Men’s Sprint – Semifinals

The men’s sprint semifinals kicked off the final session of the 2014/5 Track World Cup. The might of the London round winner, Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands, was no match for Maximilian Levy of Germany with Hoogland taking the win in both races.

The second match saw Denis Dmitriev of Rusvelo pitted against the home rider, Fabian Puerta. The loud, raucous support for the Puerta may have actually proved a distraction for the home rider who elected to save his energy and admit defeat in the first race after a strong attack from the three-time European champion saw Dmitriev triumph over Puerta. The second race was a closer affair, and Puerta appeared to have the advantage. However, a late surge by the Russian saw him edge across the line first and relegate Puerta to the bronze medal final.

Men’s Sprint – Semifinals – Riders Who Progress to Finals

Gold Medal Final

1 Jeffrey HOOGLAND  NETHERLANDS
2 Denis DMITRIEV  RUSVELO

Bronze Medal Final

1 Fabian Hernando PUERTA ZAPATA  COLOMBIA
2 Maximilian Levy GERMANY

Men’s Sprint – Race for 5th to 8th Place

Patrick Constable took his first sprint points of the World Cup with a win in the minor final, making the unpopular move of beating home rider, Anderson Parra, into second place. Shane Perkins of Jayco AIS took third, with Damien Zielinski of Poland taking eight – his highest position in all the World Cup rounds.

Men’s Sprint – Race for 5th to 8th Place – Results

5 Patrick CONSTABLE  AUSTRALIA
6 Anderson PARRA  COLOMBIA
7 Shane PERKINS  JAYCO AIS
8 Damien ZIELINSKI  POLAND

Men’s Sprint – Finals

One might have believed that the first of the finals, the ride for bronze, was for the gold such was the support for Puerta. The World Cup leader powered around the track to take the bronze medal from Levy in two straight race.

The final for gold was set to be a more competitive affair. Dmitriev, who had had a disappointing performance in London, was fired up to get his own back on the London round gold medallist, Hoogland. His campaign got off to the perfect start, taking the win in the first race. However, with Hoogland taking the win in a messy second race, the final had to be taken to a third, deciding, race. Dmitriev won the final round, winning him the gold medal.

Men’s Sprint – Finals – Results

Gold Denis DMITRIEV  RUSVELO
Silver Jeffrey HOOGLAND  NETHERLANDS

Bronze Fabian Hernando PUERTA ZAPATA  COLOMBIA
4 Maximilian Levy GERMANY

Women’s Omnium VI – Points Race

The final event of the women’s omnium was the points race. Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands had a lead of 24 points going into the race; a comfortable lead, but not one which would guarantee victory. What was clear, however, was both Spanish rider Marlies Meijas Garcia and Wild would unseat the World Cup leader, Jolien d’Hoore after she had elected not to ride the Cali round.

Meijas was fifth overall going into the event, but with just 10 points separating her from the silver medal, she clearly had the potential to move up the medal rankings, particularly with her lethal short distance speed which she had used to perfection to win the previous two rounds of the omnium, the time trial and flying lap. Indeed, she was buoyed enough to take the first sprint, chalking up five points and overtaking fourth placed Simon Frapporti of Italy. Two points for Germany’s Anna Knauer, currently lying in silver, were crucial for her in her podium campaign.

Clearly unfatigued from her first effort, Meijas sprinted across the line first to take maximum points in the second sprint putting her within three points of Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro who was lying in bronze. Wild managed to grab a crucial point in this sprint to increase her lead to a quarter of a century from Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro of Spain.

Lotte Kopecky of Belgian used the opportunity created after the second sprint to break away from the bunch in an attempt to take a lap. Kopecky, lying in 12th place going into the points race, offered little threat to the competition leaders who let her take a lap within four laps.

Wild grabbed full points in the third sprint increasing her lead further but, disappointingly for her, it was second place Olaberria who was on her wheel and took three points. Neither riders featured in the fourth sprint, which saw maximum points claimed by Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland who had quietly collected points in three of the four sprints so far. Knauer grabbed a crucial three points to forward her campaign for the silver medal.

Knauer’s campaign was to be shortlived, however: the next sprint saw Olaberria take maximum points and edge ahead of Knauer to the silver medal position. Wild earned another point with fourth place. Elizabeth Newell of the USA broke away from the bunch and, unchallenged, took a lap for 20 points. Although Newell’s lap would not trouble the leaders, for Newell it moved her up from 18th to 15th in the overall competition.

