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Track World Cup 05-06 Round 4 - CDM
Sydney, Australia, March 3-5, 2005
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Day 2 - March 4 - Women: Individual pursuit, 500m t.t. Men: Team pursuit; Sprint; Points race
Capacity crowds captivated by stunning sprints and endurance galore
By Les Clarke in Sydney
In a fantastic display of sprinting and endurance riding, France and Holland shared the night's honours on day two of at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome. With Gregory Bauge and Arnaud Tournant on song for the French and Holland taking wins in the women's 500m time trial and men's points race through Yvonne Hijgenaar and Niki Terpstra respectively, there was a feast of speed on offer for the excellent capacity crowd that really got behind all the riders.
Men's sprint
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In the semi finals of the men's sprint, Polish rider Damian Zielinski showed even more speed than his display in the keirin last night to secure his position in the men's sprint final with a win against Malaysia's Josiah Ng. In two carbon-copy races, Zielinski beat Ng by hitting out early over the final lap and never being headed to win with excellent leg speed that carried him home first in both races. It was a little more of the same for Gregory Bauge in the other semi final, leading countryman Arnaud Tournant into the final lap in both their races to come out on top in each. In the second of their showdowns, former world champion Tournant conceded defeat going into the second-last bend and Bauge cantered to victory.
In race one of the final for gold, Gregory Bauge played with his Polish opponent in the opening stages with the confidence of a rider who knows he's got speed on his side, leading from the front to defeat Zielinski by half a bike length at the finish. In their second encounter it was more of the same from Bauge, with the Frenchman giving Zielinski plenty of room heading into the back straight before zooming by the outside as though he were standing still - Bauge's speed was amazing, something he attributes to more gym work in the off season.
Greater experience also plays a vital role in his dominant win, saying through a translation after taking race two that, "I feel more mature on the track now; every race is different, and with the experience I have now I can read a race a lot better. This was the case in the second race when I felt I could get around the Polish rider in the back straight." This he certainly did to devastating effect to win the world cup overall title as well as tonight's race.
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Race one of the showdown for bronze went to Josiah Ng, who powered ahead of Arnaud Tournant in the final metres to take a very close win; Tournant was unable to display the speed that's taken him to world championship crowns in previous years. In race two it was Tournant who took the close finish, drag racing his Malaysian opponent in a thrilling finish. After lifting the pace early it was the Frenchman who got an excellent run off Ng's wheel to power home around the outside to force the bronze medal decider to three race. In the third race it was Tournant by a whisker at the finish after another super sprint - the Frenchman was clearly pleased with his bronze after it appeared Ng may have had too much gas; an escape act, perhaps, but a result nevertheless.
Men's team pursuit
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In the bronze medal ride a young Australian outfit faced a very cohesive Great Britain team that came out and quickly put time into the Australians. The Brits were clearly motivated, looking to gain the upper hand leading up to the Commonwealth Games in just under two weeks' time and it showed, with Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy, Ian Stannard and Andrew Tennant controlling proceedings. Each of the red and blue army did strong turns and after establishing their lead built on it lap by lap to win by almost four seconds.
The gold medal ride-off was a see-sawing affair, with neither Denmark's outfit nor the Ukrainians gaining a significant advantage throughout the four kilometres of action - the margin never exceeded three tenths until the finish, when the Danish team posted a time of 4:08.140, just 0.446 seconds ahead of the time posted by the Ukrainian crew.
Early in the race it looked as though a win to Denmark's men would be a mere formality, but a dogged effort from the Ukrainians kept them in the contest and spectators on the edge of their seats. It was literally anyone's race going into the final two laps, the lead changing at each time split in one of the best displays of team pursuit riding at the Dunc Gray velodrome. With a new Danish national record under their belts, the Danish squad fly home with a strong result against good opposition - objective achieved, according to team management.
Women's 500m TT final
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The women's 500m time trial final came down to the final two riders, with Dutch rider Yvonne Hijgenaar saving the fastest time for last, stopping the clock at 35.138 to win her third 500m TT in the Sydney round of the track world cup. Mexico's Nancy Contreras had set the early pace before Poland's Magdalena Sara bettered the time bby just 0.019 seconds to head the leaderboard.
It was then time for the big hitters to come out and play, with Russia's Tamilia Abassova and Australian Kristine Bayley the next to go ahead, with times of 35.803 and 35.805 respectively. Hijgenaar and Italian Elisa Frisoni were the last two riders to have a shot at the gold, with Hijgenaar doing enough to secure yet another win in Sydney in what's becoming a habit for this former speed skater.
