UCI Junior World Track Championships 2007

 

August 5, 2007

GB Results sheet >>>>

 

Final Day
Christian Lyte and Peter Mitchell both finished on the podium in Mexico in the Men's Sprint to make it a great championships for all three of the male riders as each won at least two medals with Lyte medaling in all three championships the team contested. Meanwhile,  Jess Varnish finally ran out of legs and was 12th in the Women's Keirin. Two Gold, Three Silvers and a Bronze medal from four young riders, two of which are first year juniors, shows Great Britain is a force to be reckoned with!

 

Junior Men’s Sprint

 

 

Semi finals

The final day of competition for Christian Lyte and Peter Mitchell started with the semi finals. In Heat 1, Christian beat Peter but Peter evened it up in Heat 2 to make it two all.

 

In the decider, a great experience for these riders who will gain a lot from the experience of dealing with the pressure of such a high stakes ride, it was the more experienced Christian who took the ride from Peter in a close ride. Christian got the ride for Gold whilst Peter got the worse final of all where it was a medal or nothing!

 

Finals

In the finals, first on the track was Peter Mitchell up against the German Paul Kanzler. Despite only being a first year Junior, Peter showed his expereince and speed to beat his rival two nil to clinch his first World Championship individual medal after getting Gold in the Team Sprint. His coach Iain Dyer afterwards praised his rider saying he did very well on the track.

 

In the final for Gold, Christian lined up against the Frenchman who had already shown he was beatable. Both riders were very close on paper despite the Frenchman being the fastest as shown in the qualifiers. In heat 1, Christian got off to a flyer, beating the Frenchman, punching the air as he did so being only one ride from winning three Gold.

 

It went wrong however in heat 2 as the Frenchman came back and evened it up and in the decider, it was Jollet's title as he prevented the Brits taking all three of the titles they had contested. It was though a great final says the coach and no doubt there will be some big smiles on the faces of the riders when they arrive home this week.

 

Need to know how close it was for Christian -- above are the two rides he lost to get Silver ... when we say it was close the pictures tell the story of just how close!

 

Junior Women’s Keirin
Jessica Varnish’s final event was the Keirin, an event she won at the European Championships but the racing she had already done this week took its toll on her and she finished 12th.

 

In the opening round, in Heat 3 with the very quick Canadian Monique Sullivan, Jess was 2nd to the Canadian to make it through to Round two. So far so good! In the Second round though the wheels fell off Jessica's title ambitions as she finished 6th in Heat 1 and was out of the running for a medal. The her final race of the championships, was the 7-12 final and racing for 7th is never the same as racing for a medal and in her race, Jess ran out of legs and was 6th to end up 12th in the competition.
 

Day 3 -- Silver for Jessica

 

 

First year Junior from the West Midlands, Jessica Varnish, had a busy day at the Junior Worlds in Mexico, finishing fourth in the 500 metre Time Trial and then producing some super rides in the sprint to finish with the Silver medal. There was also some good news in the Junior Men’s Sprint where two of the Brits, Peter Mitchell and Christian Lyte made it through to the semis where they face each other later today.

 

Junior Women’s Sprint & 500m
Following on from Anna Blyth’s success at the Junior Worlds in previous years, Great Britain has found yet another talented sprinter in Jessica Varnish. The Halesowen rider had two events on day 3, the 500 metre TT and the final rounds of the Match Sprint.

 

Her day began every early as she resumed her place in the Women’s Sprint competition where she came up against the top seeded rider Sullivan from Canada. Jessica however was more than a match for her rival and won in two straight rides and booked her place in the final for Gold against Vogel of Germany.

 

Jessica then had to rest up for the 500m which was slotted in between the Semi and Finals of the Sprint. After a medal at the Europeans, hopes were high and her time of  35.983 is thought to be a British junior record although this is still to be confirmed. Her time however was  not quite fast enough for a medal and the GB young lady was 4th.

 

After having already beaten the favourite, hopes were high for Jessica, a fierce competitor on the track, for a Gold medal and in the final against the German Vogel, Jessica pushed her all the way and it was close both times but the German won the rainbow stripes whilst Jessica had her first World Championship medal.

