All change for Day 4 of the Worlds – which is a veritable medal fest. The Women’s Keirin, Men’s Individual Pursuit, Men’s Sprint, Women’s Omnium and Men’s Points race will all be decided today.
trackcycling’s coverage of the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships is supported by Brooks Cycles
Men’s Individual Pursuit
The favourites for the Individual Pursuit are all in Green and Gold or Red, White and Blue and we think it’ll be World Record holder Bobridge that takes it for Australia with Thomas taking Silver for Great Britain – although with Thomas in Heat 1 the Aussies have the opportunity to play with schedules and go for a 1-2-3.
Australia’s strength in depth in the discipline is phenomenal and we’re going to go for Dennis as the Bronze medal winner – although New Zealand’s Peter Latham would be a good outside bet for third place, as would Dominique Cornu of Belgium.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Jack Bobridge (AUS)
SILVER Geraint Thomas (GBR)
BRONZE Rohan Dennis (AUS)
Men’s 40K Points Final
The Points race is another race that’s difficult to predict – if not quite the lottery of the Scratch race. Cam Meyer should take this one – especially as last year’s audacious winner Avila Edward Alcibiades of Colombia is absent this time. The other medals are harder to predict. Swift’s a long shot here for Great Britain, but we’re going to go for Unai Elloriaga of Spain and Aaron Gate of New Zealand. You just watch…
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Cameron Meyer (AUS)
SILVER Unai Elloriaga (ESP)
BRONZE Aaron Gate (NZL)
Men’s Sprint
The big surprise from the first day of the Sprint competition was the failure of any of the German riders to progress to the Semi Final stages. We don’t think there will bee many surprises on the closing day, either. We expect Sir Chris Hoy to make it past team mate – and reigning World Champion – Jason Kenny to meet Grégory Baugé in the final and we think he’ll give him a run for his money. The Frenchman, though, will take it to atone for last year’s mistakes.
The race for Bronze is tougher to call, but we think Kenny will have enough to see off an in form Shane Perkins.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Gregory Bauge (FRA)
SILVER Chris Hoy (GBR)
BRONZE Jason Kenny (GBR)
Women’s Keirin
Bouyed by her success in the Sprint Finals yesterday, you’d be mad to completely rule out a double for Victoria Pendleton, but we think she rode above herself – in terms of current form – yesterday and, following the crash, will struggle in the Keirin. It might be an opportunity for Anna Meares to get back on top, but we think Simona Krupeckaite will better her Silver from yesterday and take another rainbow jersey back to Lithuania. Guo might seem an odd choice for Silver – she isn’t going brilliantly at the moment – but she loves the keirin and is hard to beat in a six-up charge to the line.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Simona Krupeckaite (LTU)
SILVER Shuang Guo (CHN)
BRONZE Anna Meares (AUS)
Women’s Omnium
This had looked like another titanic battle between Sarah Hammer of the USA and Tara Whitten of Canada and there didn’t see much standing in the way of Whitten taking her third straight title. But the first day of competition has changed things around with Whitten and Hammer already 10 points adrift of joint leaders Annette Edmondson of Australia and Laura Trott of Great Britain.
We’d love to see Laura Trott add the Omnium Gold to the one she one in the Team Pursuit – and her performance in London suggests that she will, at some point – but we don’t think it’s going to come just yet – despite her Day 1 performance. We think Edmondson will hold on and take a narrow win. The real battle will be for the Bronze.
Like Clancy in the Men’s event, Whitten is stronger in the timed events – she’s an outside bet for a medal in the Individual Pursuit – but she’s a pretty good bunch race rider, too. There are some strong riders coming through from China and Eastern Europe, but we think the Trott will be the closest to the two favourites.
trackcycling predicition
GOLD Annette Edmondson (AUS)
SILVER Laura Trott (GBR)
BRONZE Tara Whitten (CAN)
