Great Britain wins the Team Pursuit Ashes again; Anna Meares on fire for the home nation
The Melbourne track once again proved that it is one of the fastest in the World as the records continued to tumble on day two of the World championships. The Great Britain women showed they could do even better than what their male teammates could do, with a victory and another record in the Team Pursuit - winning the “Ashes” battle with Australia on the way, while Australia’s Anna Meares showed that she will be the sprinter to beat in London in the summer, with a World record of her own.
Elsewhere, a mid-race breakaway was good enough to take the women’s Points Race, the defending Kilometre champion posted the fastest ever sea level time, and the men’s Omnium got under way.
Women’s Sprint: Anna Meares breaks the World record and sets up Pendleton rematch
Australia’s defending World champion Anna Meares exorcised the demons of the previous day’s Team Sprint defeat by knocking a hundredth of a second off Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite’s two year old flying 200 metre World record, with a time of 10.782. The 28-year-old was the only rider to go below eleven seconds in qualification to set her self up as the number on seed in the match sprints later on.
“I was surprised during the effort because I remember when I sat down I was thinking to myself ‘this doesn’t feel good. Go! Go! Go!, Go harder! Go harder! Go harder!’ I probably should do that every time I do a 200 because I ended up breaking the world record,” joked Meares after her qualification.
Meares cruised past Juliana Gaviria (Colombia), Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba) and Guo Shuang (China) - who surprisingly had to go through the repecharges to make the quarterfinal - to set up a semi-final match with British rival Victoria Pendleton. The Olympic champion had a similarly straightforward journey - despite only qualifying fifth fastest - past Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands), Junhong Lin (China) and Virginie Cueff (France) to set up a repeat of the semi-final of the Olympic test event in London in February.
The second semi-final will be between deposed World record holder Krupekaite and the Ukraine’s Lyubov Shulika.
Guo secured the consolation of fifth place in the race between the beaten quarter finalists.
Women’s Team Pursuit: Australia and Great Britain exchange World records in Ashes battle
Following the example set by their male teammates the day before, the Great Britain and Australian teams qualified by far the fastest in the women’s Team Pursuit. The Australians [Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Jopsephine Tomic] drew first blood in the morning session, setting a time of 3:17.053 and knocking more than a second off the World record set by Great Britain in London six weeks before. They were only to be at the top of the pile for a short time however, as the British trio [Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell] took the record back with 3:16.850.
The two rival nations were pitted against one another in the final, with their contrasting styles producing a thrilling contest. Australia, as usual, was fastest out of the start, posting an incredible time of 1:07.976 for the first kilometre, and taking a lead of almost one and a half seconds. Great Britain however, began to increase the pace, and was only eight-tenths down by the end of kilometre two.
With the Australians fading, the British were getting even faster, and finally edged in front with 500 metres to go. Australia’s finishing time of 3:16.943 was even quicker than its qualification ride, but Great Britain stopped the clock more than a second earlier, to smash a further second off its own World record with 3:15.720.
“We came to win and I’m over the moon, it was just awesome,” said King. “The girls were absolutely amazing out there and were incredibly strong.
“It’s just so good to come out here and beat them on their home circuit,” she added. “A lot of Australians were commenting after the world cup that it was all the home town support. Well, they’ve got that here and we’ve still beat them, so we’re really happy.”
The bronze medal match also went with the qualifications, with the Canadian trio of Tara Whitten, Jasmin Glaesser and Gillian Carleton beating the New Zealand team of Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Alison Shanks in a time of 3:19.529.
To emphasise the commissaires’ determination to strictly enforce the regulations - following the disqualification of four teams in the previous day’s Team Sprint - the Polish squad was DQ’d for violation of the horizontal forearms rule.
Result Women’s Team Pursuit
1. Great Britain 3:15.720 (WR)
2. Australia 3:16.943
3. Canada 3:19.529
4. New Zealand 3:19.847
5. United States
Men’s Kilometre Time Trial: Stefan Nimke goes fastest ever at sea level
Emphasising the speed of the Melbourne track, Germany’s Stefan Nimke posted the fastest ever sea level time for the Kilometre to take his fourth World title. Last to start, the reigning champion was slower than some of his rivals around the early laps, but had paced his ride perfectly to stop the clock in 1:00.082, agonisingly close to the magic minute mark.
Second place went to France’s Michael D’Almeida, whose mark of 1:00.509 had looked good enough to win. A national record for South Africa’s Simon Van Velthooven of 1:00.543 was good enough for the bronze medal; incredibly all three medalist were below 1:01.
Result Men’s Kilometre Time Trial
1. Stefan Nimke (Germany) 1:00.082
2. Michael D’Almeida (France) 1:00.509
3. Simon Van Velthooven (South Africa) 1:00.543
4. Francois Pervis (France) 1:01.106
5. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 1:01.365
Women’s Points Race: A mid-race lap gives Anastasia Chulkova the title
Anastasia Chulkova of Russia took the women’s Points Race title after being part of a four-rider break that successfully lapped the field in the middle of the race. The Russian rider chased down a move from Canadian Jasmin Glaesser, and they were soon joined by Ireland’s Caroline Ryan and Hong Kong’s Wong Wan Yiu. The four riders managed to join the back of the peloton and there were no further successful attacks.
