Four Golds For GB Riders on Day 1 of Masters

 

UCI World Masters Track Championships:

Day 1 - Monday 11 September 2006

 

Monday 11th September saw the start of the 12th year of the UCI World Masters Track Championships at the Manchester Velodrome. These are the official championships for riders over 30 years of age. Today saw the 2006 World Masters titles awarded in the Men's Individual Time Trials and Women's Points Races.

Great Britain won four of the ten titles on offer with winning performances from Geoff Cooke (Men's 60-64 Individual Time Trial), Dave LeGrys (Men's 50-54 Individual Time Trial), Ben Elliott (Men's 30-34 Individual Time Trial) and Janet Birkmyre (Women's 40+ Points race).

The remaining World Masters titles were collected by Delroy Walters, USA (Men's 70+ Individual Time Trial), Keith Oliver, Australia (Men's 65-69 Individual Time Trial), Marc Dangleterre, France (Men's 55-59 Individual Time Trial), Alphonso Whaley, USA (Men's 45-49 Individual Time Trial), Stephen Hill USA (Men's 40-44 Individual Time Trial) and Darren King, Australia (Men's 35-39 Individual Time Trial).

Particular mention should go to:
- Stephen Hill (U.S.A.) and Keith Oliver (Australia) who both set new World Masters Best Times for their events,
- Geoff Cooke (Great Britain), Dave LeGrys (Great Britain) and Alphonso Whaley (U.S.A.) defending champions from 2005.

At the end of the first day, Great Britain lead the medal table, with USA in second and Australia in third places respectively.

This was the second year that the Bush Healthcare over 60 years final was held, which is a non-championship event. This was an exciting race that was won by Sean Bannister from Great Britain, who made a solo break with 5 laps to go and whose lead was then never challenged.

The championships continue until Saturday 16th September.