 |
Track World Cup Round 2 - CDMDunc Gray Velodrome, Sydney, Australia, May 10 - 12, 2002 |
|
Day 2 (evening session):
Women's 500m time trial to USA
 |
The first gold medal to the USA was claimed this evening by pocket-sprinter Tanya Lindenmuth in the Women's 500 metre time trial with a competitive time of 35.838 seconds, defeating Julie Paulding (GBr) 35.996 and the reigning world champion Nancy Liarely Contreras from Mexico, who posted a 36.160 to take the bronze.
Men's 15km scratch race to Slippens
Robert Slippens scored the first gold medal for the Netherlands in an aggressive 15km men's scratch race at the 2002 UCI Track World Cup Sydney round tonight. The 27 year old from a city 50km from Amsterdam rode a fast, tactical race to beat other key players Jame Carney (USA) and Leonardo Duque (Colombia) in what he described as "a really hard ride" to the line.
"It was a short event and all the guys kept attacking," he said. "It was a difficult race to make tactics, (because) you don't known when the attacks will go. In a points race you know when the sprints up then you try to keep the tempo up, but here, it is wait, wait, wait, watching the guys." (See full report and results)
Ulmer nails 10km scratch
 |
The Women's 10km Scratch Race (see full results and report) was taken out in utterly convincing fashion by New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer, who attacked early into the race and used her endurance to immediately create a lead. Ulmer was joined by Cathy Moncassin (Fra) and the USA's Sarah Hammer, and the trio began to work well together.
By half-race distance, they had lapped the field, with only Rochelle Gilmore attempting to bridge to the three leaders. But Gilmore left it too late and the remainder of the field was forced to withdraw after being lapped under new rules being applied by the UCI. Then with five laps to go, Ulmer repeated her pursuiting performance from the previous evening and dropped the other two riders, who tried to chase for two laps but then gave up and decided to battle it out for the silver.
Ulmer finished almost three-quarters of a lap ahead of the two, with Hammer winning the silver for the USA and Moncassin taking the bronze.
Australia crashes out of team pursuit final
 |
It was a night of drama and upsets at Dunc Gray Velodrome this evening for the final of the teams pursuit (see full report and results). For the Australian team pursuit squad, it was a case of deja vu in its return to major international competition, after crashing out tonight in the final of the teams pursuit. Last year in the World Track Championships in Antwerpen, the Australian team also crashed in spectacular fashion.
In tonight's final, the Australian team held a 1.8 second lead over New Zealand but a touch of wheels some 2750 metres into the 4km event saw Stephen Wooldridge and Peter Dawson hit the deck at 55kmh.
The race was stopped as the fallen riders were sprawled on the track, with Mark Renshaw and Rod McGee riding away safely. The clock was stopped at 3.50.341, but at the 2km split time the Australians had posted 2.06.420, the best 2km split time for a pursuit team at the Sydney round of the World Cup.
The ride-off for bronze also saw an upset by the emerging Greek track squad, who overran the Polish team with only one lap to go. The Polish team held a comfortable lead of nearly two seconds at half-distance, when Przemyslaw Tokarski dropped off the back, leaving the Polish team with only three riders.
The Greek squad of Ioannis Tsakouridis, Vasilos Gianniosis, Elpidoforos Potouridis and Kostas Rodopoulos reduced their deficit to only 0.2 seconds with two laps to go, and then with one lap to go it was only 0.036. They continued their roll and eventually finished 0.169 seconds ahead of the Polish trio.
