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Track World Cup 07-08 Round 4 - CDM
Copenhagen, Denmark, February 15-17, 2008
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Race Next Race
Race 2 - February 15: Men: Individual pursuit, Team sprint, Points race; Women: Individual pursuit, Sprint, Scratch race
Women's individual pursuit
By Gerry McManus in Copenhagen
All roads lead to Romero
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Britain's Rebecca Romero scorched round the Ballerup track in 3.35.425 to take victory in the women's individual pursuit against her Lithuanian opponent Vilija Sereikaite.
Sereikaite blasted out of the blocks to take the first kilometre in 1.12.191 but paid for her fast start, trailing by nearly a second at the 2,000m stage. Romero rode her second kilometre in a quick 1.10.612, before continuing her fast pace to the finish to win by almost four seconds.
"I am really happy since I didn't have a great ride in the Sydney round." Romero said after the finish.
"In a way Sydney proved to be a bonus because I learnt a lot and things I put in place helped me win this World Cup. I was on the podium in Beijing and doing good times in the qualifiers and finals. I have got a lot of confidence going forward to the World Championships."
Sereikaite didn't walk away empty handed either, the points she earned for her second place put her one point ahead of Sarah Hammer in the overall World Cup standings, giving her the overall win.
Hammer took third ahead of Elenora Van Dijk of Holland in their ride off, to clinch second in the World Cup.
Romero moved into third place in the World Cup series and is looking forward to the World Championships in Manchester next month. "I have been working very hard pushing on since the last world championships.
Men's points race
Newton wins series in style
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Pim Ligthart (Netherlands) was the clear winner in the men's points race final, finishing 12 points clear of Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland), while Chris Newton won the World Cup series in style by finishing third, winning the first and last sprints.
He also jumped the gap to a the group of four and together they eventually lapped the field.
The race was highlighted by a move made by Ligthart, Colby Pearce (USA), Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) and Milton Wynants Vazquez with 98 laps still remaining to gain a clear gap on the main field. Newton was the only one who saw the danger in the move, quickly making his way across the gap, before the five riders, doing half lap turns took a lap out on the field. As the race progressed it became apparent that the winner would come from this group of five, but once Lightart took another lap on his own, the rest were racing for second.
With his win in the overall points race World Cup, Newton has now qualified for the Olympics in Beijing.
"It was pretty good," Newton said.
"A bronze medal and I took first and last sprints. We picked up some points when we were on the way to lapping the field but the judges gave the points to the bunch so I was a bit knocked down by that. I was just trying to keep in the top six to win the series and qualify for Beijing and the bronze was a bonus."
Men's individual pursuit
Escobar on top of the world again
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Sergi Escobar followed up on his fast qualifying ride during the morning session to take the gold medal in the final against Russia's Alexei Markov.
Britain's world record holder for the event, Chris Boardman, made the journey across the English Channel to watch as Escobar and others attempted to better his 1996 time. It wasn't to be however and Boardman will go home safe in the knowledge that his record is intact, at least until the world championships in Manchester. After finishing the first kilometre virtually level, Escobar picked up the pace to move two seconds clear of his opponent by the time they hit the line three kilometres later.
Luke Roberts (Australia) took the bronze medal ahead of Ireland's David O'Loughlin, whose fine performance will surely raise a few eyebrows in the Emerald Isle as Ireland's fledgling track programme begins to reap benefits.
Women's sprint
Unstoppable Kanis wins in Copenhagen
Willy Kanis sprinted to victory in Copenhagen on Friday evening to win the event, taking the overall victory in the World Cup in the process. With series leader Natalia Tsylinskaya absent, the series was hers for the taking but she wasn't expected to beat triple world champion Victoria Pendleton in the final.
Pendleton laboured in the semi-final taking three heats to beat China's Shuang Guo while Kanis beat Jennie Reed (USA) in the minimum of two, before moving on the repeat that performance against Pendleton in the final.
"I am really happy with the result," Kanis said. "I would like to win the sprint in the world championships in Manchester as it is an Olympic event and I hope to get the gold medal this year. I have never beaten Victoria (Pendleton) before and she is the world champion. I hope to race in all four sprinters events in Manchester and hope to win gold medal in the sprint and team sprint."
Shuang Guo took the bronze medal home to China beating American Jennie Reed in the ride off for the final medal. France's Clara Sanchez was unlucky to meet Kanis in the quarter-final and may have reached the podium if she has qualified faster.
Men's team sprint
French triumphant in Denmark
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The French national team won the gold medal in a close final against the Netherlands, with both teams featuring current world champions. Gregory Bauge was part of the successful team that won in Palma last year and his new team-mates Francois Pervis and Kevin Sireau could very well be his partners in gold again in Manchester next month.
It's all about consistency and the French team went faster then they did in qualifying to take the title, but with Theo Bos at the helm of the Dutch squad, which included Teun Mulder and Tim Veldt, it came down to the line as only a 0.15 of a second separated the two squads at the finish.
Great Britain were beaten into fourth spot by the French Cofidis team led by a heavily strapped Arnaud Tournant and they must now focus on beating the 45 second mark if they are to get to the podium at the World's and Olympics this year.
France's win was enough to give them the overall World Cup series title, capping off a great start for them on day one.
Women's scratch race
Vos is the boss
Some say that the scratch race can be a bit of a lottery, but with Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) taking her second World Cup victory from two starts this season you would want some pretty good odds to bet against her at the bookmakers. The Dutch ex-world road race champion had already won in Beijing and completed the double in Copenhagen.
