The final day of competition at the European Track Championships in Guadelope saw the conclusion of the Women’s Omnium, the Men’s and Women’s Keirin, the Women’s Individual Pursuit and the Men’s Madison – and temperatures of 45C in the shade!
Photos by Wim Hoste cyclephotos.be and Roberto Bettini/UEC
Women’s Omnium – Day 2
Laura Trott of Great Britain picked up where she left off on the first day, taking a second consecutive win – this time in the 500m Time Trial. Her time of 36.823 was half a second better than her nearest rival in the overall competition, Jolien D’Hoore, but the Belgian’s second place maintained her overall lead. Magorzata of Poland took third, another three tenths back with Tatsiana Sharakova of Belarus in fourth.
Women’s Omnium IV – 500m Time Trial
1 Laura TROTT GREAT BRITAIN 36.823
2 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM 37.231
3 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POLAND 37.596
4 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BELARUS 37.626
5 Anna KNAUER GERMANY 37.919
6 Ausrine TREBAITE LITHUANIA 37.955
And then it was three in a row, with another comfortable win for Trott in the Flying Lap. D’Hoore kept up the pressure with another second place and Anna Knauer of Germany continued her steady rise up the standings with third, while Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands’ challenge started to falter with a fourth place – after a disappointing 10th in the 500m.
Women’s Omnium V – Flying Lap
1 Laura TROTT GREAT BRITAIN 19.916
2 Jolien D’HOORE BELGIUM 20.177
3 Anna KNAUER GERMANY 20.189
4 Kirsten WILD NETHERLANDS 20.220
5 Malgorzata WOJTYRA POLAND 20.387
6 Tatsiana SHARAKOVA BELARUS 20.401
That win put Trott on top of the leaderboard going in to the final event – but tied on points with D’Hoore. The leading duo were 24 points ahead of Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands with Wojtyra 8 points back in 4th and Knauer six points behind Wojtyra. It was Sharakova, though, who took the first sprint with none of the major contenders scoring any points at all. After that, Ausrine Trebaite of Lithuania went on an amazing run winning four sprints in a row and racking up a few points in four of the last five sprints. In a conventional Points Race, she would have won.
In the Omnium, though, riders start the race with the points they’ve scored in the other five events, so all eyes were on the two leaders. In the second sprint, Trott followed Trebaite home to take three points, but D’Hoore was right behind her – Trott ahead by one. In the fifth Sprint – the last of Trebaite’s wins – it as D’Hoore who took second, with Trott third. Tied again. Next time round it was Tetyana Klimchenko of the Ukraine that took the five points from Evgenia Romanyuta of Russia – with D’Hoore taking third and Trott fourth. Advantage D’Hoore.
And that’s how it stayed until the last straight of the last lap. Klimchenko took the next sprint and then Sharakova and (crucially) Knauer got away and alternated over the next four sprints, with the German picking up second when the Belarus rider won. With only the final sprint to go, D’Hoore led Trott by a point and Knauer had moved from fifth to the Bronze medal position – just a point ahead of Wild.
The Dutch rider failed to score in the final sprint, leaving Knauer to claim an unexpected Bronze as she rolled over in 14th – right on Wild’s shoulder. But ahead of that, as the charge for the line began it was D’Hoore at the head of the field, looking to claim the Gold – until Trott passed her in the final 10 metres to take the title by a single point.
Women’s Individual Pursuit
Katie Archibald’s inexorable rise to the top continued in Guadeloupe – the Scottish rider topping the Individual Pursuit qualifying leaderboard in some style – four seconds ahead of her nearest rival Mieke Kroger of Germany. Her time of 3:47.129 was seven seconds up on reiging World and Commonwealth Individual Pursuit Champion – and Great Britain team mate – Joanna Rowsell, who just missed out on a medal ride in fifth place.
Ahead of Rowsell it was Vilija Serekaite of Lithuania and Eugenia Bujak of Poland that qualified for the Bronze medal ride and – with just a tenth of a second between them – that looked like it would be an epic battle.
Qualifying
1 Katie ARCHIBALD GREAT BRITAIN 3:47.129
2 Mieke KROGER GERMANY 3:51.147
3 Vilija SEREIKAITE LITHUANIA 3:52.671
4 Eugenia BUJAK POLAND 3:52.775
5 Joanna ROWSELL GREAT BRITAIN 3:54.182
6 Aleksandra GONCHAROVA RUSSIA 3:55.800
7 Lotte KOPECKY BELGIUM 3:57.351
8 Silvia VALSECCHI ITALY 3:58.902
9 Pascale JEULAND FRANCE 3:59.559
10 Irina MOLICHEVA RUSSIA 3:59.814
11 Beatrice BARTELLONI ITALY 4:00.176
Great Britain’s pursuiters tend to ride a negative split – but not so Archibald. Her blistering opening kilometre time of 1:16.061 put her almost two seconds ahead of her German opponent. There must have beem some concern that she’d gone out too hot when Kroger clawed back three tenths of a second by the 2km point, but Archibald had wiped that out – and a bit more – by the finish, taking Gold with a time of 3:40.136 – seven seconds up on her qualifying time – to Kroger’s 3:42.153 (a nine second improvement – albeit in changeable weather conditions). The Bronze medal ride was, in the end, rather more one-sided than the final – although the pattern as similar with Serekaite going out strong, Bujak clawing a bit back in the middle th
ird before the Lithuanian opened out the gap to take the in by two and a half seconds.
