World Track Championships - CM

Copenhagen, Denmark, September 25 - 29, 2002

Event program and results

Men's 50 km Madison

France saves face

Photo©: AFP

The French pairing of Jérôme Neuville and Franck Perque won the only world title for France at the 2002 World Track Championships, pulling off a well deserved win after 200 laps of racing.

Roland Garber and Franz Stocher from Austria led for the majority of the race and appeared to have victory in sight. However in the most endurance-related discipline in track cycling, the madison is often decided in the final ten kilometres - which is what happened today.

As Garber and Stocher began to tire, the French duo of Neuville and Perque maintained their momentum, and lapped the field with just six laps remaining. The Argentinian pairing of Juan Curuchet and Edgardo Simon finished third, with Australians Graeme Brown and Scott McGrory coming in sixth place.

US Team Report

By Kelly Walker, USA Cycling

Pearce, Tillman Pulled from Men's Madison

Team USA's Colby Pearce (Boulder, CO., Team OFOTO Lombardi) and Mike Tillman (Santa Monica, CA., Team Schroeder Iron) were pulled from the men s 50 km madison race, after being lapped by the field three times. Race officials made the decision to pull the riders, after they were out of race contention.

"Actually, I was sort of expecting us to not have our best performance today because I had some serious stomach trouble last night. I woke up this morning and knew that I was in really bad trouble," said Pearce. "I was basically racing to finish today, and anything above and beyond that would be icing on the cake. We didn't end up finishing, and when you re right at the limit [physically] you're liable to make mistakes."

Photo©: AFP

"I feel perfectly comfortable riding madisons, but we're riding with a bunch of guys who ride together all year long and they're professional six-dayers," said Tillman. The most intense madisons we ever do are the World Cups, and those are only a couple per year - these guys will be doing six-days, doing 12 competitions a week.

And they ll do 10 of those over the winter. So they re racing 60 madisons, and their bodies adapt to that. So coming in to it, we really couldn t afford to make any mistakes at all. We came in to absolutely give it our best, and whenever I ride and give it my best effort, I have no complaints."

Photos

Images by AFP

• Fabio Masotti and Marco Villa ride during the madison event
• Frenchmen Jerome Neuville and Franck Perque Show off their medals
• Jerome Neuville and Franck Perque celebrate after winning the madison
• Jerome Neuville and Franck Perque on the podium
• Neuville and Perque race during the madison
• Neuville and Perque celebrate their win
• Madison slingshot by Neuville and Perque

Images by Mike Gladu/www.velodrome.com

• Colombia, Leonardo Duque and Victor Herrera Ramos
• Denmark, Morten Christiansen and Jimmy Hansen
• Italy, Marco Villa and Fabio Masotti
• Australia, Graeme Brown and Scott McGrory
• France, Jérôme Neuville on the way to France taking a lap.
• France, Franck Perque on the way to France taking a lap.
• Austria, Roland Garber and Franz Stocher
• Spain's Juan Llaneras Rossello powers the chase to keep France from going up a lap.
• USA, Colby Pearce and Michael Tillman
• Switzerland, Franco Marvulli and Alexander Aeschbach
• Spain, Juan Llaneras Rossello and Isaac Galvez Lopez
• France, Franck Perque and Jérôme Neuville
• Netherlands, Robert Slippens and Danny Stam
• Great Britain, Tony Gibb and Bryan Steel
• Argentina, Juan Curuchet and Edgardo Simon

Results

1 France                                     5 pts
(Jérôme Neuville, Franck Perque)

1 lap behind

2 Austria                                   18
(Roland Garber, Franz Stocher)
3 Argentina                                 17
(Juan Curuchet, Edgardo Simon)
4 Germany                                   14
(Guido Fulst, Andreas Muller)
5 Spain                                     12
(Isaac Galvez Lopez, Juan Llaneras Rossello)
6 Australia                                 12
(Graeme Brown, Scott McGrory)
7 Slovakia                                  11
(Martin Liska, Jozef Zabka)
8 Italy                                      3
(Fabio Masotti, Marco Villa)
9 Netherlands                                3
(Robert Slippens, Danny Stam)
10 Switzerland                               3
(Alexander Aeschbach, Franco Marvulli)
11 Great Britain                             0
(Tony Gibb, Bryan Steel)

2 laps behind

12 Colombia                                  9
(Leonardo Duque, Ramos Herrera)
13 Danmark
(Morten Christiansen, Jimmy Hansen)

DNF Czech Republic
(Martin Blaha, Petr Lazar)
DNF South Africa
(James Ball, Jean-Pierre Van Zyl)
DNF Russia
(Oleg Grichkin, Serguei Kudentsov)
DNF USA
(Colby Pearce, Michael