Oceania Games - CCSydney, Australia, December 8-16, 1999 |
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Mens Keirin - Oceania Mens Keirin - International Madison Womens Points Race Mens U19 Points Race Track Day 5 - December 12, 1999Anthony Peden rode a brilliant tactical race to win the final of the Keirin in the Oceania Division and in doing so, claimed a second spot for New Zealand in the keirin at the olympics next year. Peden and team mate Gavin Lee were outnumbered by four Australians in the final, but he claimed the wheel of Australian sprinter Gary Niewand on the final laps and took the final sprint to cross the line first by several centimetres, followed by Kane Nelin and Jeff Hopkins of Australia. As they wound up for the finish Niewand was on the front and looked around to see a former team mate - now wearing the black and white strip of New Zealand - ready to take the lead out. "Anthony was a good tactician and got in on a wheel where he wasn't meant to be. Our guys had bigger gears on to win," Niewand said. According to Niewand, an Australian was meant to be in his slipstream, hence his early lead out. Although he would not identify the nominated rider, Australians took the silver and bronze, while Sean Eadie, forced to come around the outside on the final laps, was caught out of the placings. Niewand later told the press it was his idea to use himself as the lead out man, as he expected the two Kiwi riders would be wary of him. "I can't be the pea all the time," he said. "I was the one who called it," he said of their plan, but "some of the 'younger seniors' didn't show enough commitment". Niewand would not be drawn on whether "commitment" meant that some of the Australians were unwilling to sacrifice their chances for the plan, but it has to be said that Peden rode an excellent tactical race in his favourite event. "I really didn't think that I should have won," Peden said. "There were four Australians and I was waiting for the Niewand surge." After the race Australian track manager Gary West was clearly disappointed Australia had lost the final event of the evening and track meet, but more so that it had cost a second berth in the keirin at the olympics. "A number of the riders didn't have the discipline and commitment," he said. It seems this event will go down on some riders' permanent records, but for all the wrong reasons. Third-place getter Kane Selin later told cyclingnews, "when everyone wants to win, that's when things go bad". Qualifying Rounds Heat 1 Time Speed 1 Sean Eadie (Aus) 11.403 63.16 2 Kane Selin (Aus) 3 Anthony Peden (NZ) 4 Olivier Haas (NCal) 5 Mathew Anderson (NZ) Heat 2 1 Gary Niewand (Aus) 11.619 62.02 2 Jeff Hopkins (Aus) 3 Gavin Lee (NZ) 4 Nicolas Schneider (NCal) Final 1 Anthony Peden (NZ) 11.33 63.55 2 Jeff Hopkins (Aus) 3 Kane Selin (Aus) 4 Gary Niewand (Aus) 5 Gavin Lee (NZ) 6 Sean Eadie (Aus)Frenchman Arnaud Tournant took his fourth gold of the Oceania Games with another convincing win in the international keirin, ahead of Czech rider Pavel Buran and Australian Danny Day. The rider from Roubaix in France continued to ride with enthusiasm, given the time of year and his hectic schedule over the five days, where he had been on the track each day. Nonetheless, he still took out some of the earlier rounds by bike lengths when he was clearly in the lead. Still in good form after his wins at the World Track Championships in Berlin in November, he was clearly untouchable at the Oceania Games. Indeed, the entire French team delivered an ominous warning to any other nation with their sights set on olympic golds next year. Qualifying Rounds Heat 1 Time Speed 1 Herve Gane (NCal) 11.216 64.23 2 Pavel Buran (Cze) 3 Gabriele Gentile (Ita) 4 Jinhong Gao (Chn) Heat 2 1 Arnaud Tournant (Fra) 11.052 65.16 2 Danny Day (Aus) 3 Roberto Chiappa (Ita) 4 Grzegorz Krejner (Pol) 5 Ruwei Li (Chn) Heat 3 1 Vincent Le Quellec (Fra) 10.983 65.57 2 Shane Kelly (Aus) 3 Jaroslav Jerabek (Svk) 4 Yunsheng Yang (Chn) 5 Konrad Czajkowski (Pol) 2nd Round Heat 1 1 Roberto Chiappa (Ita) 11.363 63.38 2 Herve Gane (NCal) 3 Danny Day (Aus) 4 Vincent Le Quellec (Fra) 5 Konrad Czajkowski (Pol) 6 Yunsheng Yang (Chn) Heat 2 1 Arnaud Tournant (Fra) 10.726 67.16 2 Grzegorz Krejner (Pol) 3 Pavel Buran (Cze) 4 Shane Kelly (Aus) 5 Gabriele Gentile (Ita) 6 Jaroslav Jerabek (Svk) Final 1 Arnaud Tournant (Fra) 11.097 64.92 2 Pavel Buran (Cze) 3 Danny Day (Aus) 4 Grzegorz Krejner (Pol) 5 Roberto Chiappa (Ita) 6 Herve Gane (NCal) Not content with lapping the field by two