Manchester UCI World Track Cup

 

Friday, 23rd February 2007 (Day 1)

Home Page, Manchester World Track Cup

 

Results:

Men Keirin | Men Individual Pursuit | Women Sprint | Men Scratch Qual | Women Points Qual

 

Brad Wiggins on his way to the fastest qualifying time in the Pursuit

 

Afternoon Session

The first session of the Track World Cup in Manchester was dominated by the sprinters, with the Women's Sprint and Men's Keirin getting underway. The good news for the home supporters was the form of the British riders, with Victoria Pendleton and Anna Blyth both going through to the semis of the sprint and Craig MacLean and Jamie Staff winning their heats and avoiding the repechage on their way to the Keirin second round. The action then moved on to the Men's 4000m Individual Pursuit, where Bradley Wiggins was making an eagerly anticipated return to serious Track racing.

 

Men's 4000m Pursuit
Bradley Wiggins took a decisive hold on the Men's Pursuit with a classy qualification ride, clocking 4 minutes 18.276 seconds, some three seconds outside his Olympic record, but at fine performance for a rider who has not ridden the discipline competitively since Athens 2004. Going through the first kilo in 68 seconds, he then reeled off three 63 second flying kilometres in metronomic style.

 

Servov of Russia took second in the Pursuit qualifying

Aussie Bradley McGee, in contrast, struggled to reach the heights of three or four years ago, with a time of 4m 24.238s. His first lap was a second slower than Wiggins and he dropped back a couple of seconds with each succeeding 1000m. This appeared good enough to give him second and put him into the final.

 

Brad McGee missed out on the Pursuit final

However, in the penultimate heat, Alexander Serov of Russia produced an outstanding ride, sticking like a limpet to Wiggin's pace until the final couple of laps when he dropped back a little, but still comfortably mading it into the final with a time of 4m 21.081s. That left McGee in the ride-off for bronze against Jens Mouris of Holland who recorded 4.24.694 to just edge out former world champion, Sergi Escobar Roure of Spain, who started well, but faded off the same pace as McGee in the closing stages as he clocked 4.25.392.

Women's Sprint
The qualifying Time Trial for the Women's sprint saw an impressive performance from Victoria Pendleton who broke the British record with a time of 11.068s. She was the last rider to go and was almost a tenth of a second inside the time of Anna Meares, the previous fastest. Anna Blyth, the other British rider also rode well to finish fifth in 11.430.

 

Victoria Pendleton on the way to the fastest time in Sprint qualifying

In the first round, Victoria had a very comfortable win over Liz Carlson of the USA to progress to the Quarter finals. Anna Blyth had to work a lot harder to dispose of Grishina from Russia, but showing good tactical sense she went to the front and controlled the race, winning by a wheel. Also progressing were Anna Meares, Guo Shuang, Willy Kanis, Yvonne Hugenaar, Jinjie Gong and Swetlana Grankowskaja.

Anna Meares goes for it in the 200 Time Trial

The quarter-finals saw Victoria Pendleton continue to make effortless progress, disposing of Grankowskaja with ease. There were also straightforward two-ride wins for Meares and the Chinese rider Guo, who looks a very talented athlete. However, Anna Blyth was the story of the round as she reached her first World Cup semi-final with two gritty and contrasting wins over the Dutch rider Kanis. Blyth won the first with a last gap ride around the outside, having appeared out of it with half a lap to go. The second she took on from the front, determinedly holding off her rival in the final bend, to the delight of an enthusiastic crowd.

 

Anna Blyth at speed - she made it throught to her first Semi-Final

Men's Keirin
A very confident looking Craig MacLean won the first qualifying heat of the Keirin with a very controlled ride from the front. Jamie Staff also won his heat, but only after Tang of China was disqualified for overtaking him on the inside. Joining them in the second round were the other heat winners, Sireau of France and Nariat of Japan. Also going straight through as runners up were Mulder of Holland, Vynokurov of the Ukraine, Mazquiaran of Spain and Perkins of Australia.

 

Craig MacLean in control in the Keirin first round

In the Repechage, Tang made up for his earlier gaff, winning the first heat and going through with Volikakis of Greece. Leonard of Australia and Dimitriev of Russia took the one-two in the second heat.

 

Russell Hampton, second in line, on his way to winning a Scratch Race heat

 

Men's Scratch Race Qualifying

There were no alarms for the British riders in the Scratch Race Qualifying. Chris Newton and Gerraint Thomas kept out of trouble in the first heat and comfortably went through to the final. Russell Hampton then won the second heat with James McCallum in 11th just scraping through, thanks in part to a big crash which took out four riders in the closing stages - one bike splitting in half in the accident, but luckily no-one was badly hurt.

 

Kate Cullen wins the second sprint in her Points Race heat

 

Women's Points Race Qualifying

Kate Cullen and Lizzie Armistead both made it through to the evening's final, though it was a close call for Lizzie as she just scraped the one point she needed in the final sprint.