Great Britain finished in second place overall at the end of the 2014/15 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series despite a difficult final day of racing in Cali that saw early exits in both the men’s sprint and women’s keirin.
The day started with the qualifying round of the men’s sprint and Great Britain’s Lewis Oliva achieved a top ten finish, coming in with 10.079 and placing ninth overall. Teammate Matt Crampton clocked 10.221 and finished down in 22nd place but with the top 24 riders going through to the next round, both riders were safely through.
Crampton came up against Denis Dmetriev of Rusvelo and proved no match for the Russian who had been one of just three riders who had broken the 10 second mark in qualifying.
It was a similar story for Lewis Oliva when he met Australia’s Patrick Constable. Constable, who had qualified considerably slower than Oliva, got the better of the 22-year-old from Monmouthshire overpowering him to the line. With no repecharges at this stage, it was the end of the line for both Crampton and Oliva. The final win eventually went to Denis Dmetriev beating Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands 2-1.
Jess Varnish failed to progress beyond the first round in the women’s keirin. With just the top two riders going through to the next round, Varnish placed third and was forced to go through to the repecharges, where only the top rider from each would progress through to the next round.
Varnish eventually placed second behind China’s Lin Junhong, signalling the end of the line for the Bromsgrove rider. She eventually placed 13th overall with Junhong going on to win the gold.
The last day of competition saw the conclusion of both the men’s and women’s omniums with Great Britain’s Oliver Wood and Emily Kay both lying in 13th place after day one. Wood was in 14th place by time he reached the last event after finishing 13th in the kilo and 19th in the flying lap.
Wood amassed 21 points in the points race after taking a lap on the bunch, eventually finishing in 14th pace at the conclusion of the competition, with the win going to Germany’s Maximillian Beyer of Germany.
Emily Kay had also started the day in 13th place but with a 19th place finish in the 500-metre time trial and a 22nd place finish in the flying lap, Kay was in 17th place going into the final points race. Kay picked up one point in the third sprint but with three riders taking a lap on the field, her tally earned her 18th place overall at the conclusion of the day’s play. The win went to Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands.
At the conclusion of this season’s UCI Track World Cup series Great Britain finished second in the series with 3704 points with Germany taking the win with 4037.5. Australia settled for third with 3398.5 points overall.
Results:
Men's sprint
Women's keirin
Women's omnium - 500m ttime trial
Men's omnium - 1km time trial
Women's omnium - flying lap
Men's omnium - flying lap
Women's omnium - final standings
Men's omnium - final standings