 

Her next event is the Women’s Keirin, the event she won at the European Championships recently.

 

Junior Men's Sprint
Great Britain went into this competition with three riders, the all conquering riders from the Team Sprint, David Daniell, Peter Mitchell and double World Champion already, Christian Lyte.

 

In the qualifying round, 34 riders took part, and Great Britain had three in the top 12 with European Sprint Champion from Britain David Daniell (10.565) qualifying third fastest, Christian Lyte (10.569) fourth and Peter Mitchell in 12th (10.683). This meant all three of the British riders went through to the next round.

 

Here, it wasn’t a happy time for David Daniell who had one of those ‘moments’ and was knocked out of the competition by Japanese rider Tomo Fukaya who had only qualified 22nd fastest, half a second shy of David. A very important learning exercise for the youngster in a competition that is more about helping these riders develop than their results.

The other two Brits though continued to shine brightly and made their way through the following rounds. In Christian's first round he beat the new Zealander Myron Simpson whilst first year Junior, Peter Mitchell, showed what he is made of by beating the German rider Phillip Thiele.

 

Both riders progressed to the quarter finals where the ride of the day in the Men's sprint came from GB's Peter Mitchell when he beat the fastest qualifier Thierry Jollet to make his way through to the Semi finals showing that regardless of your qualifying time, racing man on man, is a different ball game and Mitchell was in the game and the Frenchman was out!

 

Christian Lyte also made it into the semis to face Peter when the already double World Champion Lyte beat Kazuki Amagai of Japan. Only one of the Brits however can move into the Final for Gold and this will be decided later today our time.

 

Day 2 -- Two World Titles in a day!

 

Team Sprint: Christian Lyte with his first jersey of the day, National Sprint Coach Iain Dyer, David Daniell and rookie Peter Mitchell who gets a taste of what it is like to be a World Champion!

 

The World Junior Track Championships in Mexico for the Great Britain Cycling team has seen some fantastic results with two Gold medals and a Silver already. After much of Day 1's evening session had been cancelled through rain, day 2's programme was rejigged and it meant a very busy day for the GB team with all the four riders in action.

 

The reason for the reigging was the disruption on day 1. Before the first evening session on day 1 even got under way, a massive thunderstorm had everyone diving for cover. With the team pits only proctected by netting, the teams were sent scurrying for tarporlins, and any form of cover they could lay their hands on! The storm was pretty persistant, but with so much heat stored by the track surface once the rain stopped, it dried out pretty quickly with help from an army of local volunteers.

 

The GB boys take cover from the rain...

 

Two hours later than intended, racing finally got underway. In the Mens Team Sprint qualifying, the Great Britain trio of David Daniell, Christian Lyte and Peter Mitchell finished second to the French team, only a tenth of a second shy from their time. It was clear this was going to be a closer match than the one in the recent European Championships.

 

Unfortunately, shortly after this event, more rain began to fall, and it was enough to put an end to the racing for the night. The commisaires decided to run the finals and the other unfinished events the following morning (Day 2). So, it was a very early start for all concerned on day 2 (shaes of the European Championhips there!), and it was to be particularly busy for Dave Daniell and Chris Lyte who along with Pete Mitchell had the unfinished business of the Team Sprint Final, and also the Men's Keirin to contend with on the same day.

 

Whilst many of their Keirin competition had the luxury of an extra few hours in bed, Dave, Chris and Pete returned to the track shortly after 7am for a 9am start. In the final for Gold, everything fell into place well for the GB boys, and from the back straight, snatched a narrow win over the French team. It was revenge for losing the Europeans was complete.

The second day of competition day posed a different climatic challenge for everyone with tempertures in the 30's by midday. This meant that staying cool became the priority and after being crowned World Champions in the Team Sprint, David and Christian now had to turn their thoughts to the Men's Keirin which would get underway several hours later.

 

Christian and David keep their body temperature down with the aid of a a high tech GB cooler!

