The opening session of the first round of the twelfth series of Revolution events at the London Olympic Velodrome included a UCI Men’s Keirin competition, the first half of a UCI Women’s Omnium, a Varsity Team Pursuit Challenge and the British National Madison Championships. Not bad for starters.
Report, results and galleries
Varsity Team Pursuit Challenge
Glasgow University topped the time sheets in the qualifying session for the Varsity Team Pursuit Challenge by two seconds over Loughborough, but it was Southampton University that provided the drama with two false starts due to mechanical problems leaving them relegated to the 3rd-4th ride without having completed a lap. Glasgow’s time fo 4:34.712 looked a tough one to beat with the relatively short amount of time to recover.
Qualifying
1 Glasgow University 4:34.712
2 Loughborough 4:36.925
3 UCLAN 4:43.974
4 Southampton University REL
Recovery, however, is no substitute for technique and all four squads – Southampton finally getting out of the gate in the Finals – looked slicker second time around. Southampton took the 3rd-4th ride off against a UCLAN team that improved by four seconds on their earlier time. It probably won’t have come as much consolation, but the time – four seconds off the winners’ pace – suggested that Southampton were probably in the right heat.
The Final saw more drama towards the end as one of the Glasgow riders touched a wheel coming out of turn 4, rolled a tub and came down hard on the pursuit line on the home straight. Although it probably did have an effect on Glasgow’s time, it’s hard to say it affected the result – Loughborough looking much stronger – and five seconds quicker – than they did in qualificatio, to take the overall win with a time of 4:31.990 – half a second up on the Glaswegian squad.
Finals
3rd/4th
3 Southampton University 4:35.356
4 UCLAN 4:39.490
Final
1 Loughborough 4:31.990
2 Glasgow University 4:32.558
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UCI Men’s Keirin
The size of the field was small, but the quality was high and included a multiple Paralympic and World Champion in the form of Jody Cundy, Chris Pritchard – who topped a 10th place in a world class field in the Keirin at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow by proposing to his girlfriend, Matt Rotherham, Spain’s Juan Peralta and Lewis Oliva.
It was the big Welshman that tookt he win in the first heat, progressing to the Final with Matt Rotherham, with Cundy and Jonathan Mitchell moving to the Repechage. Peralta took the second from Pritchard with Andy Louis joining Cundy and Mitchell in the Rep. And although it was Cundy who led out the sprint in the Rep, it was Louis who took the remaining place in the Final.
First Round
Heat 1
1 Lewis OLIVA
2 Matt ROTHERHAM
3 Jody CUNDY
4 Jonathan MITCHELL
Heat 2
1 Juan PERALTA-GASCON ESP
2 Chris PRITCHARD
3 Andy LOUIS
1st Round Repechage
1 Jonathan MITCHELL
2 Andy LOUIS
3 Jody CUNDY
Final
1 Lewis OLIVA
2 Matt ROTHERHAM
3 Juan PERALTA-GASCON ESP
4 Chris PRITCHARD
5 Andy LOUIS
6 Jonathan MITCHELL
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UCI Women’s Omnium I – Scratch Race
The new format Women’s Omnium begins with the Scratch Race and, in wha
t was billed as a road vs track battle between Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Laura Trott, it was Trott that put down the marker. Never far from the front and marshalling the bunch to chase down any attempt to get away in the early stages, Trott, Vos, Kate Archibald and Elinor Barker then took a lap. Guaranteed a top 4 spot, it was no great surprise to see her lead out the final sprint – which she won from Leira Olaberria of Spain and Gosia Wojtrya of Poland – who took fifth and sixth respectively. Vos followed them home to take second with Achibald heading home Barker.
Scratch Race
1 Laura TROTT
2 Marianne VOS NED
3 Katie ARCHIBALD
4 Elinor BARKER
5 Leire OLABERRIA ESP
6 Gosia WOJTRYA POL
National Men’s Madison Championships
Before the Omnium resumed, we had the small matter of the National Men’s Madison to decide. Again, a small field, sprinkled with class took to the track with Adam Blythe of NFTO – soon to be of Orica-GreenEDGE, Alex Dowsett of Movistar and Andy Tennat of Madison Genesis among them.
