UCI World Track Cup, Round 4

 

Copenhagen, February 15

 

 

Romero Fastest in Women's Pursuit

Great Britain's Rebecca Romero has won the Women's Pursuit in Copenhagen. The former rower and Olympic Silver medallist beat her rival convincingly with her second 3.35 of the day to the opponents 3.40. This was Romero's second medal of the 2007/08 World Cup series after a silver in Beijing in December. Romero was also the Silver medallist in Majorca last year at the World Track Championships. 

 

"I am really happy since I didn't have a great ride in the Sydney round" Rebecca told Gerry McManus after the final. "In a way, Sydney proved to be a bonus because I learnt a lot and things I put in place helped me to win this World Cup. I was on the podium in Beijing (silver) and doing good times in the qualifiers and finals. I have got a lot of confidence going forward to the World Championships." Read an in-depth interview with her before Copenhagen here >>> .

 

Finals

1. ROMERO Rebecca GBR 3:35.425 50.133
2. SEREIKAITE Vilija SAF 3:40.161 49.055
3. HAMMER Sarah USA 3:37.086 49.749
4. VAN DIJK Eleonora NED 3:42.194 48.606

 

Qualifying

GB's World Championship Silver medallist from 2007, Rebecca Romero was fastest in qualifying for the Women's Pursuit with a time of 3:35.786. She finished ahead of the World Champion Sarah Hammer in her heat, the final one of the qualifying round. GB's other entrant was Wendy Houvenaghel who finished 7th with a time of 3.40.747.

Left: Rebecca Romero and right, Wendy Houvenaghel. Pictures, Gerry McManus for British Cycling.

 

Qualifying
1. ROMERO Rebecca GBR 3:35.786
2. SEREIKAITE Vilija SAF 3:37.268
3. HAMMER Sarah USA 3:38.108
4. VAN DIJK Eleonora NED 3:38.110
5. JOOS Verena GER 3:38.161
6. SHANKS Alison NZL 3:38.476
7. HOUVENAGHEL Wendy SIS 3:40.747

 

Women's Sprint -- Silver for Pendleton

In qualifying, Victoria Pendleton was fastest with a 11.178 for the 200 metres. Despite a far from ideal buildup to the World Cup, the triple World Champion showed the rest who was fastest with Anna Blyth in 13th place with a 11.695 for the 200 metres. For Blyth, getting past the first round was important and this she did when she beat her Chinese opponent whilst Pendleton had little trouble with an old adversary, Christin Muche from Germany.

 

Pendleton continued her winning streak in the quarter finals with victory over her Dutch rival in two straight runs whilst Anna Blyth met her match against the expereinced Chinese girl Shuang Guo, again in two rides. In the 5-8 ride-off, Anna finished fourth in the four up race but still achieved her best result of the series.

 

Victoria wins her race against the Chinese girl Guo.

 

 Anna admits it has been a mixed World Cup series for her. “The Sprint has been a whole new league this season. I improved a bit for Beijing but was a bit flat for Sydney” she explained before Copenhagen. “Everything has stepped up so much.”

 

“My Keirin place for the Worlds is pretty much qualified especially with the result from the Europeans. I have done two 500s and will do another and hopefully get my place at the Worlds. What I am focusing on most, and really hoping to do well in, is the sprint and going further than the first round.”

Anna Blyth and Victoria Pendleton in qualifying this morning. Pictures, Gerry McManus for British Cycling.

 

Semi Final

Triple World Champion Victoria Pendleton made her way through to the final of Sprint after beating China's Shuang Guo. With the sprint being the sole Olympic event for Sprint women at the Beijing Olympics, this was an important test for Victoria after battling injury right up until she left for Copenhagen this week and so far, she has come through with flying colours, showing just what determination this young lady has.

 

Final
In the final of the Women's Sprint, Victoria Pendleton finally ran out of legs as she was beaten two nil by former World BMX champion Willy Kanis of Holland.

 

1. KANIS Willy NED 11.942 12.395
2. PENDLETON Victoria SIS

 

3. GUO Shuang CHN 12.050 12.395
4. REED Jennie USA

 

Qualifying
1. PENDLETON Victoria SIS 5.530 (2) 11.178 64.412
2. KANIS Willy NED 5.576 (4) 11.358 63.391
3. KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU 5.608 (7) 11.389 63.218
4. GONG Jinjie GPC 5.599 (5) 11.393 63.196
5. GUO Shuang CHN 5.602 (6) 11.413 63.085
6. REED Jennie USA 5.673 (9) 11.425 63.019
7. GUERRA RODRIGUEZ Lisandra CUB 5.572 (3) 11.441 62.931
8. SHULIKA Lyubov UKR 5.652 (8) 11.520 62.500
9. HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED 5.697 (11) 11.538 62.402
10. SANCHEZ Clara FRA 5.712 (12) 11.612 62.004
11. WELTE Miriam GER 5.718 (13) 11.614 61.994
12. GLÖSS Dana RAD 5.696 (10) 11.619 61.967
13. BLYTH Anna GBR 5.747 (15) 11.695 61.564

 

1/8th finals
1. PENDLETON Victoria SIS 12.551 57.365
2. MUCHE Christin RAD

 

1. BLYTH Anna GBR 12.221 58.914
2. GONG Jinjie

 

Quarter finals

1. PENDLETON Victoria SIS 11.807 12.057
2. HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED

 

1.  GUO Shuang CHN 11.963 11.730
2.  BLYTH Anna GBR

 

5-th to 8th

5. SANCHEZ Clara FRA 12.191 59.059
6. KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
7. HIJGENAAR Yvonne NED
8. BLYTH Anna GBR

 

Semi Finals

1. PENDLETON Victoria SIS 12.118 12.272
2. GUO Shuang CHN 11.939

 

1. KANIS Willy NED 12.192 11.919
2. REED Jennie USA

 

 

Men's Points Race

Final -- Bronze for Newton

Great Britain's Chris Newton has got a bronze medal in the Points race at the Copenhagen World Track Cup, his third medal of this current World Track Cup series. Newton was one of no less than twelve riders who gained a lap during the race as well as scoring points in the first sprint (5), ninth (3) and the final sprint where he was the winner (5), giving him a total of 33 points.

