Glasgow Track World Cup: Day One Wrap

The first ever World Cup event to be held at the brand new Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland was a mixed one for the home nation as its women continued to deliver but its men struggled.

Denmark takes Men’s Team Pursuit as the host nation crashes out
Fastest qualifier Denmark (Casper Folsach, Lasse Norman HAnsen, Mathias Nielsen and Rasmus Quaade) caught Germany (Lucas Liss, Henning Bommel, Theo Reinhardt and Kersten Thiele) in the final race to take the gold medal, as the German team fell to pieces. Down to three just after the second kilometre was completed, the Germans dropped a second rider with a few laps still to ride and, as the other two were forced to sit up and wait, the four men of Denmark swept by.

Belgium (Kenny De Ketele, Jasper de Buyst, Moreno De Pauw and Cijs Van Hoecke) easily overcame Spain (Asier Maeztu, Sebastian Mora, DAvis Muntaner and Illart Zuazubiskar) in the ride off for the bronze medal, despite the Spanish qualifying slightly faster.

Disaster struck in qualifying for the young Great Britain team - of Owain Doull, Sam Harrison, Joe Kelly and Andy Tennant - riding in its home World Cup, as there was a touch of wheels and all-bar Doull came down halfway through the third kilometre. The British quartet had been second fastest up to that point, but failed to finish and missed out on the final rounds.

Result Men’s Team Pursuit
1. Denmark
2. Germany
3. Belgium
4. Spain

A first gold on the night for Great Britain in the Women’s Team Sprint
A flying second lap from Becky James saw her and Great Britain teammate Jess Varnish take the host nation’s first gold of the event, as they easily overcame the Spanish duo of Tania Calvo and Helena Casas. Spain was two-thousandths of a second up after the first lap, but the fastest-qualifying British were not beaten and James managed to take almost seven tenths out of her rival and get a comfortable victory.

The French duo of Sandie Clair and Olivia Montauban easily beat the Russian pair of Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiya Voynova to take bronze.

Result Women’s Team Sprint
1. Great Britain
2. Spain
3. France
4. Russia

Great Britain keeps the momentum going in the Women’s Team Pursuit
The Great Britain trio of World and Olympic champions Laura Trott and Dani King, with World junior time trial champion Elinor Barker made amends for an untidy end to its qualification ride to take a hard fought victory over the Australian team of Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins.

The British trio started faster, only for the Australians to take the lead at the end of the first kilometre; Australia led for most of the second kilometre by around a quarter of a second, before the British accelerated into the closing laps to take victory by almost a second.

Following a close opening kilometre, Belarus (Tatsiana Sharakova, Alena Dyklo and Aksana Papko) moved almost two seconds clear of Lithuania (Ausrine Trebaite, Vaide Pikauskaite and Vilija Sereikaite) in the second, and managed to hold on to most of that lead to the finish to take the bronze.

Result Women’s Team Pursuit
1. Great Britain
2. Australia
3. Belarus
4. Lithuania

Germany silences the home crowd in the Men’s Team Sprint
The German trio of Rene Enders, Robert Forstemann and Stefan Boetticher silenced the crowd that had just witnessed two straight home victories, by taking victory over the Great Britain team of Olympic champions Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny with Team Pursuit and Omnium specialist Ed Clancy.

Enders managed to take a lead of almost four-tenths in the opening lap, which, despite the best efforts of the British riders, was still more than a quarter of a second by the end of the race.

In the ride off for the bronze medal France (Julien Palma, Kevin Sireau and Quentin Lafarge) took the lead over Poland (Grzegorz Drejgier, Rafal Sarnecki and Krzysztof Maksel) at the end of the first lap, which kept growing right to the end.

Result Men’s Team Sprint
1. Germany
2. Great Britain
3. France
4. Poland

Former World champion Panarina takes Women’s 500 Metres
Belarusian 2011 World champion Olga Panarina took victory in the women’s 500 metre time trial, with a time of 34.121, which was almost two-tenths of a second quicker than Germany’s Kristina Vogel.

