World Junior Track Cycling Championships - CDM

Australia, August 21-25 2002

Men's 30km Madison - August 25, 2002

No Madison blues for the French

By Karen Forman in Melbourne

Action a-plenty
Photo: © Mikkeli Godfree

The French team of Tom Thiblier and Mathiew Ladagnous raced away with Madison gold on the final night of the 2002 World Junior Track Cycling Championships, beating the Australians and the Germans. Thiblier and Ladagnous rode in a perfect illustration of teamsmanship to clinch the event.

The Australians, Jonny Clarke and Chris Sutton, were delighted with their silver medal and plan to ride the Madison again together - at the Australian Madison Championships in Melbourne early next year and at the famous Bendigo Madison.

Clarke, 17, of Victoria, described it as a "hectic, fast" event, which was "basically what we expected. The European races are very different to Australia," he said. "There is more start-go, nobody wants to sit on."

"Me and Chris have been doing specialised training for the sprints. Basically I set him up and he does them. A couple tonight worked to perfection; a couple didn't."

He said he had been quite nervous before the start, but "you give it your best. It is the first time the Madison has been on the program."

Sutton, of Sydney in New South Wales, said the event had been harder than what he had expected. "I thought that more laps would be taken," he said. "And I thought the Russians would be the ones to beat. I knew France would be in there to win as well."

Like Clarke, he said the pair had trained hard for the sprints and a couple had paid off. "We ride well together," he said. "I have always wanted to ride the madison with him and he has always wanted to ride the madison with me, so we got together and it has been good. We are planning to do the Australian championship and Bendigo".

Note: Chris Sutton was later fined 100 French francs for taking his hands of his handlebars in victory across the line. Commissaires had warned Sutton's teammate Mark French about the illegal activity in the keirin on the first night. He was not fined. However they figured the Australian team had had fair warning and Sutton copped a fine.

Photos

Photos by Tom Balks

• Chris Sutton gets a 100 Francs fine and a Silver medal
• Mathiew Ladagnous, half the French Madison team
• The other half of the French Madison team, Tom Thiblier
• Madison gold to the French
• The French team in the process of a handsling

Photos by Mikkeli Godfree

• Chris Sutton checks his lead
• Chris Sutton in the last turn
• Riders slinging, peeling off and heading for home
• Jonny Clarke heading for Silver
• The Aussies change over in the Madison

Results

1 France (Mathieu Ladagnous/Tom Thiblier)           22 pts
2 Australia (Jonny Clarke/Christopher Sutton)       16
3 Germany (Florian Piper/Sebastian Frey)            16
4 Russia (Mkhail Ignatiev/Nikolai Troussov)          8
5 Czech Republic (Richard Ondryas/Petr Lechner)      2
6 Denmark (Marc Hester/Michael Morkov)               1
7 Belgium (Nicky Cocquyt/Gianni Meersman)            1
8 Korea (Dong Young Kim/Seong Baek Park)             0
 
Two laps behind:
 
9 New Zealand (Tim Gudsell/Peter Latham)           -20
10 Netherlands (Geertjan Jonkman/Wim Stroetinga)   -20
11 USA (Andrew Lakatosh/Ryan Luttrell)             -20
 
DNF:
 
12 Liechtenstein (Manuel Hermann/Tobins Walch)     -30
12 Taiwan (Chein-Chung Chen/Chi-Seng Huang)        -40
DNS Ukraine (Vitaliy Kondrut/Maksym Polishchuk)
 
Final sprint
 
1 Australia (Jonny Clarke/Christopher Sutton)
2 France (Mathieu Ladagnous/Tom Thiblier)
3 Germany (Florian Piper/Sebastian Frey)
4 Czech Republic (Richard Ondryas/Petr Lechner)
5 Russia (Mkhail Ignatiev/Nikolai Troussov)
6 Denmark (Marc Hester/Michael Morkov)
7 Korea (Dong Young Kim/Seong Baek Park)
8 Belgium (Nicky Cocquyt/Gianni Meersman)
9 New Zealand (Tim Gudsell/Peter Latham)
10 Netherlands (Geertjan Jonkman/Wim Stroetinga)
11 USA (Andrew Lakatosh/Ryan Luttrell)