laps, it appeared the French team of Robert Sassonne and Damien Pommerau were looking to lap the field for a third time in the closing stages of the Madison. "We knew that we had one lap up, but we thought maybe that might not be enough, so went for another lap," said Pommerau. "It was Robert's idea." The smooth teamwork from their recent six day experiences in Gent and Munich showed tonight as the shaven-headed duo took a lap out of the bunch at the half-way mark and went on to win easily. The Australians took the silver and the New Caledonia 1 team of J Goyetche Julien Tejada took the bronze, winning two sprints out of the eight on offer during the 160 lap race. With one sprint every 20 laps earning five points, the Australians put on a good display of chasing and sprinting but were caught out by the in-form French duo.While the Russians rode well in the points race the previous evening, tonight they were very quiet. Although one of the Russians crashed early on but later rejoined the race, they did not make use of the two teams they had entered and let the French rider pull away. "Individually they are good," said Pommerau of the Russians, "but their technique in the relay (hand sling) was very poor." "Maybe the crash early on took the sting out of one them," commented Australian Ashley Hutchinson, who claimed four of the eight sprints, including the final lap. He and Dawson were only selected to race the madison the day before, after Brett Aitken returned to Adelaide and Scott McGrory decided against competing. If the race had run its full distance, it could have been an even bigger win for the dominant French squad. However, organisers decided to first reduce the race from its planned 240 laps (60km) length ot 50km, and then finally made it a 40km event, somewhat out of sympathy for some tired riders after five days of competition at the end of the season. Perhaps the officials had also become tired, as the 'one-lap-to-go' bell rang out at lap 31, mid way through the scheduled sprints on the 40th and 20th laps. It also coincided with the French team taking yet another lap out of the bunch, but the sprint was not counted in the final points tally. Madison 40km (160 laps, ten sprints)
1 FRANCE 11
Damien Pommerau
Robert Sassonne
2 AUSTRALIA
Brent Dawson 32 - 2 laps
Ashley Hutchinson
3 NEW CALEDONIA 1 18 - 2 laps
4 UNITED STATES 18 - 2 laps
Jame Carne
Mike Tillman
5 NEW ZEALAND 7 - 2 laps
Anthony Chapman
Dayle Cheatly
6 ITALY 6 - 2 laps
Maurizo Biondo
Devid Garbelli
7 RUSSIA 1 5 - 2 laps
Edouard Gritsoune
Alexie Markov
8 NEW CALEDONIA 2 - 4 laps
Mike Michel-Villaz
Christian Perron
9 RUSSIA 2 - 5 laps
Denis Smyslov
Serguei Klimov
Sprinter Lyndelle Higginson took out her third gold medal of the Oceania Games with a surprise win in the 25km Womens Points race, finishing ahead of fellow Australians Sandra Smith and Rochell Gilmore. Higginson sat in the bunch as no rider was able to break away and lap the field. Using her tactical skills as a sprinter, she saved her legs as race favourite Sandra Smith spent much of the race near the front. On the final laps, Smith was well placed except for Higginson sitting on her wheel. When the sprinter surprised the bunch and jumped out of the bunch as they entered the final lap, Smith was unable to respond and the Victorian won easily. "I have to improve my tactics. I've never been in a points race where a sprinter has won, so it's a learning experience," said the Western Australian rider after the finish. Higginson claimed five of the ten sprints, with Smith taking two and Gilmore one. The result was a reversal of the Scratch Race held the previous night, where Smith claimed the gold and Higginson won her second silver for the meet, in addition to her three gold medals. Womens Points Race
1 Lyndelle Higginson (Aus) 38
2 Sandra Smith (Aus) 32
3 Rochelle Gilmore (Aus) 25
4 Kate Bates (Aus) 11
5 Rebecca Quinn (USA) 3
6 Fiona Dwyer (Aus) 1
7 Annalisa Farrell (NZL) 1
8 Toireasa Ryan (Aus)
Tanya Lindenmuth (USA) DNF
Joanne Kiesanowski (NZL) DNF
Mens U19 Points Race - 10km (100 laps), ten sprints 1 Mark Renshaw (Aus) 26 2 Jonathan Davis (Aus) 22 3 Hayden Roulston (NZ) 21 4 Joel Leonard (Aus) 15 5 Greg Ardell (NZ) 12 6 Andrew Mason (Aus) 6 7 Steeve Clavier (NCal) 5 8 Jason Allen (NZ) 4 9 Rory Sutherland (Aus) 3 10 Danny Rutherford (Aus) 3 11 Nicolas Nagle (NCal) 1 12 Jerry Bousquet (NCal) 13 Ken Nicholls (NCal) 14 Yohan Honore (NCal) - 2 laps 15 Chris Boerson (NZ) DNF 16 Marc Ryan (NZ) DNF
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