Russian Anastasiya Voynova posted the fastest time at the 250 metre point, but faded in the final lap, and it was Spain’s Tania Calvo - riding on the opposite side of the track - that took the bronze medal.

Having only just taken victory in the Team Sprint, Great Britain’s Jess Varnish was bidding for a second medal of the night, but could only manage sixth.

Result Women’s 500 Metre Time Trial
1. Olga Panarina (Belarus)
2. Kristina Vogel (Germany)
3. Tania Calvo (Spain)
4. Anastasiya Voynova (Russia)
5. Wai Sze Lee (Hong Kong)

Powerful sprint earns Tristan Marguet the Men’s Scratch Race
Constant attacking in the Men’s Scratch Race was not to be enough to prevent the contest finishing in a sprint, which was taken by a powerful surge from Switzerland’s Tristan Marguet. Ireland’s Martin Irvine, who had been one of the big attackers in the race managed to sprint to second, with the Netherlands Roy Eefting in third.

A big move midway through the race from Poland’s Wojciech Pszczolarski looked to have taken a group of seven riders far enough clear for them to take a lap on the field but, as they were pulled back, Irvine made his own big move. The Irishman was caught and passed by Austria’s Andreas Müller and Hong Kong’s Cheung King Lok, but they too were reeled back with just over six laps left.

Martin Blaha of the Czech Republic put in a massive solo attack with just over five laps to go, and looked to have done enough to take victory; he faded in the final lap however, as the bunch was lining up for the sprint, and Marguet burst clear to take the win.

Result Men’s Scratch Race
1. Tristan Marguet (Switzerland)
2. Martin Irvine (Ireland)
3. Roy Eefting (Netherlands)
4.Theo Reinhardt (Germany)
5. Simon Yates (Great Britain)

Unai Elorriaga takes control of Men’s Omnium at halfway
Germany’s Lucas Liss took an early lead in the Men’s Omnium, with a victory in the Flying Lap event, with Switzerland’s Olivier Beer in second, and World champion Glenn O’Shea of Australia in third.

Despite finishing second-last in the Flying Lap, taking five laps over the field meant that Ukraine Volodymyr Kogut moved into overall contention with victory in the Scratch Race. Spain’s Unai Elorriaga and Belgian Six-Day specialist Kenny De Ketele both managed to take more points than Kogut, but both could only take four laps and so had to settle for second and third respectively.

Elorriaga took the lead at the end of day one however, as he held off O’Shea to take the Elimination Race. Both riders had stuck close to the front of the bunch - as many of their rivals played cat and mouse at the back behind them - with O’Shea right at the head of affairs until the race came down to the two riders.

Ondrej Rybin of the Czech Republic sat up exhausted as soon as it was clear that he was guaranteed at least third, and O’Shea pushed Elorriaga to the front. The Spanish rider was happy with the lead however, and managed to hold off the Australian World champion to take victory and the single point.

Result Men’s Omnium Flying Lap
1. Lucas Liss (Germany)
2. Olivier Beer (Switzerland)
3. Glenn O’Shea (Australia)
4. Tim Veldt (Netherlands)
5. Jonathan Dibben (Great Britain)

Result Men’s Omnium Points Race
1. Volodymyr Kogut (Ukraine)
2. Unai Elorriaga (Spain)
3. Kenny De Ketele (Belgium)
4. Olivier Beer (Switzerland)
5. Kwok Ho Ting (Hong Kong)

Result Men’s Omnium Elimination Race
1. Unai Elorriaga (Spain)
2. Glenn O’Shea (Australia)
3. Ondrej Rybin (Czech Republic)
4. Lucas Liss (Germany)
5. Alexey Lyalko (Kazakhstan)

Men’s Omnium Standings after three of six events
1. Unai Elorriaga (Spain) 10pts
2. Lucas Liss (Germany) 14
3. Olivier Beer (Switzerland) 15
4. Glenn O’Shea (Australia) 17
5. Kenny De Ketele (Belgium) 22