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Los Angeles Track World Cup - CDM
ADT Velodrome, Carson, California, USA, January 20-22, 2006
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Session 4 - Evening, Saturday January 21: Men: Sprint final; team pursuit final; points race final, Women: individual pursuit final; 500m TT final
Gold times two for Russia, one each to USA, Belarus and France
By Rob Jones in Los Angeles
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Five finals took place on Saturday evening, Day 2 of the Los Angeles Track World Cup, the third round of the World Cup series. There were no surprises in any of the finals, with the strongest riders coming to the fore in each case.
Gregory Bauge (Fra) was the fastest rider in the men's Sprint, seemingly able to win at will, from the back or the front. He had a turn of speed a step higher than anyone else in the race, although it was his team mate Mickael Bourgain who gave him the most difficulty in the Final.
"I expected that the final would be Bourgain, so it wasn't a surprise that it worked out that way. It was important to do well in the 200 metre (qualifier) for a good position. All the rides took effort, but the last one, against Bourgain - he is really strong and experienced, so it became a mental game to be in the proper position."
The win is Bauge's first ever World Cup victory. "I'm very happy to win. I have been racing four years now, learning more and more how to race (on the track), and this shows that it is coming."
The United States took its second medal of the meet in the men's sprint, with 20 year old Michael Blatchford taking the bronze medal against Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Pol) in two straight rides. Kwiatkowski protested the second ride, arguing that Blatchford had ridden up into him coming into the third corner of the last lap, but the officials said that the outcome of the race had not been affected.
World Cup series leaders Russia took the Team Pursuit title against the Netherlands, while Spain beat New Zealand for the bronze. The Russians managed to knock 3 seconds off their qualifying time in the final.
In the women's 500 M time trial, world champion Natallia Tsylinskaya (Blr) added another win to the sprint title she took yesterday, with a time of 34.426. Tsylinskaya and silver medalist Shuang Guo (Chn) were the only riders to go under 35 seconds.
Sarah Hammer added another medal to the U.S. tally with adominating performance in the women's 3000M Pursuit final, against Maria Calle Williams (Col), the Olympic bronze medalist. Hammer looked for a while as if she might catch Calle Williams, but faded a bit in the final 1000 metres. With her win (and a second in Manchester), the local southern California rider took the lead in the World Cup series.
"I really wanted to win here and take over the lead, especially in front of the hometown crowd. I was pretty sure that I could do it, but you never go into these things too confident - you know; plan for second and hope for first. I was definitiely hurting towards the end, but I was able to hold it together because I could see her (Calle Williams) during the race."
Hammer's overall title isn't assured, because she won't be attending the World Cup final in Sydney, preferring to stay home and train for the world championships.
The evening ended with the men's 30 kilometre Points Race; 120 laps with sprints every 10 laps. Olympic champion Mikhail Ignatiev won with a consistent performance, steadily racking up points. He was one of four riders able to take a lap on the field, so it became important to take points on as many intermediate sprints as possible, and Ignatiev did this with ease, scoring points in four sprints, and winning two of them. Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre) finished second, the same position as at last year's world championships on the same track, and Joan Llaneras (Spa) third.
"At first I didn't work or chase down anybody", explained Ignatiev. "Towards the middle of the race, when the Spanish rider took off then I started to attack. He was the most dangerous rider to me. The group broke up and we were chasing; I was at the front but I couldn't do it by myself. Four riders came up to me and we worked together to get back to the front."
Ignatiev had a busy night - riding in the Team Pursuit at the beginning of the night and then the Points Race at the end. He won't contest the final in Sydney, since he joins his professional road team (Tinkoff Restaurants) at the end of the month in Portugal for a training camp and races in February.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com
- Team Russia goes for gold in the team pursuit
- Gregory Bauge (France) makes quick work of Michael Blatchford (USA)
- Michael Blatchford (USA) gets ready to dismount
- Suang Guo (China) secures the silver medal
- Michael Blatchford (USA)
- The two Frenchmen Gregory Bauge & Mickael Bourgain start the game in front of a packed house
- Gregory Bauge (France) takes the gold
- And the award for the most pained face in the points race goes to Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus)
- Points race winner Mikhail Ignatiev
Images by Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com
- New Zealand at speed was still only 4th fast
- Spain going fast to get the Bronze
- Russia was top team
- Head down and going for it - Natallia Tsylinskaya at speed
- Word Champ and World Cup leader Tsylinskaya is very happy
- Russia’s Yulia Arustamova was 3rd
- Dale Tye ended up 4th
- Maria Luisa Calle Williams was just not up to speed against Hammer
- USA’s Sarah Hammer won the pursuit in a time of 3:41.512 and is now the World Cup Leader
- Bourgain leads Bauge in front of a packed ADT Center Velodrome
- Bauge gets the win over Bourgain
- Ioannis Tamouridis after his crash – sure looks banged up
- Mike Friedman (TIAA-CREF) - this was the first time trade teams have been represented at a US World Cup
- Spain's Joan Llaneras Rossello got 3rd in the points race
Images by Mike Gladu/www.velodrome.com
- Bauge and Blatchford in the semi-finals may be a preview of a future sprint final
- Spain rides to Bronze in the team pursuit final against New Zealand
- New Zealand takes fourth in the Team Pursuit Final agains Spain
- Jason Allen leads New Zealand against Spain in the Team Pursuit Final for Bronze.