The leaders did not feature in the seventh sprint which was once again taken by Pawlowska who had arguably been the most impressive so far in the sprints for the points. Meijas managed to take full points in the eighth sprint meaning there were just three points separating second from fourth. Sadly for Meijas, Knauer managed to grab two points in the same sprint.

Olaberria took the ninth sprint to move into silver medal position from Knauer, with Wild taking second place meaning there was everything to play for in the final sprint. In the end, it was Xiao Juan Diao of Hong Kong who stole the maximum points and, with Mejias unable to challenge after feeling the exertions of her earlier efforts, Knauer grabbed a single point to cement her bronze medal.

Wild finished the race with the gold, which also put her as the overall winner of the World Cup competition. Olaberria was ecstatic with her three point cushion for silver, whilst Knauer would understandably be relieved to hang on to silver. Meijas would understandably be disappointed to finish in fourth, but some consolation would be gained from her silver medal in the overall World Cup omnium competition.

Women’s Omnium VI – Points Race – Total Omnium Points After Race

1 Kirsten WILD  NETHERLANDS 190
2 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro  SPAIN 169
3 Anna KNAUER  GERMANY 166
4 Marlies Mejias Garcia  SPAIN 163
5 Simona FRAPPORTI  ITALY 154
6 tamara BALABOLINA  Russia 137
7 Amalie DIDERIKSEN  DENMARK 134
8 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA  POLAND 129
9 Racquel SHEATH  NEW ZEALAND 121
10 Ausrine TREBAITE  LITHUANIA 120
11 Lotte KOPECKY  BELGIUM  SPAIN 110
12 Xiao Juan DIAO  HONG KONG 99
13 Soline LAMBOLEY  FRANCE 90
14 Yuanyuan TIAN  CHINA 80
15 Elizabeth NEWELL  USA 70
16 Caroline RYAN  IRELAND 64
17 Lucie ZALESKA  CZECH REPUBLIC  56
18 Emily KAY  WALES 54
19 Sofia ARREOLA NAVARRO  MEXICO 50
20 Jupha SOMNET  MALAYSIA 41
21 Elissa WUNDERSITZ  AUSTRALIA 37
22 Katslaryna PIATROUSKAYA  BELARUS 31
21 Sakura TSUKAGOSHI  JAPAN DNF

Women’s Keirin – Second Round

Two heats of six riders lined up to contest the second round of the Keirin competition. In the first race, Lin Junhong of China made the early move, but it was Melissa Erickson of the USA who powered down the final straight to just pip Junhong on the line. Caitlin Ward of Australia grabbed the last final place in the first heat.
The second heat was delayed due to a severe thunderstorm, but when racing resumed, Shuang Guo of Max Success Pro Cycling gave a clear demonstration as to why she is so far undefeated in the World Cup keirin competition. Taking to the front early on, Guo raced unchallenged to the line to take the win. Ekaterina Gnidenko of Russia took the second qualification spot, with Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands taking the final spot.

Women’s Keirin – Second Round – Qualifiers From Both Heats Through To Finals

1 Melissa ERICKSON  USA
2 Jin JUNHONG  CHINA
3 Caitlin WARD  AUSTRALIA
4 Shuang GUO  MAX PRO CYCLING TEAM
5 Ekaterina GNIDENKO  RUSSIA
6 Shanne BRASPENNINCX  NETHERLANDS

Women’s Keirin – Finals

The first Keirin final was for 7th to 12th place, and it was the reigning Asian Keirin champion, Wai Sze Lee from Hong Kong, who accelerated away from the bunch in the final lap to take the win by a convincing third of a second. Monique Sullivan of Canada took second place ahead of Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez of Cuba.

The gold medal final was the last event of the World Cup competition and, rather than finish in a blaze of glory for the gold medal winner, the race was marred by an accident at the bell which brought down Ekaterina Gnidenko of Russia and Caitlin Ward of Australia. Shuang Guo powered around to take the win, but was later relegated after deemed to be entering an opponent’s line. Lin Junghong of China was awarded with the win, albeit in far from ideal circumstances, with Shanne Braspennincx taking silver. Melissa Erickson took the bronze, with Gnidenko picking herself up to ride across the line for fourth place and Ward walking across the line for fifth.