 

Winner, Pim Ligthart of Holland, was the only rider to gain two laps to give him 49 points while Poland's Rafal Ratajczyk out scored Chris by four points to win the silver medal. The win means Chris wins the World Cup for this event, giving him automatic qualification for the Olympics should he be selected by the GB team. "It was pretty good," Newton told Gerry McManus of his win in the World Cup. "A bronze medal and I took first and last sprints. We picked up some points when we were on the way to lapping the field but the judges gave the points to the bunch so I was a bit knocked down by that. I was just trying to keep in the top six to win the series and qualify for Beijing and the bronze was a bonus."

 

 

Chris Newton (Great Britain) World Track Cup Champion for the Points.

 

Read an in-depth interview with Chris here taken just before he left for Copenhagen Interview >>>

Qualifying

In the first heat of the Men's Points race, Chris Newton -- who is second overall in the UCI World Cup for this event -- finished 11th and qualified for the final. Unlike previous World Cup rounds this season, only two heats were needed and this allowed more riders from each heat to go through. In a fast race, seven riders gained a lap whilst Newton remained in the bunch and did enough in the sprints to book his place in the final. Series leader Cameron Meyer is not in the event in Copenhagen which leaves Newton a chance to win the overall should it go well in the final.

 

After the race Chris had this to say to Gerry Mcmanus: "Qualifiers are always the same, people are not looking for the win, they're just looking to score a few points to qualify so everyone is just blasting off the front and its difficult to control. Sometimes when you go for a few sprints, you miss the move and then you spend the race trying to save as much energy as you can. It's job done, through to the final and we'll take it from there."

 

"At the end there, I knew I had to be up there in the final. Shane (Sutton) was checking and giving me a few directions, I knew what I had to do. It was still touch and go and I prefer it to be a bit more comfortable than that. In the final, Schep is going really well but the race is wide open because there are a few hitters missing from this one I think it will be all over the place, a really hard final."

 

Heat 1

1. KREUTZFELDT Daniel DEN 24

2. AESCHBACH Alexander SUI  23

3. WYNANTS VAZQUEZ Milton URU  20

4. IIJIMA Makoto JPN 20

5. MARTYNENKO Oleksandr ISD 20

6. SHAEKHOV Vadim UPC  20

7. KADLEC Milan ADP 20

8. LIGTHART Pim DSB 11

9. KLUGE Roger FOC  8

10. LISOUSKI Aliaksandr BLR  7

11. NEWTON Chris GBR  5

12. MUKHAMEDOV Temur UZB 5

 

Team Sprint
Finals
In one of the few times the GB team has finished outside the top three in the Team Sprint, it happened again in Copenhagen when the British team were fourth after losing the ride off for Bronze against the French Cofidis team. The British team changed the man 2 and man 3 positions around but were still unable to fend off their rivals over three laps of the track.

 

Jamie Staff again helped his cause for being given the Man 1 spot by being the fastest of the two teams on the track (17.794) although his time was slower than Gregory Bauge in the Gold medal ride off (17.661). Riding second for GB, Chris Hoy (13.275), recovering from illness, was slightly slower than his French rival (13.203) but the Brits still lead coming into the bell lap. Craig MacLean, normally a man 1 rider, was in this instance in man three position and it was too much for the Scot as he recorded a 14.125 to the French teams 13.629. It was enough to drop Britain to fourth.

 

1. France 44.247
BAUGE, PERVIS, SIREAU

2. Netherlands 44.404
BOS, MULDER, VELDT Tim,

3. COFIDIS 44.963
BOURGAIN, HENRIETTE, TOURNANT

4. Great Britain  45.194
HOY, MACLEAN, STAFF

 

Qualifying

It was a disappointing qualifying round for the GB team in the Team Sprint when they finished 4th, qualifying for a medal ride but out of the running for Gold. Running two teams, as were the French, the British riders finished fourth and sixth fastest during a period of testing different combinations prior to the World Championships.

 

France was the winner of the qualifying round but the Brits did have the satisfaction of being fastest for man 1, a result which will no doubt have given the overall result a silver lining especially for Jamie Staff who has been getting PB's in the gym recently. It was the second lap where the Brits were eighth fastest and dropped to fourth where they lost the momentum and even the third man, was only fifth fastest although all the times are all very close.

 

Above, top; Craig MacLean takes over from Jamie Staff and bottom, Jamie Staff gives it everything for the start and was quickest over the first 250 metres. Pictures, Gerry McManus for British Cycling.

 

Qualifying

1. France 44.460
2. Netherlands 44.560
3. COFIDIS 44.832
4. Great Britain 45.083
    HOY Chris, MACLEAN Craig, STAFF Jamie
5. WWW.RADNET.DE 45.430
6. SCIENCEINSPORT.COM 45.513
    EDGAR Ross, KENNY Jason, QUEALLY Jason