- The Netherlands driving home against Russia for Silver.
- Bauge prepares for his second ride against Blatchford, held by Florian Rousseau
- Blatchford sees some humor in taking on the top seed, Bauge
- Bauge leads out the second ride in front of the full house
- Shang Guo (CHN) on her way to Silver in the 500m TT
- Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) out of the saddle on her first half lap
- Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) survived a timing equipment malfunction and a second start to claim the Gold with a (34.426).
- The Netherlands, Russia and Spain - Mens Team Pursuit Podium
- Yulia Arustamova (RUS) takes home Bronze in the Pursuit with a 3.47.711
- Dale Tye (NZL) in fourth with a 3.52.468
- Sarah Hammer (USA) counts down the 50 seconds to her start
- Maria Luisa Calle Williams (COL) is a picture of focus on the way to silver
- Hammer seals the pursuit win with a new track record 3.41.512
- Blatchford extends to the line to take the first ride against Lukasz Kwiatkowski (POL) in the Final for Bronze
- Guo, Tsylinskaya, Hijgenaar - Womens 500m TT Podium
- Sanchez, Tsylinskaya, Guo - Womens Sprint Podium left over from Day 1
- Calle Williams, Hammer, Arustamova - Womens Pursuit Podium
- Kwiatkowsi evens up the Bronze medal hunt against Blatchford (USA)
- Grégory Bauge and Mickaël Bourgain (both FRA) put on a show for the Gold medal sprint final
- Bauge takes ride one in the gold medal sprint final
- Juan Llaneras (ESP) takes a pull on the way to third place in the Points race final
- Mikhail Ignatiev (RUS) checks the scoreboard near the end of his Gold medal ride in the points race
- Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE) (left) had a flat, crashed, and still had the good fortune to take Silver in the Points race
- Ignatiev basks in the glory of the win
- Blatchford takes Bronze in the match sprint when Kwiatkowski pulls up short
- Blatchford cooling down after being handed the Bronze
- Tamouridis, Ignatiev, Llaneras - Mens Points podium
- Bourgain, Bauge, Blatchford - Mens Sprint podium
Results
Men's team pursuit final Gold 1 Russia 4.08.726 (57.895km/h) Serguey Klimov Ivan Rovny Alexander Serov Nikolay Trussov 2 Netherlands 4.11.531 (57.249km/h) Levi Heimans Geert-Jan Jonkman Jens Mouris Niki Terpstra Bronze 1 Spain 4.10.098 (57.577km/h) Sergio Escobar Roure Guillermo Ferrer Garcia Sebastian David Muntaner Juaneda Carlos Torrent Tarres 2 New Zealand 4.13.210 (56.869km/h) Jason Allen Sam Bewley Richard Bowker Darren Peter Shea Men sprint 5-8 final 5 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 11.168 (64.469km/h) 6 José A. Villanueva Trinidad (Spain) 7 Tim Veldt (Netherlands) 8 Travis Smith (Canada) Semi-finals Heat 1 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 11.156 11.142 2 Michael Blatchford (USA) Heat 2 1 Mickaël Bourgain (France) 11.076 11.109 2 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) Final Gold 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 11.159 10.944 2 Mickaël Bourgain (France) Bronze 1 Michael Blatchford (USA) 11.030 11.185 2 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.893 Women's individual pursuit final Gold 1 Sarah Hammer (USA) 3.41.512 (48.755km/h) 2 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Colombia) 3.46.114 (47.763km/h) Bronze 1 Yulia Arustamova (Russia) 3.47.711 (47.428km/h) 2 Dale Tye (New Zealand) 3.52.468 (46.458km/h) Women's 500m time trial 1 Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus) 34.426 (52.286km/h) 2 Shuang Guo (China) 34.824 (51.688km/h) 3 Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) 35.182 (51.162km/h) 4 Elisa Frisoni (Italy) 35.242 (51.075km/h) 5 Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) 35.275 (51.027km/h) 6 Katrin Meinke (Germany) 35.410 (50.833km/h) 7 Tamilla Abassova (Russia) 35.558 (50.621km/h) 8 Kerrie Meares (Australia) 35.813 (50.261km/h) 9 Clara Sanchez (France) 35.968 (50.044km/h) 10 Nancy Contreras (Mexico) 36.010 (49.986km/h) 11 Magdalena Sara (Poland) 36.259 (49.642km/h) 12 Diana Maria Garcia Orrego (Colombia) 36.918 (48.756km/h) Men's points race 1 Mikhail Ignatiev (Russia) 34 2 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 30 3 Joan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 28 4 Volodymyr Rubin (Ukraine) 25 5 Sergey Kolesnikov (Rus) Omnibike Dynamo Moscow 13 6 Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus) 11 7 Sebastian Cancio (Argentina) 10 8 Carlos Manuel Hernandez (Mexico) 10 9 Michael Mørkøv (Denmark) 7 10 Michael Friedman (USA) TIAA-CREF 5 11 Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 5 12 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 5 13 Jonathan Mouchel (France) 14 Kam Po Wong (Hong-Kong) 15 Niki Terpstra (Netherlands) -8 16 Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic) -11 17 Maximo Rojas (Venezuela) -15 18 Kyle Swain (South Africa) -20 19 Jozef Zabka (Slovakia) -20
