Location: Manchester Velodrome, National Cycling Centre
Event: October 6-14 2012
Report: Larry Hickmott - Saturday, October 12, 2012
Day 7 of the UCI World Masters Track cycling Championships saw a mix of bunch races, record attempts and the inaugural Team Pursuit title race.
Women’s 35-44 Points
Elisa Gianchino of South Africa was the first title winner of the day in the Women’s 35-44 Points race. The Australian Cheryl Hulskamp had the best start winning sprint number one. Siobahn Mullan then started a points scoring spree and after beating Hulskamp at the next sprint moved into the race lead.
Then an attack caught everybody out as the South African Elisa Gianchino went clear. The American Alaina Gurski took up the chase but failed to make an impression and was brought back.
Elisa Gianchino continued to rack up the points out front while Mullen cleaned up the best of the rest in the peloton. Australian Rebecca Wheadon then inched her way to the South African rider out front and the two of them worked hard to catch the field to lap them.
Of the two, the South African, was the strongest and after catching the bunch, both Elisa Gianchino and Rebecca Wheadon moved up to the top of the table ahead of Mullan. From then on, Elisa Gianchino remained in control of the race and clinched the Gold medal while the Silver went to the Aussie Wheadon with Mullan in third.
Result
1 GIANCHINO Elisa RSA 30
2 WHEADON Rebecca AUS 20
3 MULLAN Siobahn GBR 14
4 HULSKAMP Cheryl AUS 8
5 HOLMES Alison GBR 4
other
6 HARDING Caroline GBR 4
8 TYSON-BLOOR Adel GBR 2
Women 45 Plus Points
Thirteen riders faced 60 laps of the track in this title race with the favourite being Janet Birkmyre (Britain) who predictably won the first sprint after a few early attacks failed to stick.
Britain’s Jayne Paine then went for a lap and very astutely, hung off the back of the peloton to ensure she not only got the ten points for the lap gain but the five points for the sprint win. It was a risky strategy but did put her on top of the leaderboard well clear of Birkmyre.
As the race neared half distance, three riders, Britain’s Chrissie Higgs and Annette Williams and Orla Hendron of Ireland went for the lap gain which they made with around 20 laps to go. This put four riders all on the same lap and it was Williams who was the strongest now, scoring in all the sprints for points to add to her ten from the lap gain.
This put her in an unassailable position but Birkmyre hadn’t finished with her challenge for the Silver medal and won the last two sprints to put her on equal points with Orla Hendron. With a better finishing position, the Silver was awarded to Birkmyre while Hendron got the bronze.
Result
1 WILLIAMS Annette USA 27
2 BIRKMYRE Janet GBR 21
3 HENDRON Orla IRL 21
4 PAINE Jayne GBR 15
5 HIGGS Christine GBR 12
other
8 TATE Brenda GBR 2
10 CLAYTON Elizabeth GBR
Team Pursuit 3000 metres
This event was dominated by the Australians Mark Jewell, David Stevens, Michael Poppelwell and Gerad O’Connell who were no less than nine seconds quicker in the final than their Canadian Maple Sryrup team opponents. Despite losing a man early in the match, the Aussies recorded a time of 3.19.758 for the 3000 metres.
The bronze was won the Argentinian team who had qualified fourth fastest, and like the Aussies, set off quickly in the final against the Scottish Masters. Despite losing a rider early on, the Argentinian team went on to record the second fastest time of the finals to win by just under a second.
Results
Finals
1. Australia 3:19.758 54.065 - JEWELL Mark, STEVENS David, O'CONNELL Gerard, POPPLEWELL Michael
2 Maple Syrup - CAN 3:28.387 51.827 - LE BEAU Stéphane, TOTH Peter, BASE Julian, NASH Michael
3. Argentina 3:26.405 52.324 - DEL BARCO Daniel, ROZIE Diego Alejandro, VEGETTI Luis Mario, PEREYRA Ricardo
4 Scottish Masters 3:27.098 52.149 - TAYLOR Alastair, ETTLES Peter, MCCAW Stephen, BARCLAY Graham
Qualifying
1 Australia 3:23.355 53.109
2 Maple Syrup 3:27.828 51.966
3 Scottish Masters 3:28.543 51.788
4 Argentina 3:29.331 51.662
5 USA - 3:30.228 51.387
6 Denmark 3:31.023 51.179
7 Australia/New Zealand 3:31.589 51.058
8 Team Bush 3:32.312 50.939
9 ioptix.co.uk 3:34.409 50.371
10 Italia 3:35.084 50.203
11 South Africa 3:36.701 49.838
12 PSUK 3:37.997 49.542
13 British All Stars 3:38.197 49.230
14 Germany 3:54.311 46.093
Elimination Races
The first of these two non title races, was the men’s event which was won by the cagey John McClelland. With ten riders taking to the start, one by one they were eliminated until three were left, two Italians and McClelland. Salvadeo of Italy pulled off to leave it to his teammate Picco and McClelland to battle it out and the Brit was tactically better as well as faster than his rival to win the special prize of some Rudy Project glasses donated by Phil Griffiths at Yellow Ltd.
Result
1. McClelland John GBR
2. PICCO Alessandro ITA
3. SALVADEO Luca Agostino ITA
4. MEIDHOF Jason USA
5. VANDONI Gabriele ITA
other
6. HAMMERSLEY Mark GBR
10. ELLIS Christian GBR
Women's Elimination Race
This was won by Annette Williams from the USA who defeated Australian Cheryl Huskamp in the final battle for the win. The race started with Alison Holmes being eliminated and she was followed by Tessa Pugh and Liz Clayton. Orla Hendron was next to go and then Maria Moncado of Mexico before Adel Tyson Bloor was the last of the riders before the match sprint between Williams and Hulskamp for the victory.
1 WILLIAMS Annette USA
2 HULSKAMP Cheryl AUS
3 TYSON-BLOOR Adel GBR
4 LEÓN MONCADA María Isabel MEX
5 HENDRON Orla IRL
6 CLAYTON Elizabeth GBR
7 PUGH Tessa GBR
8 HOLMES Alison GBR
Men 50+ Bush Healthcare Scratch Race
The final race of the afternoon was the Men 50+ Bush Healthcare Scratch Race over 10 miles and the pace was on from the start and very quickly three riders were dropped before the peloton eased for a spell.
An attack by Mark Sommers saw eventual winner Ralph Carter join him and one by one, riders bridged to the leaders causing even more riders to be dropped and eventually retire from the very fast paced race.
Sommers continued to have a go but in the end the race was decided in a sprint between the ten riders left in the race and fastest to the line was Carter ahead of Dutchman Robert Bodamer who went so close to nicking the race off Carter on the line in a photo finish, while Chris Davis wearing the colours of the race sponsor was third.
Result
1 CARTER Ralph GBR
2 BODAMER Robert A NED
3 DAVIS Chris GBR
4 SOMMERS Mark USA
5 CORTES GONZALEZ Rubiel COL
6 ROESNER Kenneth GBR
7 APPERLEY Keir GBR
8 LILLEY Ralph GBR
9 CROSS Jerry GBR
10 HALL Nick GBR
Record Attempts
The day also two record attempts. Walter Fowler went for the 75 plus 500 metre record again having failed to beat it in a previous attempt earlier in the week. Fully kitted out for the ride, Fowler did it this time, recording a time of 41.220, well ahead of the old mark of 41.854. In the other attempt, the flying 200 metres, Brent Stein was just outside the record with a time of 10.523 (current record is 10.494).
