in the final bend when MacLean crossed the red line and came down onto Bourgain, who ironically came out it in better shape and won by a half length. In the second heat MacLean appeared to have negated Bourgain's attempts to lead out from a lap and a half, only to miss a brilliant dive under him by the Frenchman, which proved decisive - MacLean fought to the line, but it was all in vain.

 

Speaking afterwards, MacLean looked back at the first heat clash - "It was a heat of the moment thing - nothing intentional, but it killed both our speed - I'd have been relegated if I'd won it!" And on the second heat he said, "coming into the bell lap I was just a fraction of a second too late - but you can't afford to hesitate. They were probably my worst two rides of the whole competition - perhaps the fatigue was creeping in. There's no room for error in sprinting!"

Finals

BOURGAIN Mickael FRA beat MACLEAN Craig GBR 2-0
BOS Theo NED beat BAUGE Gregory FRA 2-0

Semi Finals: Craig MacLean missed out on a place in the final of the Sprint for Gold, losing in two rides to defending champion Theo Bos, who is finally finding his best form after an indifferent start to the championships. MacLean also lost out to Bos in last year's final but this time got a lot closer to the Dutchman.

 

In the other semi it went to three rides as Gregory Bauge just squeezed past team-mate Mickael Bourgain in three thrilling sprint battles.

Semi-Finals

BAUGE Gregory FRA beat BOURGAIN Mickael FRA 2-1
BOS Theo NED beat MACLEAN Craig GBR 2-0

Heat 1 and Bos leads from the line ...

 

Craig leads Bos into the home straight and Bos comes around, just, to get the Scottish rider on the line.

 

Bos takes Craig high in the second heat.

 

Craig tries to come from behind but Bos has too much in the tank and goes through to another Sprint final, 2:0.

 

FRENCH SEMI FINAL

 

Tight battle between the French for a place in the final for Gold with Bauge getting the verdict 2:1.

 

Quarter Finals

The men's Sprint Quarter final between Ross Edgar and Craig MacLean was a real nail-biter and the pick of the round. Edgar took a great win in the first heat going round MacLean after a long lead out over the last lap. In the second heat MacLean delayed his lead out with a couple of feints and when he did go, at about 150 to go, he gave it everything and over such a short distance Edgar was never going to get by him. And so it went to a third heat. This proved to be a slight anti-climax as MacLean made no mistakes attacking hard off the front with a lap to go and holding off the younger Brit with some ease.

 

MacLean will meet Theo Bos in the Semi-Finals, whilst French duo Bourgain and Bauge will contest the other.

 

Heat 1 of the quarters between the two Brits and Ross Edgar starts his run at Craig MacLean, getting the Scotsman on the line.

 

Second heat and this time MacLean puts some space between himself and Edgar and the young medal winner fails to get over his teammate and its now one all.

 

Final heat, the decider and MacLean has the inside on the line.

 

MacLean wins it to go through to meet his rival from the Gold medal ride off last year, Theo Bos who has show he is beatable this year.

 

5 to 8 final and German Maximilian Levy went for an early flyer and was never seen again despite a brief chase by Ross Edgar on the final lap.

 

Quarter Finals

BOURGAIN Mickael FRA beat NIMKE Stefan GER 2-0
BOS Theo NED beat CHIAPPA Roberto ITA 2-0
MACLEAN Craig GBR beat EDGAR Ross GBR 2-1
BAUGE Gregory FRA beat LEVY Maximilian GER 2-0

 

Final for 5-8 places

5 LEVY Maximilian GER
6 NIMKE Stefan GER
7 CHIAPPA Roberto ITA
8 EDGAR Ross GBR

Qualifying and Early Rounds: It was a good morning for GB's male sprinters as two out of three made it through to the Quarter finals of the Men's Sprint. The one to miss out was Matt Crampton, who was unlucky to go out in the first round to in-form team-mate Ross Edgar.

 

Edgar and Craig MacLean both made untroubled progress to the Quarter Finals, but they must now meet to decide which one of them will reach the Semis due to the seeding based on their qualifying times. Who will win depends on how they both ride as both are capable said a team insider.

 

MacLean said as he warmed up for the evening session that he didn't feel great during the morning session, feeling a bit tired after the time trial (200m). "I normally go better in the evening session so we'll see what happens. Shame I'm meeting Ross though in the quarters".

