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Track World Cup Round 2 - CDM
Aguascalientes, Mexico, March 21-23, 2003
Day 3 - March 23
France triumphs and moves into third behind Germany & Russia
By Kristy Scrymgeour
France took the overall honors with 78 points, two points ahead of USA in this second round of the UCI Track World Cup. This puts France into third place overall, behind Germany (175 points) and Russia (173 points) with two rounds remaining in the World Cup series.
Helping France lead the way in overall points was Celine Nivert who took the Women's Keirin race from Na Li (China) and the French Men's Sprint team who won over Slovakia. Showing their strength in track racing were the Russian women who won the Women's Team Sprint in a time of 13.12 seconds. Elena Chalykh (Russia) won the 10km Scratch Race as well as dominating the 20km points race with 49 points, and host team's Belem Guerrero (Mexico) coming in second. Natalia Tsilinskaya from Belarus improved one place from her placing in Moscow, winning the Women's sprint over Tanya Lindenmuth (USA) and New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer continued her form, winning the 3000m pursuit over Erin Mirabella.
In the Men's Sprint, Australian Mark French proved his speed to win over Britain's Jamie Staff. Staff continued his form winning the 1,000m Time Trial. Colombia dominated in the Men's Team Pursuit and Vasil Kiryienka (Beilorussia) improved five places from last round to place first in the Individual Pursuit, New Zealand rider Hayden Godfrey placing second. Japan's Keiichiro Yaguchi reigned in the Men's Keirin and Leonardo Duque (Colombia) won the 30km Points Race with 88 points. Finally, Spain's Miguel Alzamora took a lap over the field with three others and won the 15km Scratch Race.
Riders now have three weeks to prepare for the next and third round of the UCI World Cup which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.
French claims sprint in Mexico World Cup Classic
Australian team report by Gennie Sheer
Two time junior world sprint champion, Mark French, 19, (VIC) claimed victory in the sprint at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup Classics in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
French posted the fastest time of 10.220 (70.45 km/h) in the flying 200m qualifying and went through to a finals show down against Britain's Jamie Staff, 29. The time was a personal best for the teenager whose previous PB was 10.500 set at the recent Victorian State Titles.
"The Mexico track is at altitude but it's a concrete track with lots of holes in it so it's pretty rough and bumpy," said French.
French defeated Staff in two straight heats (10.942, 11.129) to claim the gold with French rider Arnaud Duble, 22, third.
But it wasn't all smooth sailing for French who lost his second round match up and was forced to win his way back through the repechage.
"I hadn't been feeling so great the day before (finished 8th in the keirin) because I had the speed but not the endurance," said French. "But the next morning (yesterday ADST) I got up and had a shower and I felt I had something."
"I started off and I had the speed but my head wasn't thinking right so I really did it the hard way," said French of his defeat to Spain's Salvador Melia in the second round. French then won his repechage and had some time to plan his tactics before his quarter final round against Jan Van Eijden of Germany.
"Marv (Track Coach Martin Barras) sat me down, talked to me and got into my head the things I needed to do," explained French who went on to defeat both Van Eijden and, in the semi-finals, Duble in straight heats.
French moved to Adelaide in November last year to join the Cycling Australia high performance program in a bid to make a successful transition from junior to senior competition.
"It's awesome for me to be down there because of the quality of the riders I'm training with," said French who trains with world sprint champion, Sean Eadie, world keirin champion, Jobie Dajka and a host of other former Australian world champions.
"It is a really big help to have people to chase and try and catch and I'm loving the environment down there."
The Mexico World Cup Classic is French's first major sprint competition as a senior after a junior career which saw him claim back to back sprint crowns in 2001 and 2002 as well as the inaugural keirin title at last year's Junior World Track Championships in Melbourne.
"This year is an experience year for me to learn how to race the big guys," said French who will join a strong Australian team for next month's South African round.
Results
