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Los Angeles Track World Cup - CDM

ADT Velodrome, Carson, California, USA, January 19-21, 2007

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Session 5 - Morning, Sunday, January 21: Women: Scratch final; keirin final, Men: team sprint final; Madison final

Hammer hits World Cup hard

By Rob Jones

Sarah Hammer and Rebecca Quinn
Photo ©: Mitch Friedman
(Click for larger image)

The Los Angeles round of the Track World Cup concluded on Sunday, with hometown favourite Sarah Hammer (Team Ouch) winning her third gold medal of the weekend in the Women's Scratch Race. Hammer's single-person team also took top honours for the entire World Cup with four gold medals won, and ranked fourth among 'nations' for total medals. A total of four medal events took place on the final day, concluding with the men's Team Sprint, won by Great Britain.

Madison

The Danish duo of Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen dominated the 160 lap (40 kilometre) Madison final, taking two laps and winning four of eight sprint competitions. The only two teams able to finish on the same lap were second place Belgium duo Kenny de Ketele and Steve Schets with 6 points and third place Russians Konstantin Ponomarev and Alexey Shmidt with 5 points. Argentina, Ukraine, Italy and Netherlands finished one lap down, with the remainder a further lap behind.

The constant attacks and counterattacks splintered the field quickly, making it difficult to keep track of who was on which lap. Perennial favourites Argentina managed to gain a single lap, but were stymied in their efforts to take a second lap and finished just out of the medals in fourth place.

Rasmussen was one of the riders on the Danish Team Pursuit squad which had to re-ride the qualifier after crashing at the three-quarter mark. The team then lost a gold medal chance when the team blew apart while going head-to-head with the Ukrainian team.

"It was definitely a good feeling today because I was so disappointed after the team pursuit," said Rasmussen. "We were definitely the strongest in the pursuit but we just had a bad day. So it was good to get a win."

Women's Keirin

The first round of the Keirin gave a clear indication of who was going well, with the four heat winners moving on to the final. Guo Shuang (China), Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands), Clara Sanchez (France) and world champion Daniela Larreal (Venezuela) were joined in the final by Jennie Reed (USA) and Sandie Claire (France). Guo went to the front after the pace bike pulled off and held the inside line all the way to the finish line. Larreal managed to put on a burst of speed in the final lap and edged in front at the line, while Reed followed Larreal to take third behind Guo.

Women's Scratch Race

Sarah Hammer on here way
Photo ©: Mitch Friedman
(Click for larger image)

Last year, Sarah Hammer won the scratch race by going to the front with 12 laps to go and keeping the speed high enough to discourage anyone from passing her. This year, after winning both the Points race and the Pursuit, in a US record time, the Temecula, California rider started more slowly in the scratch, sitting at the back for most of the race.

Despite a few tentative breakaway attempts, the field seemed content to roll around the track, setting up for a final sprint to the line. It wasn't until five laps to go that Hammer made her move, heading straight to the front, with team mate Rebecca Quinn on her wheel. Once at the front, she kept up a fierce pace, and no one could overtake. Adrie Visser (Netherlands) tried on the back straight, and managed to pull level before dropping back slightly in the final corners to hang on for third.

"The best thing about Becky is you don't mess with her when she's fighting for a wheel," commented Hammer. "We had no plan going into it, but it's kind of that unspoken thing where she knows what I'm going to do and I know what she's going to do, and so we're a pretty dangerous duo, I think."

"Coming in, I wanted to win all three, but in reality whether or not that would happen, you never know. This morning I woke up and didn't even want to do the scratch race because I was getting tired both physically and mentally. But once I get on the start line, I'm ready to go."

Men's Team Sprint

Lead out rider Gregory Bauge is up high watching
Photo ©: Mitch Friedman
(Click for larger image)

The final in the men's team sprint pitted Great Britain against France, with the second British squad, ScienceinSport.com, going against Germany for the bronze. Matthew Crompton, Chris Hoy and Janie Staff were pitted against Gregory Bauge, Francois Pervis and Kevin Sireau for gold, and were neck-and-neck after the first lap.

Halfway into their second lap, Sireau rolled his front tire and went down hard, forcing a restart. In the re-run, Bauge put France in the lead after one lap, but Hoy put the Brits into the lead on the second lap, and Crompton maintained it to the finish.

