Melbourne Madison - IM

Melbourne, Australia, April 25, 2001

Renshaw and Wooldridge combine to take Melbourne Madison

By John Doggett-Williams, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Renshaw and Wooldridge
Photo: © Guy Sansom/CN

All eyes were on the duo of Olympians Brett Aitken and Brett Lancaster in the Melbourne Madison. Aitken, 30, was part of Australia's only Olympic track Gold in the event last September and Lancaster a member of the host nation's team pursuit.

Japan's Kouji Yoshii lined up, and despite not yet acclimatising to the Southern hemisphere, he and partner Tim Decker showed early aggression.

The madison is a gruelling cominbation of endurance and speed. With sprint points up for grabs every ten laps riders are reliant on their partners to gain speed by being slung into the action.

The sprints are important but the overall winner is determined by who crosses the line first and not necessarily who leads on the sprint table. If one or more teams gain a lap on the field, then they are the only ones able to contest the win.

Tonight's winning combination of 18 year old Mark Renshaw and 23 year old Stephen Wooldridge were both from New South Wales.

Packed tight
Photo: © Guy Sansom/CN

After 84 laps however, another NSW pair of Keiran Cameron and Jono Davis stole a lap on the field and looked set to cause a boilover. But Renshaw and Wooldridge mounted their counter-attack with little more than a third of the race remaining. They had dominated the sprints winning eight of the 25 on offer.

Woolridge secured the lead with 84 laps to go and their suprerior speed won them the race in 1 hour 15 minutes and two seconds.

The time for the 60 kilometres was nine minutes slower than Aitken and Scott McGrory's Olympic fairy tale. Aitken struggled with cramps from halfway through the race. "It was pretty tough going for me. It's been a long year and not many miles in the legs, so going into tonight it was always going to be hard. But I was hoping to do a bit better than what I did tonight (third)."

Lancaster and Aitken
Photo: © Guy Sansom/CN

"The race really wasn't that quick and by halfway I had cramping in the legs and I knew I was in trouble. It was more a race of survival to me."

How's it been since the Olympics?

It's been difficult - difficult motivation wise and setting new goals for myself. Yeah it's just one of those things that I've had to deal with and hopefully I can just come back from things. I think this will certainly help urge me onto redeem myself after tonight."

What's coming next?

"The Goodwill Games in Brisbane and the World Champs in September. I'll have to assess what my conditon will be like at that time."

One of tonight's winners, Mark Renshaw, described the comparatively new track as "pretty fast...it was important to have as much speed as I do."

Results - 60 km

1 Mark Renshaw/Steven Wooldridge (NSW)    65 pts
2 Keiran Cameron/Jonathon Davis (NSW)     19

1 lap behind

3 Brett Aitken (SA)/Brett Lancaster (Vic) 57
4 J Clarke/D Tanner (Vic)                 34

Time: 1.15.02