Manchester UCI Track World Cup
Event Coverage Home Page
February 23-25, 2007
The first major international cycling event of the year in Britain, the Manchester UCI World Track Cup, saw cyclists from 36 countries and 11 trade teams competing over three days on the boards of the National Cycling Centre. In front of a packed crowd, the action packed races were fiercely contested as places at the World Championships were on the line for many. The weekend also saw unprecedented success for the British riders and britishcycling.org.uk was there to capture it all.
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Day 1 Photos >> Evening Session Report
Day 2 Photos >> Evening Session Report
Day 3 Photos >> Morning and Afternoon Session Report
Note: Buttons to each gallery are at the top of each page.
Highlights of the first evening of the Track World Cup in Manchester were fine rides by Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins. Meanwhile, a spectacular crash in the Keirin final had the whole crowd on their feet for an anxious few minutes. Earlier, Chris Hoy also turned on the style with a nerveless win in the Kilo, once again showing he's the last lap king in winning gold. There's also news of the Women's Points Race and Men's Scratch Race finals.
Bradley Wiggins made the most of his first competitive outing in the event since the Athens Olympics to record the fastest qualifying time in the Men's 4000m Pursuit. Also in this section, news of the early stages of the Women's Sprint and Men's Keirin with Vicky Pendleton, Anna Blyth, Jamie Staff and Craig MacLean all in action.
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GB picked up their expected gold in the Team Pursuit final, whilst the Olympic Academy riders in the 100% ME team stepped up a level and took the bronze medal. Both teams recorded stunning times once again. Plus, there was Gold for Wendy Houvenaghel and Silver for Rebecca Romero in the Womens Pursuit. GB didn't have it all their own way, however, with near-misses in both the Women's Team Sprint (Silver) and the Men's Sprint competitions (Silver again).
Morning & Afternoon Session Report The big news of the session was a sensational national record for Wendy Houvenaghel in the Women's Pursuit and an equally impressive PB for Rebecca Romero. This was followed rapidly by another national record, for Vicky Pendleton in the 500m Time Trial, with Anna Blyth also producing a PB and collecting the bronze medal. The GB Team Pursuit quartet only just missed out on a national record of their own, but had the satisfaction of dipping under the magical 4 minute barrier as they qualified fastest by a county mile. | |
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The third and last (but definitely not least) of the days' racing, with towering performances from the GB Mens Team Sprint trio of Hoy, Edgar and Maclean to take the Gold. Victoria Pendleton also showed her resolve and raw power to dispense with her rivals in a closely fought Women's Keirin to win her third Gold out of three events.
The GB Madison pairing of Hayles and Thomas rode a gutsy race in an epic Madison Final, coming second to the Dutch. Olympic Academy riders Anna Blyth and Lizzie Armistead showed they are making great progress in their first year as seniors when they both put in determined and creditable performances in the Womens Keirin and Womens Scratch races respectively. Chris Hoy capped off a fantastic weekend by winning the Japanese Keirin competition in what was a tremendous weekend for the GB team.
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World Cup Information & Features
In the days leading up to the start of competition, BritishCycling.org.uk went trackside talking to the riders and bringing back pictures of the track action and that in the track centre. We have extensive interviews of Olympic and World champions from around the World as well as many of our young stars who will be competing in front of a home crowd. Plus all the news from the run-up to the big event.
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