Women's Team Sprint 1 Russia 1.12.743 (49.489km/h) Elena Chalykh Oxana Grishina Yulia Arustamova 2 Netherlands 1.13.889 (48.722km/h) Anouska Van Der Zee Yvonne Hijgenaar Vera Koedooder Women's 10km Scratch Race Final 1 Elena Chalykh (Russia) 13.12 (45.45km/h) 2 Eleonora Soldo (Italy) 3 Belem Guerrero (Mexico) 4 Gema Pascual (Spain) 5 Rebecca Quinn (USA) 6 Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic) 7 Susan Panzer (Germany) 8 Kathrin Freitag (Germany) 9 Yumari Gonzalez (Cuba) 10 Maria Luisa Calle W. (Colombia) 11 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand) 12 Yoanka Gonzalez (Cuba) 13 Lisa Gatto (Italy) 14 Kyriaki Kostantinidou (Greece) 15 Edita Kubelskiene (Lithuania) 16 Yulia Arustamova (Russia) 17 Vilija Purlyte (Lithuania) 18 Sara Symington (Great Britain) 19 Vera Koedooder (Netherlands) 20 Erin Carter (Canada) 21 Erin Mirabella (USA) 22 Clara Tavera (Mexico) 23 Marion Clignet (France) 24 Maaria Siren (Finland) 25 Mathilde Doutreluingne (France) 26 Anouska Van Der Zee (Netherlands) 27 Sarah Ulmer (New Zealand) 28 Rosealee Hubbard (Australia) 29 Ine Wannun (Belgium) Men's Team Sprint qualifying 1 France 1.00.137 (59.863km/h) Arnaud Duble Matthieu Mandard Francois Pervis 2 Slovakia 1.00.428 (59.575km/h) Jarosiav Jerabek Peter Bazalik Jan Lepka 3 Spain 1.00.532 (59.473km/h) José Escuredo Salvador Meliá Haitz Larrinaga 4 Germany 1.00.734 (59.275km/h) Soren Lausberg Jan Van Eijden Matthías John 5 Greece 1.01.077 (58.942km/h) Athanasios Mantzouranis Kleanthis Bargkas Lazaros Skoumpas 6 Japan 1.01.356 (58.674km/h) Masaki Inoue Keiichiro Yaguchi Tsubasa Kitatsuru 7 Netherlands 1.01.387 (58.644km/h) Jeroen Straathof Martin Benjamin Teun Mulder 8 Australia 1.01.648 (58.396km/h) Shane Kelly Ashley Hutchinson Mark French 9 Cuba 1.01.723 (58.325km/h) Reinier Cartaya Michel Pedroso Ahmed Lopez 10 Czech Republic 1.01.732 (58.317km/h) Arnost Drcmanek Pavel Buran Ivan Vrba 11 Colombia 1.01.989 (58.075km/h) Wilson Meneses Jonathan Marín Carlos Eduardo Alzate 12 USA 1.02.013 (58.052km/h) Ryan Sparks Garth Blackburn Giddeon Massie 13 Mexico 1.03.641 (56.567km/h) Mario Contreras Ángel Martorell Javier Caballero 14 Guatemala 1.05.262 (55.162km/h) Victor Ordoñez José Angel Sochén Carlos Fetzer Men's Team Sprint finals Repechage 3/4 1 Germany 0.59.913 (60.087km/h) Soren Lausberg Jan Van Eijden Matthías John 2 Spain 1.00.584 (59.422km/h) José Escuredo Salvador Meliá Haitz Larrinaga Final 1 France 0.59.805 (60.196km/h) Arnaud Duble Matthieu Mandard Francois Pervis 2 Slovakia 1.00.472 (59.532km/h) Jarosiav Jerabek Peter Bazalik Jan Lepka Men's Team Sprint Final Classification 1 France Arnaud Duble Matthieu Mandard Francois Pervis 2 Slovakia Jarosiav Jerabek Peter Bazalik Jan Lepka 3 Germany Soren Lausberg Jan Van Eijden Matthías John 4 Spain José Escuredo Salvador Meliá Haitz Larrinaga 5 Greece Athanasios Mantzouranis Kleanthis Bargkas Lazaros Skoumpas 6 Japan Masaki Inoue Keiichiro Yaguchi Tsubasa Kitatsuru 7 Netherlands Jeroen Straathof Martin Benjamin Teun Mulder 8 Australia Shane Kelly Ashley Hutchinson Mark French 9 Cuba Reinier Cartaya Michel Pedroso Ahmed Lopez 10 Czech Republic Arnost Drcmanek Pavel Buran Ivan Vrba Men's 40km Madison Time 46.06 Speed 52.06 Kmh Sprints 1 100 To Go 1 Mexico 5 pts 2 Russia 3 3 Netherlands 2 4 Belgium 1 5 Hungary 0 2 80 To Go 1 Argentina 5 pts 2 Australia 3 3 Italy 2 4 Belgium 1 5 Spain 0 3 60 To Go 1 Argentina 5 pts 2 Russia 3 3 Iran 2 4 Canada 1 5 Netherlands 0 4 40 To Go 1 Netherlands 5 pts 2 Slovakia 3 3 Belgium 2 4 New Zealand 1 5 Hungary 0 5 20 To Go 1 Spain 5 pts 2 France 3 3 Argentina 2 4 Russia 1 5 Mexico 0 6 Final 1 Slovakia 5 pts 2 France 3 3 Belgium 2 4 USA 1 5 Russia 0 Final country standings 1 France 78 pts 2 USA 76 3 Germany 65 4 Russia 63 5 Spain 56 6 Great Britain 53 7 Colombia 47 8 Netherlands 45 9 Bielorussia 44 10 Mexico 42 11 Australia 38 12 Slovakia 34 13 Argentina 30 14 New Zealand 28 15 Lithuania 25 16 Japan 21 17 Switzerland 20 18 Italy 17 19 Cuba 13 20 Czech Republic 12 20 China 12 22 Poland 11 23 Belgium 10 23 Canada 10 25 Hungary 9 26 Greece 7 26 Venezuela 7 28 Austria 6 29 Malaysia 5 30 Bolivia 4 31 Barbados 2 31 Iran 2 33 Ukraine 0 33 Denmark 0 33 Latvia 0 33 Finland 0 33 Guatemala 0 33 Hong-Kong 0 33 Korea 0 43 South Africa 0 Overall country standings after two rounds 1 Germany 175 pts 2 Russia 173 3 France 170 4 Netherlands 128 5 Spain 110 6 Australia 95 7 Great Britain 86 8 USA 83 9 Bielorussia 78 10 Slovakia 65 11 Ukraine 56 12 Czech Republic 53 13 Japan 52 14 New Zealand 52 15 Colombia 47 16 Poland 45 17 Mexico 42 18 Lithuania 37 19 Argentina 30 20 Belgium 26 21 Italy 26 22 China 22 23 Canada 21 24 Switzerland 20 25 Denmark 18 25 Greece 18 27 Cuba 17 28 Malaysia 15 29 Hungary 12 29 Venezuela 12 31 Austria 8 32 Bolivia 4 33 Latvia 3 34 Barbados 2 34 Finland 2 34 Iran 2 37 Guatemala 0 37 Hong-Kong 0 37 Korea 0 37 South Africa 0
