Day two in Derby would see the Men’s and Women’s Omniums kick off – with Mark Cavendish making his debut in one and Laura Trott resuming battle in the other as well as the Men’s Individual Pursuit – and the Sprint competitions which would see Francois Pervis and Jason Kenny try to wring every thousandth of a second out of the new track.
Photos by Andy Whitehouse
Men’s Individual Pursuit
The second day of competition at the Derby velodrome opened with qualifying for the Men’s Individual Pursuit with 15 riders taking to the track. Six of them managed to ride the 4000m in under four and a half minutes – Julian Morice of France taking sixth with a 4:29.653. Great Britain’s Andy Tennant was eight tenths faster in fifth with a 4:28.641 – a second and a half down on Dion Benkeboom who clocked 4:26.345.
Germain Burton of Great Britain was third on 4:25.664, just a couple of tenths behind teammate Owain Doull’s 4:25.420. Well clear at the top, though, was the impressive Matt Gibson with a 4:23.212.
Men’s Sprint
200m Time Trial
With the Revolution sprint competition the first top class sprint event to be held at the new Derby velodrome , all eyes were on the times to try to gauge just how fast the track is. the answer, it would appear, is that it’s pretty quick, with 10 of the 13 competitors under 10.5 seconds.
Sadly for Jose Moreno of Spain, it wasn’t quite quick enough for him as he became the unlucky 13th rider, with the fastest 12 going through to the 1/8 finals. Matt Rotherham was just the other side of the line – just a tenth faster than the Spaniard.
Hugo Haak of the Netherlandswas the last rider in the top half of the qualifiers – docking 10.327 to finish just one place behind World record holder France’s Francois Pervis who managed a 10.188. Just ahead of Pervis was Jason Kenny of Great Britain on 10.109 – just a thousandth of 2 second behind Pervis’ compatriot Quentin Lafargue. Exactly two hundredths faster than Lafargue on 10.088 was Great Britain’s Callum Skinner – the Scot just over two hundredths behind his Welsh teammate Lewis Oliva.
The first four of the 1/8 finals went to form with Oliva, Skinner, Lafargue and Kenny going through. the shock of the evening saw Pervis dumped into the repechages by Volikakis while the battle between the two closest qualifiers saw Hindes overturn his small disadvantage to get past Haak. Neither Haak or Pervishad anything to worry about, though – both coming through their reps to join the 1/8 final winners in the Quarter finals.
The Quarter finals also went largely to form. Pervis had progressed via the Reps, but Oliva ended his competition with skinner and Kenny also making it past slower qualifiers. Hindes made it a miserable night for the French, though, knocking out Lafargue en route to the Semis.
Women’s Sprint
200m Time Trial
The Women’s Sprint Qualifying saw Great Britain’s Rebecca James round at the top half of the 1/8 final draw with an 11.617, just behind Tania Calvo of Spain who clocked 11.465. Victoria ‘s Sprint Qualifying saw Great Britain’s Rebecca James round at the top half of the 1/8 final draw with an 11.617, just behind Tania Calvo of Spain who clocked 11.465. Victoria Williamson of Great Britain was fourth fastest on an 11.333 – a fraction behind teammate Danielle Khan on 11.276.
The top two were also Brits with Jess Varnish a hundredth up on Khan on 11.276, with Katy Marchant fastest of all on 11.163.
The1/8 finals saw all but one of the riders in the top half of the draw proceed with James the only one of the fastest qualifiers to have to settle for the 5th to 8th reps, where she again lost out with French duo Sandie Clair and Olivia Montauban taking the remaining Quarter final berths
Two of the four Quarter Finals reflected the earlier qualifying performances, with Marchant and Varnish progressing to the Semi Finals, but Rijkhoff overcame Khan and Calvo beat Williamson to ensure there would not be an all-GB finals lineup.
Women’s Omnium
Scratch Race
The Women’s Omnium competition looked likely to be a head-to-head battle between Great Britain’s Laura Trott and Belgium’s Jolien D’ Hoore and the opening Scratch Race did nothing to suggest otherwise. Katie Archibald- Trott’s GB teammate – broke away to win the standalone Scratch Race the previous evening, but that was never going to happen this time.
Sure enough, at the end it was Trott and D’ Hoore at the sharp end of the race with the Brit taking the win and the Belgian second – with French duo Laurie Berthon and Pascale Jealand in third and fourth. Emily Kay of Great Britain took fifth with Poland’s Malgorzata Wojtyra in sixth
Individual Pursuit
D’Hoore struck back in the second event of the six with a comfortable win in the Individual Pursuit – the problem for her was that Trott also had a strong ride to take second -albeit over two and a half seconds down on the Belgian’s fine of 3:36.130. Trott’s time of 3:38 769 Was still over two seconds faster than Arohibald, while Jeuland again took fourth ahead of Ciara Home and Emily Kay.
Men’s Omnium
Scratch Race
The Men’s Omniums Scratch Race was dominated by Belgium’s Kenny de Ketele and Aleksandr Lisouski of Belarus who lapped the field and controlled the race – de Ketele proving the stronger at the finish.
The two stories behind them were of pre-race favourite Ed Clancy of JLT-Condor who finished fourth behind Great Britain Under 23 rider Jonathon Dibben of Team Wiggins – and Mark Cavendish.
Cav is determined to retire with an Olympic medal – the only thing missing from his remarkable palmares – and sees the Omniums as his best chance of making the squad for Rio. On paper, the scratch Race should be Mark’s strongest Omnium event but first time out – after, admittedly, only limited time on the track – he was back in 11th place. Not the start he would have wanted, but nobody was writing him off yet.
If Cav’s Scratch Race performance had been something of a disappointment, his Individual Pursuit was just the opposite. Early in his career he was on the Team Pursuit squad, but the IP is a very different discipline and, while he was going to have to put in a credible time if he had any chance of qualifying for Rio, 4:26.822 and second place was more than most people would have predicted.
Chris Latham took the win with a 4:26.073, with Dibben in third to keep himself in contention – half a second behind Cavendish on 4:27.335.
Ominously for the rest of the field, Clancy took 4th, with Stewart fifth and de Ketele also staying in touch with 6th.