Australia’s Amy Cure took the first sprint with a fast surge and kept the pressure on in an early attempt to take a lap. A group of four rode her down however, and Chulkova went over the top in her own bid, but it too came to nothing and - having caught her up - the pace of the field dropped again. Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini - bidding to take back her Points title to go with the one she holds on the road - coolly cruised to take the second sprint, ahead of Belgium’s Kelly Druyts.
Glaesser - fresh from her Team Pursuit bronze earlier - made the next move; the Canadian managed to build a big lead, but was chased down by Chulkova, who took the points, and the duo was shortly joined by Ryan and Wong.
With the four of them half a lap up Cure decided to wake up the peloton and began to try and close them down. There was little cohesion in the chase however, and shortly after the sixth sprint, the group made contact with the back of the field, giving them 20 points each.
Some early counter moves were closed down, before Bronzini took the seventh sprint, but to deny the four that had taken the lap somebody needed to try to take one back.
Spain’s Leire Olaberria made a big move at the next sprint, and managed to get a long way clear; she was chased and joined by Venezuela’s Angie Sabrina Gonzalez, then the Czech Republic’s Jarmila Machacova and Poland’s Katarzyna Pawlowska. The group was chased down, though and Bronzini took the sprint.
Machacova attacked again in the final two laps, but was overcome by Bronzini as she hit the finish line; the points weren’t quite enough to lift the World road champion onto the podium however, as she finished two behind Ryan in the bronze medal position. Second place on the line for Chulkova was enough to lift her clear of Glaesser to take the title.
Result Women’s Points Race
1. Anastasia Chulkova (Russia) 31pts
2. Jasmin Glaesser (Canada) 28
3. Caroline Ryan (Ireland) 24
4. Giorgia Bronzini (Italy) 23
5. Wong Wan Yiu (Hong Kong) 22
Men’s Omnium: A day one lead for Glenn O'Shea after three consistent events
Great Britain’s European champion Ed Clancy, fresh from his record breaking Team Pursuit ride the previous day, started the competition fastest, posting a time of 12.881 in the Flying Lap. Clancy’s time was the only one below thirteen seconds, and was two-tenths quicker than New Zealand’s Shane Archbold, with Australia’s Glenn O’Shea just slightly slower in third.
Unsurprisingly, the road power of Italy’s Elia Viviani was brought to bear in a dominant victory in the Points Race. The Liquigas-Cannondale rider, who was one of the most successful sprinters in the early races of the road season, was one of a group of four riders - along with Spain’s Eloy Teruel, Canada’s Zach Bell, and Korea’s Cho Ho Sung - to take a lap in the race. Three sprint victories gave Viviani the victory however, ahead of Teruel and Bell.
Disappointing results in the Elimination for most of the front runners though, put O’Shea in pole position at the end of day one, as the Australian took second place. Clancy, who’d been in joint first place after the first two events, could only manage tenth place in one of his least favourite events before being pulled out. Viviani looked to be going much better, but was eliminated in ninth for dangerous riding, as he and O’Shea went head to head down the home straight; the Australian was also warned but allowed to continue.
Bell, who’d shared the lead with Clancy and O’Shea was the next rider out, leaving just riders from further down the order to compete with the Australian for the win. The battle for the last four, lost by Gijs Van Hoecke of Belgium, took so much out of Poland’s Rafal Ratajdzyk that he was forced to sit up and let O’Shea and France’s Bryan Coquard fight it out for the victory.
After a brief period of watching one another, like a pair of match sprinters, Coquard went for a long one and managed to hold on for the win. Two points for his second place gives O’Shea a total of just ten points at the halfway stage however, six clear of Bell, and eight ahead of Clancy.
Result Flying Lap
1. Ed Clancy (Great Britain) 12.881
2. Shane Archbold (New Zealand) 13.086
3. Glenn O’Shea (Australia) 13.137
4. Bryan Coquard (France) 13.168
5. Zach Bell (Canada) 13.270
Result Points Race
1. Elia Viviani (Italy) 43pts
2. Eloy Teruel (Spain) 34
3. Zach Bell (Canada) 29
4. Cho Ho Sung (Korea) 26
5. Glenn O’Shea (Australia) 17
Result Elimination Race
1. Bryan Coquard (France)
2. Glenn O’Shea (Australia)
3. Rafal Ratajdzyk (Poland)
4. Gijs Van Hoecke (Belgium)
5. Cho Ho Sung (Korea)
Standings after day one
1. Glenn O’Shea (Australia) 10pts
2. Zach Bell (Canada) 16
3. Ed Clancy (Great Britain) 18
4. Elia Viviani (Italy) 19
5. Cho Ho Sung (Korea) 19