Afterwards, Hoy admitted that he wasn't used to racing as many events, and the fatigue after the restart made it difficult. "It was tough, but it was the same for all of us, and the French guy must have been pretty sore," noted Hoy. "The most frustrating part for me was that we have been spending a lot of time working on our transitions, and I think I got it perfect in the ride that was stopped!"

"When I hit the back straight on the final second lap my legs were jelly. The day before, I really felt the fatigue more and more through the day as the sprinting went on, so I had nothing left to give against Chiappa (Italy). I know that I have to work on being able to make multiple efforts. The speed is there - I qualified fastest - but I'm more used to making one big effort."

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com

Images by Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com

Images by Michael Grundmann/www.michaelgrundmann.com

Results

Women's Scratch final
 
1 Sarah Hammer (USA) Ouch Pro Cycling                       
2 Rebecca Quinn (USA)                                       
3 Adrie Visser (Ned)                                        
4 Yulia Arustamova (Rus) Moscow                             
5 Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita)                                  
6 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spa)                             
7 Yumari Gonzalez Valdinieso (Cub)                          
8 Olga Slyusareva (Rus)                                     
9 Yoanka Gonzalez Perez (Cub)                               
10 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spa) Cespa - Eustrak.Com     
11 Tess Downing (Aus) Drapac Porsche                        
12 Pascale Schnider (Swi)                                   
13 Kate Cullen (GBr) Recycling.Co.Uk                        
14 Debora Galvez Lopez (Spa)                                
15 Monia Baccaille (Ita)                                    
16 Jarmila Machacova (Cze)                                  
17 Belem Guerrero Mdez (Mex)                                
18 Gina Grain (Can)                                         
19 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Col)                         
20 Tatiana Antoshina (Rus)                                  
21 Verena Joos (Ger)                                        
22 Charlotte Becker (Ger)                                   
23 Cathy Moncassin (Fra)                                    
24 Marllijn Binnendijk (Ned)                                
 
Women's Keirin final
 
N/A


Men's Team Sprint final      
      
Gold Great Britain                     44.606 (60,529 km/h)    
 Matthew Crampton      
 Chris Hoy      
 Jamie Staff      
Silver France                          44.913    
 Gregory Bauge      
 François Pervis      
 Kévin Sireau      
Bronze Scienceinsport.Com              44.725    
 Edgar Ross     
 Jason Kenny      
 Jason Queally     
4 Germany                              45.015    
 Carsten Bergemann      
 Robert Forstemann     
 René Wolff      
5 Australia     
6 Poland     
7 Japan     
8 China     
9 United States     
10 Spain     
11 Canada     
12 Greece     
13 Malaysia     
14 Cuba     
15 Russia     
16 Switzerland     
17 Trinidad &Tobago     
18 Slovakia     
19 Puerto Rico     
      
Men's Madison final      
      
1 Denmark                                  20pts
 Michael Morkov      
 Alex Rasmussen      
2 Belgium                                   6    
 Kenny De Ketele      
 Steve Schets      
3 Russia                                    5    
 Konstantin Ponomarev      
 Alexey Shmidt      
      
1 lap down      
4 Argentina     
 Juan Esteban Curuchet      
 Walter Perez      
5 Ukraine     
 Lyubomyr Polatayko      
 Volodymyry Rybin      
6 Italy     
 Angelo Ciccone      
 Fabio Masotti      
7 Netherlands     
 Pim Ligthart      
 Jens Mouris      
      
2 laps down      
8 Moscow     
 Andrey Klyuev      
 Roman Maximov      
9 Spain     
 Asier Maeztu      
 Carlos Torrent Tarres      
10 Czech Republic     
 Martin Blaha      
 Jiri Hochmann      
11 Germany     
 Marcel Kalz      
 Christian Kux      
12 Canada     
 Martin Gilbert      
 Ryan Mckenzie     
13 Great Britain     
 Jonathan Bellis      
 Ross Sander      
14 Austria     
 Roland Garber      
 Andreas Graf      
15 Cespa Eustrak.Com     
 Aitor Alonso Granados      
 Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur      
      
4 laps down      
16 France     
 François Lamiraud      
 Alexandre Lemair