Sydney: UCI World Track Cup
November 30; Day 1, Friday
It was a low key start by Great Britain standards on day 1 of the Sydney round of the UCI World Track Cup. In the Women’s Pursuit, Wendy Houvenaghel was GB’s top finisher in fourth place whilst in the Team Sprint, the Great Britain trio of Jason Kenny, Mat Crampton and Chris Hoy also lost their bronze medal ride off to finish fourth in that event.
In the Men’s Pursuit, Steve Cummings made a good return to the track with fifth place while in the Men’s Points race, Chris Newton started his Olympic Challenge with sixth place in the final. It was a disappointing Women’s Sprint event for Victoria Pendleton with eight place and in the Women’s Scratch, riding for Scotland, Kate Cullen finished 11th.
Men’s 4000m Individual Pursuit
GB's representative in this event was Steve Cummings making a return to the track after a few years out whilst he concentrated on the road. In his opening track event for this World Track Cup series, the rider who’s main event is the Team Pursuit, finished 5th in qualifying, failing to make the finals but scoring valuable World Cup points in a field of 31 riders.
Qualifying
1. Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) 4.22.411 (54.875 km/h)
2. Phillip Thuaux (Australia) 4.23.097 (54.732 km/h)
3. Marc Ryan (New Zealand) 4.27.324 (53.867 km/h)
4. Alexander Serov (Russian Federation) 4.27.596 (53.812 km/h)
5. Stephen Cummings (Great Britain) 4.28.014 (53.728 km/h)
Women's Sprint
Great Britain rider, Victoria Pendleton went into this competition riding for SiS and as defending World Sprint champion, the Stotfold young lady was a key favourite. Nothing however can be certain in events like the Sprint and Victoria ended the day in 8th place. Her event started well with second place in qualifying whilst Academy rider Anna Blyth was in 19th place.
In the 1/8th final, Victoria was the only British competitor and she cruised through beating Miriam Welte of Germany. That was however as good as it got for Victoria after she was beaten in the Quarter Finals by an old foe, former World Champion Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarussia two rides to one. Victoria was therefore relegated to the minor final and there she finished last in the ride off, finishing the competition in 8th place.
Qualifying
1. Willy Kanis (Netherlands) 11.160 (64.516 km/h)
2. Victoria Pendleton (GBr) scienceinsport.com 11.244 (64.034 km/h)
3. Anna Meares (Aus) Toshiba 11.264 (63.920 km/h)
19. Anna Blyth (Great Britain) 11.689 (61.596 km/h)
1/8th final
1. Victoria Pendleton SIS 12.692 56.728
2. Miriam WeleteGER
1/4th final
1. Natallia Tsylinskaya Bel, 12.202 REL 12.059
2. Victoria Pendleton SIS 12.163
Minor Final
5. Clara Sanchez Clara FRA 12.016 59.920
6. Jennie Reed MOM
7. Simona Krupeckaite LTU
8. Victoria Pendleton SIS
TEAM SPRINT
Silver medallists at last years World Track Championships, Great Britain, qualified 4th in the Team Sprint with a mix of young and experienced riders in Jason Kenny, Mat Crampton and Chris Hoy.
For Kenny, the event was a chance to try and challenge for a place as man one in the Team Sprint and this he did in style, recording the third fastest opening lap of 17.756. It shows the speed of the youngest because after being only 6th after 125 metres (half a lap), he improved to being third by the end of the 250 metres.
At the end of the second lap, GB were in second place with a 30.837 despite a time for the lap that was only fourth fastest (13.081). It was the final lap of 13.822 (6th fastest for that lap) that sunk British hopes of a place in the final as they ended the qualifying round in 4th place and in the ride off for the Bronze.
In the final for Bronze, Great Britain faced the Cofidis pro team of Arnaud Tournant, Didier Henriette and Kevin Sireau. The team started well, being fastest over the first 250 metres with a 17.884 and were still leading after the second lap despite the second lap of 13.138 being slightly slower than the French. It was on the final lap again the Brits lost their place with a final lap of 14.028 to the French's 13.709.
