What happens when you team up a 19 year old, a 20 year old and a 36 year old in the Team Pursuit? A Gold medal’s what happens. Performance of the the week so far from the British trio of Wendy Houvenaghel, Laura Trott and Dani King (I’ve shuffled the order to save embarrassment), but there was lots more going on…
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success
Men’s Individual Pursuit Qualifying
All eyes were on Australian World Record holder Jack Bobridge, whose sensational time in the Australian National Championships earlier this year finaly eclipsed Chris Boardman’s 15 year old record. It was his team mate Michael Hepburn who laid down an early marker, though, with a time of 4:22.624 – four seconds quicker than anyone else at that point, albeit 12 seconds off Bobridge’s record. Hepburn’s time stood for quite a while, but when it did go it went to Bobridge.
The trackside commentator marvelled at how far Bobridge had come – from a 4:18 at last year’s Worlds to a 4:10 this sprint – while, ironically, Bobridge tapped out a 4:17.465. He clearly eased up towards the end, though. There’s more to come.
The only remaining question was whether his team mate Rohan Dennis – who set the third fastest time in history at the same National Championships – would be his opponent in the Final. Up against last year’s beaten finalist Jesse Sergent of New Zealand, Dennis was in the lead for the first three kilometres, but the Kiwi fought back to deny the Aussies a lock out in the Gold Medal ride. They are, however, guaranteed the Bronze and two of the three podium spots…
1 Jack BOBRIDGE AUS 4:17.465
2 Jesse SERGENT NZL 4:21.481
3 Michael HEPBURN AUS 4:22.624
4 Rohan DENNIS AUS 4:22.667
Men’s Sprint 200m Time Trial Qualifying
The first shock of the week was Frenchman Kévin Sireau’s performance in the Men’s Sprint qualification. With team mate Mickaël Bourgain at the top of the leaderboard on a 10.043, Hoy second on 10.111 and Kenny 3rd on 10.120, Sireau could manage no better than 10.219 to go fifth with two riders still to go. Shane Perkins of Australia edged in ahead of him with a 10.172 and last man up Gregory Bauge took 4th with a 10.142, knocking Sireau down to 7th.
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA 10.043
2 Chris HOY GBR 10.111
3 Jason KENNY GBR 10.120
4 Gregory BAUGE FRA 10.142
5 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA 10.148
6 Shane PERKINS AUS 10.172
7 Kévin SIREAU FRA 10.219
8 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS 10.262
9 Robert FORSTEMANN GER 10.267
10 Matthew CRAMPTON GBR 10.274
11 Matthew GLAETZER AUS 10.295
12 Sam WEBSTER NZL 10.344
13 Tsubasa KITATSURU JPN 10.353
14 Stefan BÖTTICHER GER 10.357
15 Damian ZIELINSKI POL 10.360
16 Sebastian DOEHRER GER 10.370
17 Edward DAWKINS NZL 10.391
18 Miao ZHANG CHN 10.417
19 Kazunari WATANABE JPN 10.441
20 Roy VAN DEN BERG NED 10.462
21 Denis DMITRIEV RUS 10.489
22 Andrey KUBEEV RUS 10.534
23 Bernard ESTERHUIZEN RSA 10.538
24 Lei ZHANG CHN 10.552
Women’s Team Pursuit Qualifying
Performance of the Week so far (we realise we’re only 15% of the way through…) came from the Great Britain Women’s Team Pursuit squad. Led by ‘veteran’ Wendy Houvenaghel, Laura Trott and Dani King – both riding in their first Senior World Championships – stormed round in a time of 3:23.642 – not only qualifying for the Final, but beating World Record holders the USA. The US team of Sarah Hammer, Dotsie Bausch and converted sprinter Jennie Reed, who’s now guaranteed at least a Silver medal for an endurance event.
Australia looked as though they might knock the US into the Bronze medal ride for a while, but faded badly in the closing laps and will, instead, face New Zealand in the Bronze Medal ride-off.
1 GREAT BRITAIN (Laura TROTT, Wendy HOUVENAGHEL, Danielle KING) 3:23.642
2 UNITED STATES (Sarah HAMMER, Dotsie BAUSCH, Jennie REED) 3:23.965
3 NEW ZEALAND (Kaytee BOYD, Jaime NIELSEN, Alison SHANKS) 3:24.701
4 AUSTRALIA (Amy CURE, Katherine BATES, Josephine TOMIC) 3:25.253
Men’s Sprint 1/16 Final
The first round of the Sprint went pretty much to form. Sir Chris Hoy ensured there was no repeat of his European Championship first round slip up, disposing of South African Bernard Esterhuizen comfortably but respectfully. Sireau, too, went through with ease, suggesting that his qualifying performance isn’t a great indication of his form – even if it will give him a tough draw.
Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton ensured that there will be three British riders in the 1/8 Finals and Bourgain, Bauge and D’Almeida went one better for France. Incredibly, all three Australians also made it through – Sunderland, Perkins and Glaetzer winning their heats – meaning that, along with Forstemann of Germany and Kitatsuru of Japan – only 4 nations are represented among the last 12 riders.
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
2 Lei ZHANG CHN
1 Chris HOY GBR
2 Bernard ESTERHUIZEN RSA
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Andrey KUBEEV RUS
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Denis DMITRIEV RUS
1 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
2 Roy VAN DEN BERG NED
1 Shane PERKINS AUS
2 Kazunari WATANABE JPN
1 Kévin SIREAU FRA
2 Miao ZHANG CHN
1 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS
2 Edward DAWKINS NZL
1 Robert FORSTEMANN GER
2 Sebastian DOEHRER GER
1 Matthew CRAMPTON GBR
2 Damian ZIELINSKI POL
1 Matthew GLAETZER AUS
2 Stefan BÖTTICHER GER
1 Tsubasa KITATSURU JPN
2 Sam WEBSTER NZL
Men’s Sprint 1/8 Final
The evening session kicked off with the second round of the sprint competition. Sireau’s poor form from qualifying continued into the second round, where he lost to an admittedly impressive looking Shane Perkins. More surprisingly, the Frenchman failed to progress through the repechages.
Bourgain continued to look strong, as did Hoy and Bauge. One consequence of their being so few countries represented in this round – a situation that underlines the short sightedness of the decision to only allow one rider for each country at the Olympics – was that, inevitably, someone would have to face his team mate. The draw meant that it was Kenny and Crampton who lined up alongside each other – and it was Kenny who progressed, dropping Crampton into a rep.
In the other heat, Scott Sunderland saw off Michaël D’Almeida but the French rider progressed through the repechages, along with Robert Forstemann.
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
2 Tsubasa KITATSURU JPN
1 Chris HOY GBR
2 Matthew GLAETZER AUS
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Matthew CRAMPTON GBR
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Robert FORSTEMANN GER
1 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS
2 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
1 Shane PERKINS AUS
2 Kévin SIREAU FRA
Repechages
1 Robert FORSTEMANN GER
2 Kévin SIREAU FRA
3 Tsubasa KITATSURU JPN
1 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
2 Matthew GLAETZER AUS
3 Matthew CRAMPTON GBR
Quarter Finals
In the second round it was two Brits drawn against each other, in the Quarters it was France. And, erm, ‘Michael’. Mickaël Bourgain beat Michaël D’Almeida in two confident but combative heats. D’Almeida wasn’t at all happy with the outcome of the first heat, but the judges were and in the second Bourgain got the jump on his team mate, who conceded on the back straight.
Robert Forstemann dumped Chris Hoy into the 1/8 Repechages in Copenhagen in 2011 by powering away from the start and never looking back. If he was tempted to try it again, he thought better of it and in the first heat the big Scot tracked him until the back straight on the final lap, when he powered past. In the second he went earlier, truning on the power and sending out a very clear statement of intent for tomorrow’s final stages of the competition.
Shane Perkins put up a good fight in his heat against Jason Kenny. In the first match he made Kenny work hard for a narrow win and in the second the young man from Bolton returned the favour – Perkins just edging it on the line. The first two races had clearly taken their toll on Perkins and in the third Kenny stormed to an easy win.
The first match of the Bauge-Sunderland quarter final was more like a heavyweight boxing match with the two giant sprinters pulling each other all over the track, trying to out muscle each other with Bauge winning on points. The second, not so much… Bauge cruised through.
The draw for the semi-finals – which is ultimately a reflection of the riders’ 200m qualifying times – denies British fans a repeat of Beijing’s Hoy-Kenny final and means that Bourgain faces Bauge in the semis rather than the final, which might disappoint the French. On the other hand, both sets of fans know they have a rider in the Final… and fans of sprinting know that whatever the outcome of the Semis, they have a great Final to look forward to. UCI and IOC take note.
Match 1
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
2 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
1 Chris HOY GBR
2 Robert FORSTEMAN
N GER
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Shane PERKINS AUS
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS
Match 2
1 Mickaël BOURGAIN FRA
2 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
1 Chris HOY GBR
2 Robert FORSTEMANN GER
1 Shane PERKINS AUS
2 Jason KENNY GBR
1 Gregory BAUGE FRA
2 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS
Match 3
1 Jason KENNY GBR
2 Shane PERKINS AUS
5th to 8th places
5 Michaël D’ALMEIDA FRA
6 Shane PERKINS AUS
7 Scott SUNDERLAND AUS
8 Robert FORSTEMANN GER REL
Women’s Team Pursuit Finals
We knew when we wrote it that declaring the Great Britain women’s Team Pursuit squad’s performance in qualifying the ‘ride of the week’ was a little premature. What we didn’t realise was that it would be surpassed a couple of hours later by the same three women!