 

Women's Sprint (Jessica Varnish)
Meanwhile, still a first year Junior, Jessica Varnish showed what level she is at already when the Halesowen young lady stepped up to qualify in 5th place in the Women's Sprint in a fantastic time of 11.68. With 19 riders entered, 5th place was the final slot for receving a bye into the 1/8ths (24 normally qualify for the 1/16ths).

 

In the 1/8th final, Jess then faced a rider who beat her in the Europeans; Bretschneider from Germany. Taking a lead from the Team Sprint boys, Jess won this time round, duly advancing into the 1/4 finals to face Kiwi Natasha Hanson. Jess faced a much tougher opposition here, and needed all 3 rides to win her place in the Semi Final. Tomorrow Jess will meet top seed Monique Sullivan of Canada in the Semi, with the other semi occupied by the remaining two Germans Delev and Vogel. Whatever the result, the sheer expereince at riding at this level has been an eye opener for Jessica and also great for the morale with still a year left in the Junior ranks.

 

Men's Keirin

 

Whilst Jessica as battling away in the Women's Sprint doing her colours proud, the Men's Keirin was well underway. Chris won his heat well, whilst Dave added another ride to his day's tally by having to come through the reps ina  repat of the pattern from the European Championships. Each rider was in opposing semi's, and came through strongly to make it two Brits in the final.

 

In the final for Gold, Dave and Chris had to contend with opposititon from Italy (who had surprised them in the Europeans), Japan, Australia and France. Chris was the first to show his hand with an opportunistic move up the inside allowing him to move up from 5th wheel to 2nd and from there launch himself to the front, only to see a strong challenge from mid pack with Dave leading the charge!

 

Chris and Dave then shut things down well and resisted further attacks and with only half a lap to go it was every man for himself with Chris coming out on top and Dave in second! The team - and Chris - winning their second gold medal on the same day!

 

 

Day 3 will see Jess in the semis and finals, and Chris and Dave together with Pete will get stuck into the Mens Sprint. David is the European Sprint Champion. Jess will also find a few moments in between sprint rides to do the 500m TT as well!

 

Volunteers dry the track.

 

Podium for the Team Sprint and GB reign!

 

Previous Report

In training the 2007 World Junior Champions look pretty relaxed about it all!

 

Defending World Champions for the Team Sprint (Men), GB went into the event having finished runners up to France in the recent European Championships. The line-up this year contained two riders from 2006, David Daniell and Christian Lyte who have both improved a lot over the last 12 months. Out went Jason Kenny as he moved up a category (Seniors) and in came Peter Mitchell.

The trio qualified second to France in a time of 1.00.854 and unlike the Europeans, the gap between then in Mexico was only a tenth of a second. The final however was delayed by a massive rain storm and unlike Cottbus, this track had no roof and it was according to National Sprint Coach a very busy second day starting at 9am and then non-stop all day and into the evening. Thank heavens for indoor tracks!

 

The Team Sprint was on early on day 2 and they British boys did their country proud by winning the title and beating the French  for the one that really mattered -- World Champions!

 

 

Getting into the swing of things in Mexico
In the run up to the championships, the National Sprint coach admits they boys were all in PB territory when they were training on the Mexican track. "It's hard to say how much the temperature, the altitude, or simply good form is responsible for the times I've seen in the sessions leading up to the event. But we seem to be in the ball park performance wise. The breeze has been a bit variable and may have an impact on the qualifying times and racing."

 

Very pretty when its not raining!
 
The World Junior Championships is part of a riders development on the Great Britain programme which is why the team sent only the sprint squad who find getting experience at this level more difficult than the Endurance team who have far more options on road and track. Their coach explained "already the value, in development terms, for the young riders seems to be worthwhile. Having to adapt to a different country and culture, as well as broadening their horizons with regard to the track and altitude etc has already made this quite an experience for them." Iain added "I'm sure that the racing will continue to provide more learning opportunities along the way."

 

Not only experience but medals too if the Team Sprint is anything to go by! Good luck to all the riders in the coming events.