 

Ross meanwhile was also neither happy or unhappy with how the morning had gone saying to us "I qualified sixth like I always do. I think I did a similar time in Bordeaux. It was the best ride as the back wheel skipped out coming into turn three I think but its quite encouraging that I know I can go a bit faster." On meeting teammate Craig, he said "its not good but we'll see what happens. We're so close in time that its going to come down to who gets the tactics right".

 

Finally on beating Escuredo he says "I managed to control the race and rode it my way and was quite happy with how it turned out."    

 

Also into the semis are fastest qualifier Mickael Bourgain of France and defending champion Theo Boss who spent time during the break behind a derny warming up for his quarter final ride.

 

PHOTOS

 

Craig dispatches German rider Seidenbecher in the 16th final.

 

And then did the same to Frenchman Arnaud  Tournant.

 

Matt Crampton.

 

Ross Edgar leads the way home in his 1/16th final against fellow GB rider Matt Crampton. 

 

And Ross did the same to Athens Olympic Keirin medallist Escuredo of Spain.

 

Matt Crampton in front of the Union Jack in the GB pit. 

Results

Qualifying

1 BOURGAIN Mickael FRA  9.968
2 BOS Theo NED 10.045
3 MACLEAN Craig GBR 10.110
4 BAUGE Gregory FRA  10.134
5 LEVY Maximilian GER 10.163
6 EDGAR Ross GBR 10.191
7 ESCUREDO RAIMONDEZ Jos•Åntonio ESP 10.254
8 NIMKE Stefan GER 10.264
9 VELDT Tim NED 10.271
10 KWIATKOWSKI Lukasz POL  10.286
11 MULDER Teun NED 10.303
12 FRENCH Mark AUS  10.324
13 ZIELINSKI Damian POL 10.344
14 BAYLEY Ryan AUS 10.352
15 TOURNANT Arnaud FRA 10.353
16 CHIAPPA Roberto ITA 10.383
17 PERKINS Shane AUS 10.414
17 VYNOKUROV Andriy UKR 10.414
19 CRAMPTON Matthew GBR 10.431
20 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS 10.433
21 JOHN Matthias GER 10.474
22 SEIDENBECHER Michael GER 10.480
23 KITATSURU Tsubasa JPN 10.482
24 LYNCH Ricardo JAM 10.492
25 DMITRIEV Denis RUS 10.506
26 ZHANG Lei CHN 10.507

27 PTACNIK Adam CZE 10.535
28 WATANABE Kazunari JPN 10.547
29 BORISOV Sergey RUS 10.573
30 NAGAI Kiyofumi JPN 10.634
31 TANG Qi CHN 10.684
32 AWANG Azizulhasni MAS 10.732
33 TISIN Mohd Rizal MAS  10.751
34  BIELECKI Maciej POL 10.788
35 SPICKA Denis CZE  10.794
36 SHIKHALEV Mikhail RUS 10.841
37 VRBA Ivan CZE 10.869
38 ESTEBAN HERRAIZ Itmar ESP 10.878

 

First Round

BOURGAIN Mickael FRA beat LYNCH Ricardo JAM
BOS Theo NED beat KITATSURU Tsubasa JPN
MACLEAN Craig GBR beat SEIDENBECHER Michael GER
BAUGE Gregory FRA bet JOHN Matthias GER
LEVY Maximilian GER beat SUNDERLAND Scott AUS
EDGAR Ross GBR beat CRAMPTON Matthew GBR
ESCUREDO RAIMONDEZ Jos•Åntonio ESP beat VYNOKUROV Andriy UKR
NIMKE Stefan GER beat PERKINS Shane AUS
CHIAPPA Roberto ITA beat VELDT Tim NED
TOURNANT Arnaud FRA beat KWIATKOWSKI Lukasz POL
BAYLEY Ryan AUS beat MULDER Teun NED
FRENCH Mark AUS beat ZIELINSKI Damian POL

 

Second Round

BOURGAIN Mickael FRA beat FRENCH Mark AUS
BOS Theo NED beat BAYLEY Ryan AUS
MACLEAN Craig GBR beat TOURNANT Arnaud FRA
BAUGE Gregory FRA beat CHIAPPA Roberto ITA
LEVY Maximilian GER beat NIMKE Stefan GER
EDGAR Ross GBR beat ESCUREDO RAIMONDEZ Jose Åntonio ESP

 

Repechage

CHIAPPA Roberto ITA & NIMKE Stefan GER progress to Quarter Finals.