GOLD Katie ARCHIBALD GREAT BRITAIN 3:40.136
SILVER Mieke KROGER GERMANY 3:42.153
BRONZE Vilija SEREIKAITE LITHUANIA 3:45.811
4 Eugenia BUJAK POLAND 3:48.329
Women’s Keirin
Germany’s women sprinters must have gone into the Keirin slightly disappointed with their results in the Sprint and Team Sprint, but both won their first round heats. Vogel won her second round heat, too – but Welte found herslf in last place in hers and had to settle for the minor final, where she would only finish fourth having led the sprint out.
Vogel had no such problems in the main final, though, holding off a determined charge from Elena Breshniva tof Russia to take the Gold with Shanne Brasspennincx of the Netherlands taking the Bronze.
GOLD Kristina VOGEL GERMANY
SILVER Elena BREZHNIVA RUSSIA
BRONZE Shanne BRASPENNINCX NETHERLANDS
4 Olena TSOS UKRAINE
5 Simona KRUPECKAITE LITHUANIA
6 Elis LIGTLEE NETHERLANDS
Men’s Keirin
The first round of the Men’s Keitin saw some surprises – if not outright shocks – as pre-race favourites Callum Skinner (winner of the Kilometre Gold for Great Britain) and Sprint Champion Gregory Bauge of France finished second in their heats. Skinner’s team mate Matt Crampton could only manage fifth in his heat but Joachm Eilers of Germany looked ominous winning his.
Crampton failed to progress from his Repechage, but the popular Greek Christos Volikakis did make it through, along with Nikita Shurshin of Russia, Mateusz Lipa of Poland and Vasilijus Lendel of Lithuania. Eilers continued to impress in the second round, qualifying ahead of Bauge and Lipa in his heat, with Denis Dmitriev of Russia heading home Matthijs Buchli of the Netherlands and Lendel to complete the Final line-up.
Bauge took an early leead in the Final and, for a while, it looked like to would be a straight fight between Dmitriev and Buchli but a last minute surge from the German saw Eilers take it on the line with Buchli taking Silver and Dmitriev Bronze.
GOLD Joachim EILERS GERMANY
SILVER Matthijs BUCHLI NETHERLANDS
BRONZE Denis DMITRIEV RUSSIA
4 Vasilijus LENDEL LITHUANIA
5 Mateusz LIPA POLAND
6 Gregory BAUGE FRANCE
Men’s Madison
The Madison’s always thrilling, occasionally difficult to follow and often doesn’t go the way you’d expect. Kenny De Ketele and Otto Vergaerde of Belgium dominated the sprints for points taking two wins, three seconds and a third, only failing to score on two of the available opportunities and racking up 21 points. Vivien Brisse and Morgan Kneisky of France weren’t far behind them with two wins, two seconds and a third – an impressive 8 points. But that was only enough for Silver and Bronze, respectively because what they didn’t do – and what Andreas Graf and Andreas Muller did manage – was take and hold a lap. Despite only taking 6 points from a second, a third and a fourth, the extra lap gave the Austrian duo an emotional and well deserved Gold medal.
GOLD AUSTRIA (Andreas MULLER, Andreas GRAF) 6 points
SILVER BELGIUM (Kenny DE KETELE, Otto VERGAERDE) 21 -1 lap
BRONZE FRANCE (Morgan KNEISKY, Vivien BRISSE) 18
4 GERMANY (Leon ROHDE, Theo REINHARDT) 13
5 SPAIN (Albert TORRES, David MUNTANER) 13
6 UKRAINE (Vladyslav KREMINSKYI, Roman GLADYSH) 6
7 GREAT BRITAIN (Mark CHRISTIAN, Owain DOULL) 3
8 SWITZERLAND (Thery SCHIR, Tristan MARGUET) 2
9 NETHERLANDS (Wim STROETINGA, Theo BOS)
10 ITALY (Liam BERTAZZO, Alex BUTTAZZONI) 4 -2 laps
11 POLAND (Adrian TEKLINSKI, Mateusz NOWAK) 2 -3 laps