Vos beat Jarmilla Machavova (Czech Republic) in the final gallop after 40 laps and the multi-talented sprinter must be considered a the favourite to add the points or scratch race title to her world cyclo-cross and road titles.
Russian Anastasiay Chulkova and Theresa Cliff-Ryan (VBR) could not be split by the photo finish and were awarded joint third, both receiving bronze medals.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Gerry McManus/www.gerrymcmanus.co.uk
- Belarusian Lisouski escapes the clutches of the bunch in the points race.
- Irelands Morgan Fox leads the way in his points race qualifier.
- Britain’s Chris Newton safely in the main field during the points race.
- Kazakhstan leads the USA in the main string during the points race.
- Pendleton wins the first heat against Guo in the women's sprint.
- Guo took the second heat.
- Allez les blues.. France on their way to victory, in the team sprint.
- Never say die. The Netherlands go for broke on lap two.
- Ouch that hurts. Arnaud Tournant in agony.
- And they're off. The guns signals the race start for the men's points race final.
- Chris Newton in action during the points race.
- Race winner Pim Ligthart leads the break who lapped the field.
- Rebecca Romero happy with her gold medal in the pursuit.
- Romero on her way to victory.
- Vilija Sereikaite had to settle for silver in the pursuit.
- Escobar rolls back the clock to qualify first.
- Taylor Phinney in space age head gear.
- surprise bronze medal finalist David O'Loughlin.
- Aussie Luke Roberts finished third in qualifying.
- Amazing Escobar - en route to first place in qualifying.
Results
Men's points race final 1 Pim Ligthart (Ned) DSB Bank 49 pts 2 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 37 3 Chris Newton (Great Britain) 33 4 Ivan Kovalev (Russian Federation) 32 5 Colby Pearce (United States Of America) 30 6 Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 28 7 Juan Pablo Forero Carreno (Colombia) 28 8 Marco Arriagada (Chile) 25 9 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 24 10 Makoto Iijima (Japan) 23 11 Oleksandr Martynenko (Rus) ISD-Sport Donetsk 23 12 Milton Wynants Vazquez (Uruguay) 22 13 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 8 14 Roger Kluge (Ger) Team Focus 7 15 Vadim Shaekhov (Uzb) Uzbekistan Pro Cycling 5 16 Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 5 17 Artur Ershov (Rus) Lokomotiv 4 18 Kam-Po Wong (Hong Kong, China) 4 19 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 2 20 Milan Kadlec (Cze) ASC Dukla Praha 2 21 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 1 22 Temur Mukhamedov (Uzbekistan) 23 Nicolas Rousseau (France) 24 Peter Schep (Netherlands) Men's team sprint final Bronze medal final 1 Cofidis 0.44.96 (60.049 km/h) Mickaël Bourgain Didier Henriette Arnaud Tournant 2 Great Britain 0.45.19 Chris Hoy Craig Maclean Jamie Staff Gold medal final 1 France 0.44.25 (61.021 km/h) Gregory Bauge François Pervis Kévin Sireau 2 Netherlands 0.44.40 Theo Bos Teun Mulder Tim Veldt Men's individual pursuit final Gold medal final 1 Sergi Escobar Roure (Spain) 4.24.80 2 Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) 4.26.80 Bronze medal final 1 Luke Roberts (Australia) 4.26.30 2 David O'loughlin (Irl) Pezula Racing 4.29.00 Women's individual pursuit final Gold medal final 1 Rebecca Romero (Great Britain) 3.35.40 2 Vilija Sereikaite (Ltu) Safi Pasta 3.40.20 Bronze medal final 1 Sarah Hammer (United States Of America) 3.37.10 2 Eleonora Van Dijk (Netherlands) 3.42.20 Women's sprint Semifinal Heat 1 1 Victoria Pendleton (GBr) ScienceInSport.com 0.12.12 12.272 2 Shuang Guo (People's Republic of China) 0.11.94 Heat 2 1 Willy Kanis (Netherlands) 0.12.19 11.919 2 Jennie Reed (United States Of America) Final Bronze medal final 1 Shuang Guo (People's Republic of China) 0.12.05 12.395 2 Jennie Reed (United States Of America) Gold medal final 1 Willy Kanis (Netherlands) 0.11.94 12.395 2 Victoria Pendleton (GBr) ScienceInSport.com Women's scratch race final 1 Marianne Vos (Ned) DSB Bank 2 Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) 3 Anastasiay Chulkova (Russian Federation) 4 Theresa Cliff-Ryan (USA) Verducci Breakaway Racing 5 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spain) 6 Rebecca Quinn (United States Of America) 7 Pascale Jeuland (France) 8 Alena Prudnikova (Russian Federation) 9 Elke Gebhardt (Germany) 10 Aksana Papko (Belarus) 11 Kate Cullen (GBr) 12 Annalisa Cucinotta (Italy) 13 Kelly Druyts (Belgium) 14 Shelley Olds (Can) Proman Cycling Team 15 Gina Grain (Canada) 16 Wan Yiu Wong (Hong Kong, China) 17 Hyo Seong Noh (Korea) 18 Christy King (USA) South Bay Wheelmen 19 Yoanka Gonzalez Perez (Cuba) 20 Eleonora Soldo (Ita) Safi Pasta 21 Kele Murdin (USA) Proman Cycling Team 22 Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic) 23 Debora Galvez Lopez (Spain) 24 Marta Tagliaferro (Italy)
