Great Britain’s women broke two World records on the first night of competition in the London Track World Cup, which is part of the ‘London Prepares’ series as a rehearsal for this summer’s Olympic Games. Despite qualifying second best in both events, the British women overcame the opposition in both the Team Sprint and Team Pursuit, to kick off the home nations weekend in perfect fashion.
Elsewhere, there was a more international flavour to the results, with World champions Germany taking the men’s Team Sprint, and road riders showing well in the endurance events.
Women’s Scratch: Solo glory for Australia’s Hoskins
A long, late solo attack from Australia’s Melissa Hoskins saw the GreenEDGE rider take victory in the women’s Scratch race. The 20-year-old countered a similar, earlier, attack from Italian Marta Tagliaferro, and managed to open up a lead of almost half a lap; giving her plenty of time to celebrate as she hit the line.
Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) won the mass sprint for second, ahead of Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine).
Result Women’s Scratch
1. Melissa Hoskins (Aus) Australia
2. Jarmila Machacova (Cze) Czech Republic
3. Lesya Kalitovska (Ukr) Ukraine
4. Laura Basso (Ita) Cycling Team Friuli
5. Andrea Wolfer (Swi) Switzerland
Women’s Team Sprint: Varnish and Pendleton get the records rolling
Well and truly picking up the gauntlet, thrown down to them by World champions Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch of Australia in qualifying, the Great Britain duo of Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton re-broke the World record that the Australian pair had set in the morning’s qualification; setting a time of 32.754. Varnish’s first lap time of 18.792 was actually almost a quarter of a second slower than Meares on the opposite side of the track, but Pendleton’s second lap of 13.962 was four-tenths faster than McCulloch to award the gold medal to the host nation.
In the ride off for bronze, Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie of China beat Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez of France.
Result Women’s Team Sprint
1. Great Britain (Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton)
2. Australia (Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch)
3. China (Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie)
4. France (Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez)
Women’s Team Pursuit: Another record for Great Britain
Having only gone second fastest in the previous day’s qualification, Great Britain brought in Dani King, in place of Beijing individual pursuit silver medallist Wendy Houvenaghel. Along with 19-year-old Laura Trott, and new VeloNation blogger Joanna Rowsell, the 21-year-old took the host nation’s second gold medal - and second World record - of the evening, in a time of 3:18.148; more than a second faster than the mark set by the United States almost two years ago.
Great Britain beat the Canadian trio of Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser by eight-tenths of a second, who also beat the USA’s previous World best. Annette Edmonson, Amy Cure and Josephine Tomic of Australia beat Kirsten Wild, Vera Koedooder and Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands to the bronze.
Result Women’s Team Pursuit
1. Great Britain (Laura Trott, Danielle King and Joanna Rowsell)
2. Canada (Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser)
3. Australia (Annette Edmonson, Amy Cure and Josephine Tomic)
4. Netherlands (Kirsten Wild, Vera Koedooder and Ellen van Dijk)
Men’s Team Sprint: Germany confirms World championship status
Having been beaten into second in qualifying, World champions, and World record holders, Rene Enders, Robert Förstemann and Maximilian Levy of Germany beat the French team of Gregory Baugé, Mickael D’Almeida and Kevin Sireau in the gold medal race.
In yet another battle between the old enemies, Great Britain’s Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy beat Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland to the bronze medal.
Result Men’s Team Sprint
1. Germany (Rene Enders, Robert Förstemann and Maximilian Levy)
2. France (Gregory Baugé, Mickael D’Almeida and Kevin Sireau)
3. Great Britain (Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy)
4. Australia (Matthew Glaetzer, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland)
Men’s Kilometre: Experience wins the day for Nimke
Stefan Nimke (Germany) posted by far the fastest time to take victory in the Kilometre Time Trail, as riders set off two at a time on opposite sides of the track. The 33-year-old sprint veteran, setting off in the third-from-last pair, stopped the clock in 1:01.211, eight-tenths of a second faster than the previous best time set by Mickael D’Almeida (France) in the previous pair.
The final medal was taken by Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand), riding in the final pair, who heartbreakingly knocked Great Britain’s Matt Crampton (Team Sky) off the podium in his home World Cup.
Result Men's Kilometre
1. Stefan Nimke (Ger) Germany
2. Mickael D’Almeida (Fra) France
3. Simon Van Velthooven (NZl) New Zealand
4. Matt Crampton (GBr) Team Sky
5. Zhang Miao (Chn) China
Men’s Points Race: Overwhelming display from Torres
Taking two laps and winning three of the twelve sprints saw Albert Torres of Spain take a resounding victory in the men’s Points Race with 58 points. The silver medal went to Lokomotiv’s Kirill Sveshnikov, who, despite only taking two points during the whole race, also took two laps on the field and so finished the race with 42 points.
Artur Ershov (Russia) and Unia Elorraiga (Cespa-Euskadi) both took 16 points during the race, almost equalling the total taken by Torres, but both only managed to get one lap and so both finished with 36. Elorraiga had been sitting pretty in the bronze medal position but a late surge from Ershov, which saw him take points in the last three sprints - including first in the penultimate, and third in the final - saw the Russian take the medal.
Result Men’s Points Race
1. Albert Torres Barcelo (Spa) Spain
2. Kirill Sveshnikov (Rus) Lokomotiv
3. Artur Ershov (Rus) Russia
4. Unia Elorraiga (Esp) Cespa-Euskadi
5. Choi Ki Ho (Hkg) Hong Kong
Men’s Omnium Day 1: Arango leads but Viviani in touch
Juan Esteban Arango of Colombia leads the men’s Omnium, at the halfway point at the end of day one, with a total of nine points; despite not taking victory in any of the three events so far.
New Zealander Zach Bell took an early lead in the Flying Lap, with a time of 13.295 seconds, almost a full second ahead of Arango in second place. Liu Hao (Max Success) was a close third, just a tenth of a second slower.
Taking two laps was the key to Eloy Teruel of Spain’s victory in the points race, over Arango - taking his second runner up spot - Luis Mansilla (Chi) Chile, and Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy, who all had much higher points hauls.
Not to be kept down though, the irrepressible Viviani - who was winning the Giro della Provincia di Reggio-Calabria the previous weekend, and has already taken five victories on the road this season - dominated the Elimination race. The Italian easily outsprinted France’s Bryan Coquard in the final sprint, after the two of them had eliminated Great Britain’s Ben Swift on the previous lap.
His Elimination victory keeps Viviani in touch with Arango, just three points behind with three events to go, with Coquard third on 16.
Result Flying Lap
1. Zach Bell (Can) Canada
2. Juan Esteban Arango (Col) Colombia
3. Liu Hao (Chn) Max Success Pro Cycling
4. Bryan Coquard (Fra) France
5. Cho Ho Sung (Kor) Korea
Result Points Race
1. Eloy Teruel (Spa) Spain
2. Juan Esteban Arango (Col) Colombia
3. Luis Mansilla (Chi) Chile
4. Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy
5. Ivan Kovalev (Rus) RusVelo
Result Eliminiation
1. Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy
2. Bryan Coquard (Fra) France
3. Ben Swift (GBr) Great Britain
4. Luis Mansilla (Chi) Chile
5. Juan Esteban Arango (Col) Colombia
Standings after Day One
1. Juan Esteban Arango (Col) Colombia 9pts
2. Elia Viviani (Ita) Italy 12
3. Bryan Coquard (Fra) France 16
4. Cho Ho Sung (Kor) Korea 20
5. Zach Bell (Can) Canada 26