On paper – despite their superb effort to qualify fastest – the final looked like it should belong to the USA. Two thirds of a World Record breaking team and Sarah Hammer in the form of her life versus a time that had only ridden together in competition once before – that afternoon – and contained a 19 year old and a 20 year old.
On the track, things were rather different. The Great Britain trio looked relaxed and – as Great Britain Team Pursuit squads always do these days, immaculately well drilled. They pulled steadily away from the Americans – easing out a two second lead. Hammer, Bausch and Reed didn’t give up – they came back strongly at the start of the last kilometre, but it wasn’t to be. Jennie Reed now has a Silver medal as an endurance athlete to hang up alongside her sprint medals – and she earned it – but, in truth, she looked the weak link in the team. What they’d gained in the first three laps of the closing kilometre they lost in the last lap with Reed unable to hold the wheel of a battling Sarah Hammer.
So it was Wendy Houvenaghel, Dani King and trackcyling photoographer Laura Trott (OK, we won’t mention it again…) that pulled on the rainbow jerseys, setting a new track record in the process.
The Kiwis and the Australians made the same mistake in qualifying – going out too hard and fading in the final stages. They didn’t make it again and lapped within a few hundredths of each other for the first half of the race. The Kiwis eased away at the end, but still only had a four tenths advantage at the finish. It was enough for the Bronze medal.
GOLD GREAT BRITAIN (Laura TROTT, Wendy HOUVENAGHEL, Danielle KING)3:23.419
SILVER UNITED STATES (Sarah HAMMER, Dotsie BAUSCH, Jennie REED) 3:25.308
BRONZE NEW ZEALAND (Kaytee BOYD, Jaime NIELSEN, Alison SHANKS) 3:24.065
4 AUSTRALIA (Amy CURE, Katherine BATES, Josephin TOMIC) 3:24.422
Women’s Team Sprint
There aren’t meany foregone conclusions in track cycling, but the closest we have is any competition with Cameron Meyer or Anna Meares in. Meyer failed in his bid to add a Scratch race title to his collection, but the ever smiling Meares and her team mate Kaarle McCulloch never looked in any danger in the Women’s Team Sprint. They qualified fastest – albeit only by a hundredth of a second – ahead of Great Britain duo Jess Varnish and Vicky Pendleton – and then knocked another tenth off in the Final to ensure they took the title again.
What Australia have in McCulloch and Meares is an established partnership that works. Great Britain have struggle to achieve that – pairing Pendleton with Shanaze Reade, then Varnish and the Reade again for the recent World Cup in Manchester. But on today’s performance, the Varnish-Pendleton combination looks like the best chance of taking the title – and Olympic Gold – away from the Australians.
The minor final saw China take the Bronze from France with both teams close to the times they set in qualifying.
Qualifying
1 AUSTRALIA (Anna MEARES, Kaarle MCCULLOCH) 33.342
2 GREAT BRITAIN (Victoria PENDLETON, Jessica VARNISH) 33.356
3 CHINA (Lin JUNHONG , Jinjie GONG ) 33.569
4 FRANCE (Clara SANCHEZ , Sandie CLAIR ) 33.601
Finals
GOLD AUSTRALIA(Anna MEARES, Kaarle MCCULLOCH) 33.237
SILVER GREAT BRITAIN (Victoria PENDLETON, Jessica VARNISH) 33.525
BRONZE CHINA (Shuang GUO, Jinjie GONG) 33.586
4 FRANCE (Clara SANCHEZ, Sandi CLAIR) 33.731
Men’s Individual Pursuit Finals
There was a danger, after qualifying, that the Men’s Individual Pursuit Final would be a one sided affair. Some people were even talking about the possibility of Bobridge catching Sergent. After all, the Australian was almost 5 seconds quicker than his New Zealand opponent in qualifying and looked as though he had more to come.
Clearly, nobody had told Sergent the role he was supposed to be playing. True, Bobridge was ahead of the Kiwi for every one of the sixteen laps and managed the race superbly – doing no more than he had to to maintain a cushion. But Sergent stuck in there and refused to give up. Two seconds down after a kilo, he lost no more time by the half way point. He was still there with a kilometre to go, but then faded a little – losing almost second over the next two laps – before coming back a little in the closing stages.
Battle though Sergent might, though and, despite being four seconds down on his qualifying time and 11 seconds off his World Record, Bobridge was magnificent. Calm and composed on the bike, he was never in any serious danger.
In the all Australian Bronze medal ride, Rohan Dennis led from the start but team mate Michael Hepburn picked up the pace in the last kilometre to take the medal.
GOLD Jack BOBRIDGE AUS 4:21.141
SILVER Jesse SERGENT NZL 4:23.865
BRONZE Michael HEPBURN AUS 4:22.553
4 Rohan DENNIS AUS 4:24.087
trackcycling’s coverage of the World Track Championships is supported by SL Carbons – The Fabric of Your Success