It was youngsters Gabriel Cullaigh and Mark Stewart who took the first sprint from Tennant and Oliver Wood but it was Tennat and Wood that then took contril of the race.
No laps were taken – although a few were lost along the way – but Wood and Tennant took first or second in every remaining sprint by the final one – leaving them with an untouchable score of 37 points.
Their nearest rivals – Dowsett and Joe Holt – did their best to animate the race and took three of the Sprints the winners missed out on, but it wasn’t enough. A couple of attempts to take a lap came to nothing and the win in the Final sprint left them 5 points behind the winners and 11 ahead of Cullaigh and Stewart who took the Bronze.
GOLD Oliver WOOD 100%ME & Andy TENNANT Madison Genesis 37
SILVER Alex DOWSETT Movistar & Joe HOLT County Cycles 32
BRONZE Gabriel CULLAIGH RST Racing Team & Mark STEWART Spokes Racing Team 21
4 Matt GIBSON Velocity-WD40 & Jake KELLY ILLI-bikes 9
5 Alistair RUTHERFORD & Philip TRODDEN Rigmar Racing Team 6
6 Elliot DAVIS Team Tor 2000 & George GORI Nuun Sigma Sport 1
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UCI Women’s Omnium – Individual Pursuit
Emily Kay – riding for Team USN – took an early lead in the Omnium Individual Pursuit with a time of 3:47.619 – before the big hitters arrived on the scene. In the penultimate heat, newly crowned European Individual Pursuit Champion Archibald just lost out to here World Champion Team Pursuit team mate Elinor Barker by four tenths of a second – leaving just Vos and Trott to go. Vos never looked entirely comfortable, while Trott looked like she could ride flat out all day. On her opponent’s wheel by the end, Trott took her second win of the competition by 3.3 seconds on3:36.519 with Vos finishing fourth behind Barker and Archibald.
Individual Pursuit
1 Laura TROTT 3:36.519
2 Elinor BARKER 3:39.822
3 Katie ARCHIBALD 3:40.221
4 Marianne VOS NED 3:45.674
5 Emily KAY 3:47.619
6 Amy ROBERTS 3:48.900
7 Gosia WOJTRYA POL 3:49.706
8 Emily NELSON 3:53.867
9 Leire OLABERRIA ESP 3:55.804
10 Manon LLOYD 3:36.298
11 Abbie DENTUS 3:56.587
12 Anita STENBERG NOR 3:57.449
13 Ellie COSTER 3:58.589
14 Roxanne KNETTEMAN NED 4:00.285
15 Laura BASSO ITA 4:06.053
16 Sarah INGELBRECHT BEL 4:06.849
UCI Women’s Omnium – Elimination Race
Nobody was suprised by the result fo the Elimination Race, but the crowd did have to wait a little while to have it confirmed as first Olaberria crashed and the race was neutralised while she rejoined the track, during which time, the unfortunate Gosia Wojtrya punctured. A couple of attempts to borrow a bike were unsuccessful and in the end she had to withdraw and was classified fifth – leaving Kay, Archibald, Vos and Trott still in the race.
To nobody’s great surprise, it was Trott and Vos who contended the final sprint and Trott came under her opponent through turn 2 and simply rode away from her to take a clean sweep of the Day 1 events and a commanding lead into Day 2 – although, with the new Points Race format, anything is still possible.
Elimination Race
1 Laura TROTT
2 Marianne VOS NED
3 Katie ARCHIBALD
4 Emily KAY
5 Gosia WOJTRYA POL
6 Sarah INGELBRECHT BEL
7 Anita STENBERG NOR
8 Leire OLABERRIA ESP
9 Laura BASSO ITA
10 Abbie DENTUS
11 Ellie COSTER
12 Elinor BARKER
13 Roxanne KNETTEMAN NED
14 Amy ROBERTS
15 Manon LLOYD
16 Emily NELSON
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