It was business as usual for Team GB at the opening day of the first round of the 2013-2014 Track Cycling World Cup series in Manchester. Taking two Golds, a Silver (two, really…) and a Bronze with a combination of familiar faces and – for many of the sell-out audience, at least – new faces.
In the Men’s Team Pursuit, Owain Doull, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Andy Tennant set the fastest time in qualifying with a 3:59.672 – the only squad to break the four minute barrier.
The Australian quartet of Luke Davison, Alexander Edmondson, Mitchell Mulhern and Miles Scotson pushed them hard in the Final – beating the Brits’ qualifying time with a 3:59.293. The GB squad, though, moved up a gear and took the Gold with a 3:58.654. Denmark edged out the Netherlands to take the Bronze.
In the Team Sprint Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Kian Emadi continued to improve as a unit but their time of 43.693 was a tenth off the pace of the Russian trio of Paval Yakushevskiy, Denis Dmitriev and Andrey Kubeev who clocked 43.561 to pip them to a place in the final. Fastest of all were Germany – Rene Enders, Max Niederlag and Robert Foerstemann setting the benchmark with a 43.351. The New Zealand trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins joined Great Britain in the Bronze Medal ride with a 43.823.
Germany dominated the final – six tenths ahead of Russia with a 43.293 – while Great Britain held off New Zealand to take the Bronze.
In the Women’s Team Pursuit, the Great Britain squad of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Dani King and Jo Rowsell continued their incredible run with another World Record to lead the qualifying with a 4:23.910. Canada – Gillian Carleton, Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser and Stephanie Roorda – joined them in the Final with a 4:28.054 wuth Australia and Russia contesting the Bronze.
The World Record went again in the Final with the Great Britain women taking the mark under 4:20 for the first time with a 4:19.604. Canada could never match their pace – although they did improve on their qualifying time and came home with a 4:27.083. Australia took the Bronze.
It was the Germans again in the Team Sprint with Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel clocking 32.992 in qualifying to set up a final with the home team of Vicky Williamson and Becky James who set a time of 33.483. Russia faced Chinese trade team Max Success Pro Cycling – Lin Junhong and Tianshi Zhong – for Bronze.
The effervescent German duo improved to 32.788 in the Final and it was enough to take the Gold with Williamson and James on 33.635. The Chinese pair took the Bronze.
In the Men’s Omnium, Luke Davison clocked 13.105 to take the win in the Flying Lap with Tim Veldt of the Netherlands 2nd, Jasper de Buyst of Belgium 3rd, Unai Elorriaga of Spain 4th, Great Britain’s Jon Dibben 5th and Aaron Gate of New Zealand 6th.
The other medal of the evening went to Malgorzata Wojtyra of Poland who held off fellow escapees Katie Archibald of Scotland-Braveheart.com – who made her GB debut at the recent European Championships where she took a Gold with the Team Pursuit squad – and Tetyana Klimchenko of Ukrained to take the Gold in the Women’s Scratch Race.
Thomas Boudat of France lapped the field in the Omnium Points Race and took the win ahead of De Buyst, Gate, Raman Tshishkou of Belarus, Veldy and Elorriaga.
Boudat then rounded off the day with a win in the Elimination Race ahead of De Buyst, Gate, Veldy, Davuson and Elorriaga. That leaves De Buyst at the top of the overnight leaderboard on 7 points, four clear of Veldt on 11 with Gate in third place on 12. Didden lies 7th on 25 points at the start of his stronger second day.