Women's IP final
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In the ride-off for bronze, American Kristin Armstrong showed her growing appetite for track racing with a come-from-behind performance against Ukraine's Elizaveta Bochkaryova. Bochkaryova quickly established a healthy lead, but after building an advantage of four tenths of a second the Ukrainian found herself slipping behind, and at each time check Armstrong was able to put herself into a stronger position. The TEAm Lipton rider finished with a time of 3:42.652 to claim the bronze medal.
In the gold medal showdown, Great Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel rode an almost perfect race to claim the top spot and the overall world cup win in the event. Only ever conceding three tenths of a second to China's Li Wang, Houvenaghel maintained excellent rhythm and control to consistently put time into her opponent, finishing the race in 3:41.316, over four seconds faster than Wang.
With such a strong performance leading into the Commonwealth Games, Houvenaghel was pleased with her performance, particularly the way she paced herself. "I was very careful about the first kilometre this time; in the qualifiers I think I came out a little too fast at the start, but this time I feel I judged the pace a little bit better," she said after the finish, adding that, "I knew a medal was there for the taking, so it was just a matter of which one...I was beaten by a Chinese girl at the Moscow world cup, so I was out to make sure it wasn't a repeat performance." With a busy schedule at the Commonwealth Games, Houvenaghel believes she's on track to perform well in her two track events plus the road race - if her strength and rhythm in this final are an indication of what she's capable of, look out for this unusual name in two week's time.
Men's points race
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In an interesting men's points race, Dutchman Niki Terpstra took a solid win ahead of Japan's Kazuhiro Mori and British rider Chris Newton. Mori was active throughout the race, going for early sprint points and leading during the opening stages. After the first sprint the field strung itself out and never really came together again until a successful break managed to take a lap out of half the field with 32 laps remaining of the 120-lap race.
Although it was looking unlikely that any rider would lap the field, the break of Terpstra, Mori, Newton and Danish rider Daniel Kreutzfeld made their move after the eighth sprint and managed to power their way to the back of the field and grab the 20 points on offer for doing so. From there it became a race between Mori and Terpstra, separated by just five points with two sprints remaining.
Sticking to Mori's wheel like the proverbial adhesive, the Dutch rider made it a very successful evening for Holland with his win. Looking comfortable and composed after the finish, Terpstra told Cyclingnews that, "There were two drivers - Mori, the Japanese guy and the Danish guy [Kreutzfeld] all on the same lap, so I had to make sure they didn't get more points than me while watching to make sure other guys didn't take a lap back." And when asked whether he had to work hard to get that lap on the field, he replied, "I tried to get a lap at the beginning, but only got it at the end - it was hard work, but it paid off!"
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Mark Gunter/www.pbase.com/gunterphotograph
- Shane Perkins (Australia) in the mens sprint qualifications
- Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) showed good form today
- Christian Stahl (USA) in action
- Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) was the fastest for the sprint
- Gregory Bauge (France) in usual good form
- Adrie Visser (Netherlands) starts of in her Inividual Pursuit Qualifying run
- Tess Downing (Australia) a future star
- Lisa Gatto (Italy) gave it her all today
- Li Wang (China) was fastest
- Wendy Houvenaghel (Great britain) was close behing in second
- The young Aussie side Rode into a bronze chance in the teams pursuit
- The GBR team was also young and put on a good show
- Ukraine rode well together and confirmed a final burst
- Part of the hazards of track cycling
- Arnaud Tournant (France) on his way to beating Travis Smith (Canada)
- Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) in action against Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)
- Michael Blatchford (USA) against Qiming Wang (China)
- Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) was the surprise today beating #1 seed Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland)
