World Cup Manchester – Day 1

Time for a World Cup in a drizzly Manchester and it got off to a blistering start.

 

Day one roundup of the Track World Cup and it was all about the pursuit!

 

Team Pursuit Men
The men got the event underway.
In qualifying Team GB (Doull, Clancy, Burke and Tennant) fly out of the blocks. At 1km they’re fastest. At the halfway point the GB quartet are 0.4 seconds up. at 3000m they’re over a second up. Great Britain stop the clock at 3:59.672. They were through to the gold final and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

 

 

In the final Denmark took Bronze over the Netherlands. Great Britain take Gold with a fantastic lead out from Ed Clancy 3.58.552 Australia Silver 3.59.064. He commented after the ride, “It was good, this is the start to the Rio Olympics!”

 

 

 

Men’s Team Sprint Men
GB qualify in 43.693 (Kian Emadi, Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes), Germany post a blistering 43.351 to go fastest in qualifying, Robert Forstemann’s thighs being the German teams biggest weapon – with his time of 17.2 in the opening lap. The race for Gold would be between Germany and Russia.
Matt Crampton replaced Kian Emadi in the GB team lineup for the final – racing for Bronze against New Zealand. Unfortunately

 

Team Sprint Women
After two heats of women’s team sprint qualifying, the Max Success Pro Cycling trade team of Juhong and Zhong were fastest with a time of 33.507.
Germany produced an impressive 32.992 to go fastest. World and Olympic champions Welte and Vogel were to face off against Great Britain’s James and Williamson in the final. Russia v Max Success Pro Cycling in the bronze medal ride-off.

 

 

In the final GB’s Becky James and Victoria Williamson were on top form but they got beaten by the World Champions in style. Germany gold – Team GB Silver.

 

Team Pursuit Women
Before the race we caught up with Laura Trott and She expressed how the team was raring to go but obviously anxiously waiting to see what sort of time Australia would put in as they currently haven’t shown their colours in the new four woman Pursuit.

Canada put in a great time of 4.28.054. Australia falls short after a false start (4.33.011).
In qualifying Team GB beat their own World Record set a few weeks ago at the World Championships. After 1km Great Britain are a quarter of a second ahead of Canada. At 2km Great Britain are over 2 seconds faster than Canada and a new world record is on the cards. After 3km Great Britain are smooth and polished, over 3 seconds up. Before the girls took to the track for the final I overheard Team GB coaches discussing that they expected the team to go sub world record. Great Britain stop the clock at 4:23.910, smashing their own world record set just a few weeks ago.

When it came to the crunch thought Team GB got the better of all the competition. Bronze went to Australia.
Awesome performance from Trott, King, Rowsell and Barker.

 

 

 

Women’s Scratch Race
Earlier in the day British riders Dani King (GB), Amy Hill (GB) and Katie Archibald (Braveheart.com) qualify for the scratch race. Immediately after the thrill of the women’s Pursuit win Dani had to remount her bike for the Scratch race final. This may have had some impact on her result, with 25 laps to go Dani is in the bunch but Caroline Ryan of Ireland has launched a solo attack and has half a lap on the chasers. 15 laps to go and King was just hanging on. Sofia Arreola of Mexico (sis to CS’s very lovely Nancy) went all out and gained a lap with the peloton trying their hardest to chase her down. Archibald tried her best to escape with a couple of riders but to no avail. The bunch start to split as Dani King hits the front and Katie sees her chance to go for broke. With five laps to go she finally gets her well deserved lap. The pace has been kept so high that Arreola has to work extra hard to keep contact after her daly lone attack. Katie Archibald is the best placed British rider in the final taking the silver podium spot with a gutsy ride. Well deserved Katie! Sofia Arreola for Mexico comes in 4th just missing out. Gold to Poland’s Wojtyra and bronze to Ukraine’s Klimchenko.

 

Mens Omnium 1 – Flying Lap
Jon Dibben finishes 5th in the opening event of the omnium in what was a very long days racing for him.

 

Watch Olympic Podium Programme rider, Jon Dibben’s Omnium 1 Flying Lap here:

 

Mens Omnium II – Points Race
Boudat of France and Deuhring of the USA both take a lap on the field. Boudat on 32pts and Duehring 26 after the first 5 sprints of 12. Duehring then dramatically loses a lap, leaving his with 6 points. The rider from Trinidad has a tough old race – 3 laps down and still he kept going!
Jon Dibben for GB put in an amazing effort to break free from the pack to no avail, but he kept going for 5pts and a hefty cheer. He then digs again for another try but this time  only manages 1pt. Gold went to Boudat of France with 33pts who rides off the front of the pack and has time to wave to the crowds as he crosses the line. Silver De Buyst 20pts, Gate 14pts takes bronze. Jon Dibben manages a respectable 8th. After two events Jon Dibben was sitting in 5th overall for the Omnium.

 

Mens Omnium III – Elimination Race

This turned out to be the thrills and spills race of the evening. three riders took a nasty tumble. With one rider retiring but the rider who seemed to come out worse scrapes wise was Belgian Jasper De Buyst, literally losing the seat of his pants, he got back on his bike to great applause and a few wolf whistles as he bared all. Not shaken at all he kept going and made it to the final sprint for the line against Thomas Boudat of France. Boudat took the win but there was; in true British underdog supporters style a huge round of applause for De Buyst.

Overall after 3 rounds, Jon Dibben lies in 7th place on 25pts. De Buyst of Belgium took second place in the elimination and retains the overall lead, with Tim Veldt of Netherlands sitting in second place overall.

More action to come tomorrow!