UCI Track World Cup, Los Angeles

 

January 18-20, 2008

 

A small team of British male endurance riders have travelled to Los Angeles in America for the third round of the UCI World Track Cup there. Riding for Great Britain will be Rob Hayles and Peter Kennaugh whilst Chris Newton rides in Recycling colours. Two more riders from 100% ME travelled to the States but one of those, Ben Swift, fell during training and has been ruled out of the competition leaving just Jonny Bellis to fly the team's colours.

 

Day 3, Men's Madison

One of the key events the Great Britain Cycling team wants to ensure they get a ride at the next Olympics is the madison where in Athens they won a Bronze and in Sydney 2000, the GB pairing of Rob Hayles and Bradley Wiggins went close to a medal. The Madison is one of those really tough events where ensuring a specific result can be very difficult no matter how strong a countries pairing. Anyone who has stood close to the track during a Madison, will be aware of the ruthless pace as attacks come and go constantly.

 

GB sent two teams to LA to try and score points but an injury to Ben Swift dented that plan and it was Rob Hayles and first year senior Peter Kennaugh  who carried the GB hopes in LA. They began their assault on the race in the second heat where they did enough to make the final with 8th place. In that final however, their final placing of seventh will have been a disappointment. It was in LA that Rob Hayles won the Madison title only three years ago but there is no doubt the world cup points they won with 7th will be valuable in GB’s quest to ensure a place the Madison event at Beijing.

 

Winners of the event were the team from Belgium who gained a lap on the rest of the field and despite a lower points title, took maximum points. The experienced Belgium pairing surprised the field by quickly taking a lap, no mean feat on a 250 metre track. They then went on the defensive, keeping their lap advantage on the rest despite countless attacks.
A dangerous attack from the Aussies and Danes which gained half a lap was nullified with help from the British team.  It was around this time that the Brits started to put some points on the board gaining a point after 35 minutes of racing. That was it for the  Brits until the final sprint where they were second behind the Dutch and gained enough for 7th place.

 

Result
1. Belgium                     8 pts
 Kenny De Ketele,  Tim Mertens                  

One lap behind
2. Denmark                    18 pts
 Michael Morkov, Alex Rasmussen               

3. Germany                    12 pts
 Roger Kluge, Olaf Pollack                 

4. Netherlands                 8 pts
5. Team Slipstream             7 pts
6. Italy                       6 pts

7. Great Britain               4 pts
 Robert Hayles, Peter Kennaugh               

8. Colombia                    3 pts
9. Australia                   3 pts
10. Spain                      
Two laps behind
11. New Zealand                5 pts
12. Arda Natura Pinarello      2 pts
13. Argentina                    

Day 2: Men's Scratch Race

In a warm-up for the Madison on the final day, Rob Hayles was 4th in the Men's Scratch race. The day started for the British riders with the three heats. Unlike previous years where three heats for a final were almost unheard of, this year, Olympic year no less, there are many more riders trying to qualify for the finals and this applies to the Scratch race, a non-Olympic event.

 

With only the top 8 going though to make a final of 24 riders, Great Britain's Rob Hayles was 4th is his heat whilst 100% ME rider Jonny Bellis was second in his heat, the final one of the morning session. In the Men's scratch race final, Hong Kong rider Kam-Po Wong, the current World Champion, did his rainbow stripes justice by winning the race ahead of Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus) and Wim Stroetinga (Netherlands).

 

Great Britain's Rob Hayles showed the form he knows he'll need for the Madison by finishing fourth whilst 'teammate' Jonny Bellis finished back in the field in 21st in his last event of the World Track Cup.

 

FINAL
1. Kam-Po Wong (Hong Kong, China)                                
2. Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus)                                    
3. Wim Stroetinga (Netherlands)                                  
4. Robert Hayles (Great Britain)                                 

21. Jonathan Bellis (GBr) Team 100% Me                           

 

HEATS
Heat 2
1. Roman Kononenko (Ukr) Arda Natura Pinarello Ukraina   
2. Oleksandr Martynenko (Ukr) ISD-Sport Donetsk          
3. Antonio Tauler Llull (Spa) Illes Balears              
4. Robert Hayles (Great Britain)                         
 
Heat 3
1. Tim Mertens (Belgium)                                 
2. Jonathan Bellis (GBr) Team 100% Me                    
3. Angel Dario Colla (Argentina)                         
4. Wim Stroetinga (Netherlands)                          

 

Day 1

Above: Chris Newton in aggressive mood in Los Angeles as he strives to ensure a place at the Beijing Olympics in the Points race.

On day 1, Britain fielded three riders in the Men's Points race. First year senior, Peter Kennaugh, a former World Junior champion, showed the form he has at the moment winning the first heat after an aggressive ride. Kennaugh's fellow Isle of Man rider, Jonny Bellis was 10th and failed to make the final.

 

In the second heat, former World Points Champion, Chris Newton, getting in amongst the action after a conservative start, won sprint three and with the other points he gained, the Recycling rider made the final after finishing second. In the final, Chris finished third, gaining 15 points with Aussie Cameron Meyer winning the race after two sprint wins. Peter Kennaugh was a DNF in the race. Newton again felt his way into the race missing points on the first two sprints but then scoring three in the third sprint followed by another 3 in sprint six, 2 in sprint seven, 1 in sprint ten, a win for five points in sprint eleven and a final point in the last sprint to get the bronze medal.

 

Chris's third place means he lies in second place overall in the World Track Cup competition for the event, five points behind Meyer. Chris finished second in the Beijing World Track Cup and 6th in the Sydney Track World Cup in the first two rounds of this years World Track Cup competition.

 

Men's Points race
1. Cameron Meyer (Toshiba)                          23 pts
2. Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland)                         20
3. Chris Newton (GBr) Recycling.co.uk               15

DNF Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Recycling.co.uk