Qualifying
1. Toshiba (Aus) 44.480
2. Germany 44.530
3 Cofidis (Fra) 44.641
4. Great Britain 44.659
Final
1. Toshiba (Australia) 44.639 60.485
2. Germany 44.813 60.250
3. Cofidis (France) 44.746 60.340
4. Great Britain 45.050 59.933
Jason Kenny Spotlight
Talking to one of GB’s three riders, former Triple World Junior Champion, Jason Kenny who is only riding the Sydney World Track Cup, he told us before he left that World Track Cups and World Championships were always the goal of his this year.
As a contender for the GB Olympic Cycling team, he says “I didn’t expect to be considered for the Olympics when I was winning my World Junior titles but I knew it was never impossible. As long as your fast enough, it doesn’t matter how old you are.”
On why he is targeting the Team Sprint, he says “It’s my best chance of getting anywhere for the Worlds or Olympics, so I decided to focus on that. There is a lot of steep competition for it so I’ll keep trying and see what happens. I am pretty conscious that I have to beat two of the fastest guys in the world.”
“There is no pressure on me though. I have done good laps in training so its promising. It’s just case of getting out there and doing what I know I can do. The Olympics is the reason we train but to get to Beijing would be a bonus and to get there in the Team Sprint, you would have to be confident you’re going there to win a medal and not just for experience.”
Jason has been making full use of the new technology the team are using in training to perfect his start in the team sprint. After the Track Nationals, he started his competition phase of training, taking advantage of a good base he had completed before the Nationals.
“I have got really strong in the gym now as well which is helping. When you compare me to someone like Craig and Jamie, there is not a lot of difference in top speed, the main difference is power and so on and I’m trying to close that gap as best as possible. Hopefully we have it right – I’ll let you know after Sydney!”
Looking at his times for the opening lap, Jason is making ground quickly on the rest of the World!
POINTS RACE
Former World Points Champion, Chris Newton made a solid start in this event with 6th place in the final. Newton, who won the title in 2002, started by scraping through the qualifying rounds with 8th place. With so many riders entered, there were three qualifying rounds with the top 8 to go through.
Unfortunately for Jonny Bellis, his 10th place in his heat was not enough to make the final although after a long break after the World Road Championships where he won Bronze in the Under 23 road race, he is very much still feeling his way back on the track.
In the final, Newton eased his way into the race and it wasn't until the fourth sprint he scored, getting a single point to open his account. He then recovered before scoring again in the sixth sprint with two points followed by another point in sprint eight and two points in sprint 10.
He did however save his best until last and the Brit won the final sprint to finish on 11 points, equal with four other riders but being ranked top of that group (6th) due to his placing in the final sprint. Winner was Greg Henderson of New Zealand who was one of three riders to gain a lap.
Final
1. Greg Henderson NZL 31
2. Toni Tauler ILB 27
3. Cameron Meyer TOS 24
6. Chris NewtonGBR 11
Women's 3000m Individual Pursuit
There was Gold for the host nation in this event with GB's Wendy Houvenaghel in fourth place whilst Silver medallist at the 2007 World Track Championships, Rebecca Romero failed to make the finals after qualifying in eight place. Times on the Dunc Grey Velodrome were slow compare to those being recorded by the British pair at Manchester but two places in the top 10 will give them valuable World Championship and Olympic qualifying points.
Gold and silver
1. Katie Mactier (Australia) 3.38.379 (49.455 km/h)
2. Vilija Sereikaite (Ltu) 3.40.393 (49.003 km/h)
Bronze
3. Karin Thürig (Switzerland) 3.40.300 (49.024 km/h)
4. Wendy Houvenaghel (GBr) scienceinsport.com 3.40.754 (48.923 km/h)
Women's 3000m individual pursuit - qualifying
1. Vilija Sereikaite (Ltu) Safa - Pasta Zara Manhattan 3.36.575 (49.867 km/h)
2. Katie Mactier (Australia) 3.36.784 (49.819 km/h)
3. Karin Thürig (Switzerland) 3.38.293 (49.474 km/h)
4. Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.38.596 (49.406 km/h)
5. Sarah Hammer (United States Of America) 3.38.680 (49.387 km/h)
8. Rebecca Romero (Great Britain) 3.39.775 (49.141 km/h)
Women’s Scratch Race
Final
1. Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso CUB
2 Annalisa Cucinotta ITA
3. Anastasiay Chulkova RUS
11. Kate Cullen SCO
RELATED LINKS
Results: http://www.tissottiming.com/index.htm
Report & Photos: www.cyclingnews.com