- The Aussie boys get a quick pep talk before ther bronze ride off
- the Australians take off
- Richard England leads the Australian Team Pursuit
- Great Britain on the charge
- Denmark's team pursuit crew were too strong tonight
- Ukraine finished with the silver
- Yvonne Hijgenaar (Ned) in the 500m time trial
- Elisa Frisoni (Italy) during the 500m time trial
- Wendy Houvenaghel (GBr) improved in every km to take the gold
- Li Wang (China) hoping for gold but only managed silver
- The 500m podium
- Arnaud Tournant (France) gets a push from cycling legend Florian Rousseau
- Arnaud Tournant (France) had a hard battle against Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia)
- Gregory Bauge (France) took gold in the sprint
- Taking a break while a bit of the world passes by
- Niki Terpstra (Ned) working hard
- Niki Terpstra (Ned) took a memorable win in the points race
Results
Men sprint Qualifying 1 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.248 (70.257km/h) 2 Grégory Bauge (France) 10.330 (69.699km/h) 3 Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.390 (69.297km/h) 4 Jamie Staff (GBr) Science in Sport 10.440 (68.965km/h) 5 Damian Zielinski (Poland) 10.441 (68.958km/h) 6 José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain) 10.476 (68.728km/h) 7 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 10.494 (68.610km/h) 8 Michael Blatchford (USA) 10.510 (68.506km/h) 9 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) 10.551 (68.239km/h) 10 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) 10.553 (68.227km/h) 11 Travis Smith (Canada) 10.596 (67.950km/h) 12 Takashi Kaneko (Japan) 10.609 (67.866km/h) 13 Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) 10.620 (67.796km/h) 14 Qiming Wang (China) 10.635 (67.700km/h) 15 Christian Stahl (USA) 10.660 (67.542km/h) 16 Lin Feng (China) 10.696 (67.314km/h) 17 Kasper Jessen (Denmark) 10.699 (67.296km/h) 18 Alfredo Moreno Cano (Spain) 10.789 (66.734km/h) 19 Mohamed Rizal Tisin (Malaysia) 10.805 (66.635km/h) 20 Cédric Stoller (Switzerland) 10.811 (66.598km/h) 21 Shane Perkins (Australia) 10.823 (66.524km/h) 22 Hee Chun Yang (Korea) 10.955 (65.723km/h) 23 Justin Grace (New Zealand) 10.957 (65.711km/h) 24 Kin Chung Wong (Hong-Kong) 10.982 (65.561km/h) 25 Kostantinos Pentarakis (Greece) 11.006 (65.418km/h) 26 Yeong Gyu Jeon (Korea) 11.104 (64.841km/h) 27 Jan Van Eijden (Germany) 11.112 (64.794km/h) 28 Adam Stewart (New Zealand) 11.178 (64.412km/h) 29 Wilson Meneses Gutierrez (Colombia) 11.217 (64.188km/h) 30 Luis Carlos Toussaint (Mexico) 11.242 (64.045km/h) Eighth-finals Heat 1 1 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.972 (65.621km/h) 2 Lin Feng (China) Heat 2 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 11.370 (63.324km/h) 2 Christian Stahl (USA) Heat 3 1 Arnaud Tournant (France) 11.052 (65.146km/h) 2 Qiming Wang (China) Heat 4 1 Jamie Staff (GBr) Science in Sport 11.043 (65.199km/h) 2 Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) Heat 5 1 Damian Zielinski (Poland) 11.014 (65.371km/h) 2 Takashi Kaneko (Japan) Heat 6 1 Travis Smith (Canada) 11.460 (62.827km/h) 2 José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain) Heat 7 1 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 10.956 (65.717km/h) 2 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) Heat 8 1 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) 10.884 (66.152km/h) 2 Michael Blatchford (USA) Quarter-finals Heat 1 1 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) 11.239 11.199 2 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 10.999 Heat 2 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 11.106 10.975 2 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) Heat 3 1 Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.981 10.927 2 Travis Smith (Canada) Heat 4 1 Damian Zielinski (Poland) 11.152 10.934 2 Jamie Staff (GBr) Science in Sport B quarter-finals Heat 1 1 Michael Blatchford (USA) 30.742 (23.420km/h) REL Lin Feng (China) Heat 2 1 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) 11.372 (63.313km/h) 2 Christian Stahl (USA) Heat 3 1 Qiming Wang (China) DNS José Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain) Heat 4 1 Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) 12.327 (58.408km/h) 2 Takashi Kaneko (Japan) B semi-finals Heat 1 1 Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) 11.070 (65.040km/h) 2 Michael Blatchford (USA) Heat 2 1 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) 11.240 (64.056km/h) 2 Qiming Wang (China) B finals Heat 1 9 Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) 