Women’s Keirin – Finals – Results

Final for 1st to 6th place

1 Jin JUNHONG  CHINA Melissa ERICKSON  USA
2 Shanne BRASPENNINCX  NETHERLANDS
3 Melissa ERICKSON  USA
4 Ekaterina GNIDENKO  RUSSIA
5 Caitlin WARD  AUSTRALIA
6 Shuang GUO  MAX PRO CYCLING TEAM (REL)

Final for 7th to 12th place

7 Sze Wai LEE  HONG KONG
8 Monique SULLIVAN  CANADA
9 Lisandra GUERRA RODRIGUEZ  CUBA
10 Fatehah MUSTAPA  YSD TRACK TEAM
11 Juliana GAVIRIA  COLOMBIA
12 Tania CALVO BARBERO  SPAIN

Men’s Omnium VI – Points Race

The points race formed the last bunch race of the weekend and, with just eight points separating the top three riders – Cameron Karwowski of New Zealand, Maximilian Beyer of Germany and Tim Veldt of the Netherlands – everything was to play for, particularly with Jasper De Buyst of Belgium and Gael Suter of Switzerland snapping at the heels of the current medal holders. A gained lap could be the decider for victory between any of these riders.

The first set of sprint points went to the Spaniard, Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur, with De Buyst grabbing a vital two points for second place. Raman Tsishkou of Belarus then took the opportunity to take a lap, his charge unchallenged due to being safely down the leaderboard. Casper Pedersen of Denmark took maximum points in the next set, the sixth-placed Dane having an outside chance of a podium if he could gain some laps in the race. However, with both Suter and Veldt also grabbing points, it would not prove an easy task.

Irish rider Martyn Irvine had his first moment of glory of the weekend, taking maximum points in the third sprint, with Beyer gratefully taking the three points for second place putting him in the gold medal position ahead of Karwowski. After the fifth and sixth sprint laps, which left the standings unaffected, a large group of six riders – which included Elorriaga – broke away from the bunch to take a lap.

The seventh sprint lap turned out to be a crucial lap: Jasper De Buyst grabbed the full five points to put him in the silver medal position, with Levy extending his lead with a further three points. With the eighth sprint lap not affecting the lead standings, De Buyst and Beyer take the opportunity to gain a lap in an attempt to further cement their top two positions. Karwowski was losing ground fast and, now lying in a far from safe bronze position, needed to gain more points to be sure of a podium spot.

The situation became even worse for Karwowski when Veldt took five points in the tenth sprint lap to put him within three points of the gold medal. Suter gained a vital three points in the same sprint.

Pedersen grabbed more points in the thirteenth sprint lap and soon made an attempt to take another lap which would have shaken the top of the table, but found himself unable to break away. With another lap gained by De Buyst and Beyer, the gold and silver places seemed a certainty with just 10 laps remaining.

Veldt took the penultimate sprint points to put him in fourth place, unseating Karwowski from the podium. However, it was Beyer who took off from the rest of the field in the final lap and took a convincing – and ecstatic – win, with Irvine crossing the line in second place. With none of the other podium contenders gaining points in the final sprint, the bronze medal was won by Suter – just three points ahead of Veldt and five from Thomas Boudat of France, whose three laps gained during the race had propelled him from ninth to fifth. Karwowski would undoubtedly be disappointed to be shunted down to sixth place; his failure to gain any laps during the race proving costly.

Men’s Omnium VI – Points Race – Total Omnium Points After Race

Gold Maximilian BEYER  GERMANY 220
Silver Jasper DE BUYST  BELGIUM 206
Bronze Gael SUTER  SWITZERLAND 178
4 Tim Veldt  NETHERLANDS 175
5 Thomas BOUDAT  FRANCE 172
6 Cameron KARWOWSKI  NEW ZEALAND 170
7 Casper PEDERSEN  DENMARK 167
8 Raman TSHISHKOU  BELARUS 149
9 Viktor MANAKOV  RUSSIA 147
10 Chun Wing LEUNG  HONG KONG 145
11 Hao LIU  CHINA 142
12 Unai ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR  SPAIN 133
13 Sam WELSFORD  AUSTRALIA 103
14 Oliver WOOD  GREAT BRITAIN 92
15 Sebastian MOLANO  COLOMBIA 87
16 Martyn IRVINE  IRELAND 77
17 Kazushige KUBOKI  JAPAN 75
18 Simone CONSONNI  ITALY 69
19 Ignacio SARABIA DIAZ  MEXICO 68
20 Ondrej RYBIN  CZECH REPUBLIC 64
21 Jacob DUEHRING  USA 62
22 Ioannis SPANOPOULOS  GREECE 60
23 Gideoni MONTEIRO  BRAZIL 48
24 Timur GUMEROV  UZBEKHISTAN 7