11.082 (64.970km/h) 10 Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica) Heat 2 11 Michael Blatchford (USA) 11.662 (61.738km/h) 12 Qiming Wang (China) Men Sprint Semi-finals Heat 1 1 Damian Zielinski (Poland) 10.966 10.882 2 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) Heat 2 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 10.957 11.078 2 Arnaud Tournant (France) 5-8 final 5 Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 11.055 65.128 6 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) 7 Travis Smith (Canada) 8 Jamie Staff (GBr) Science in Sport Gold 1 Grégory Bauge (France) 10.985 10.838 2 Damian Zielinski (Poland) Bronze 1 Arnaud Tournant (France) 11.074 10.943 2 Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia) 11.039 Men's team pursuit Qualifying 1 Ukraine 4.09.477 (57.720km/h) Lyubomyr Polatayko Maksym Polyshchuk Vitaliy Popkov Vitaliy Shchedov 2 Denmark 4.11.781 (57.192km/h) Casper Jørgensen Jens-Erik Madsen Michael Mørkøv Alex Rasmussen 3 Great Britain 4.11.936 (57.157km/h) Edward Clancy Ian Stannard Andrew Tennant Geraint Thomas 4 Australia 4.13.674 (56.765km/h) Richard England Michael Ford Grant Irwin Zakkari Dempster 5 Poland 4.17.588 (55.903km/h) Dawid Glowacki Rafal Ratajczyk Wojciech Ziolkowski Jakub Sredzinki 6 Italy 4.21.995 (54.962km/h) Gianpaolo Biolo Angelo Ciccone Claudio Masnata Saveriano Sangion 7 Malaysia 4.27.713 (53.788km/h) Amiruddin Jamaluddin Mohd Sayuti Mohd Zahit Muhammad Fauzan Ahmad Lufti Weng Kin Thum DSQ Netherlands Levi Heimans Geert-Jan Jonkman Jens Mouris Niki Terpstra Gold final 1 Denmark 4.08.140 (58.031km/h) Casper Jørgensen Jens-Erik Madsen Michael Mørkøv Alex Rasmussen 2 Ukraine 4.08.586 (57.927km/h) Lyubomyr Polatayko Maksym Polyshchuk Vitaliy Popkov Vitaliy Shchedov Bronze final 1 Great Britain 4.09.673 (57.675km/h) Edward Clancy Ian Stannard Andrew Tennant Geraint Thomas 2 Australia 4.13.457 (56.814km/h) Richard England Michael Ford Grant Irwin Zakkari Dempster Women's individual pursuit Qualifying 1 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.42.453 (48.549km/h) 2 Li Wang (China) 3.45.216 (47.953km/h) 3 Kristin Armstrong (USA) 3.45.232 (47.950km/h) 4 Elizaveta Bochkaryova (Ukraine) 3.47.075 (47.561km/h) 5 Adrie Visser (Netherlands) 3.48.607 (47.242km/h) 6 Olaberria Dorronsoro L. (Spain) 3.49.040 (47.153km/h) 7 Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) 3.50.801 (46.793km/h) 8 Lisa Gatto (Italy) 3.51.389 (46.674km/h) 9 Pascale Schnider (Switzerland) 3.51.973 (46.557km/h) 10 Yulia Aroustamova (Russia) 3.52.116 (46.528km/h) 11 Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania) 3.53.723 (46.208km/h) 12 Katarzyna Jagusiak (Poland) 3.56.424 (45.680km/h) 13 Tess Downing (Australia) 3.56.744 (45.618km/h) 14 Songee Han (Korea) 3.58.630 (45.258km/h) 15 Uracca Leow Hoay Sim (Malaysia) 3.59.585 (45.077km/h) 16 Mandy Poitras (Canada) 4.01.202 (44.775km/h) 17 Iona Wynter Parks (Jamaica) 4.03.788 (44.300km/h) Gold final 1 Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3.41.316 (48.799km/h) 2 Li Wang (China) 3.45.524 (47.888km/h) Bronze final 1 Kristin Armstrong (USA) 3.42.652 (48.506km/h) 2 Elizaveta Bochkaryova (Ukraine) 3.45.705 (47.850km/h) Women's 500m TT 1 Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) 35.138 (51.226km/h) 2 Elisa Frisoni (Italy) 35.326 (50.953km/h) 3 Tamilia Abassova (Russia) 35.803 (50.275km/h) 4 Kristine Bayley (Australia) 35.805 (50.272km/h) 5 Magdalena Sara (Poland) 35.940 (50.083km/h) 6 Nancy Contreras (Mexico) 35.959 (50.057km/h) 7 Elisabeth Williams (New Zealand) 36.130 (49.820km/h) 8 Jin A You (Korea) 37.094 (48.525km/h) 9 Viktorija Lomsargyte (Lithuania) 38.916 (46.253km/h) Men's points race 1 Niki Terpstra (Netherlands) 34 pts 2 Kazuhiro Mori (Japan) 31 3 Chris Newton (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 28 4 Daniel Kreutzfeld (Denmark) 26 5 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 13 6 Sergey Kolesnikov (Russia) 13 7 Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) 12 8 Robert Lea (USA) 10 9 Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 8 10 Martin Gilbert (Canada) 8 11 Rob Hayles (GBr) Science in Sport 7 12 Sean Finning (Australia) 2 13 Jose F. Antogna (Argentina) 1 14 Carlos Manuel Hernandez (Mexico) -15 15 Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur (Spain) -15 16 Roman Kononenko (Ukraine) -15 17 Sung Baek Park (Korea) -17 DNF Mohd Sayuti Mohd Zahit (Malaysia) 0 DNF Davy Tuytens (Belgium) 0 DNF Siarhei Daubniuk (Belarus) 0 DNF Tristan Marguet (Switzerland) 0 DNF Kam Po Wong (Hong-Kong) 0 DNF Christian Lademann (Germany) 0
