UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2017 – Day 4 Report

Report and results from the penultimate day of competition at the Hong Kong velodrome

Women

500m Time Trial

Qualifying

Wing Yu Ma of Hong Kong kicked off the 500m Time Trial – as she had the Sprint qualification, but her time of 37.128 was going to be almost three seconds outside the cut-off time for the finals.

In Heat 3, Miriam Welte of Germany leapt ahead with a 33.450 which kept her on top until Daria Shmeleva of Russia clocked 33.419 with just three heats remaining. The penultimate heat saw Sarah Lee of Hong Kong and Pauline Grabosch of Germany move into third and fourth places with a 33.647 and a 33.732 respectively.

Anastasiia Voinova of Russia had the last word in the final heat, going into the Finals with a 33.325.

Results
1 VOINOVA Anastasiia RUS 33.325
2 SHMELEVA Daria RUS 33.419
3 WELTE Miriam GER 33.450
4 LEE Wai Sze HKG 33.647
5 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER 33.732
6 BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL 34.153
7 CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP 34.209
8 VAN RIESSEN Laurine NED 34.276

9 LAMBERINK Kyra NED 34.329
10 SALAZAR VALLES Jessica MEX 34.331

Finals

Lauren Van Riseesen of the Netherlands ran first in the final, posting a time of 34.526 – a quarter of a second down on her qualifying time – which would turn out to be a fair reflection of the conditions. Spain’s Tania Calvo was down by about the same amount on her qualifying time, but took the lead with a 34.489.

Martha Bayona of Colmbia managed to get within a tenth of her earlier time and a 34.291 was enough to see her on top for now. Grabosch, too, was within a tenth on 33.855 – and at the half way stage the order was exactly as it had been in qualifying.

Lee continued both trends – a tenth slower, but still quicker than everyone that had been before her on 33.855. Welte was next upand was the first to improve on her qualifying time, clocking 33.382t to move half a second clear at the top. Shmeleva, too, improved on her earlier time by a handful of hundredths of a second. She lead on 33.282 with only her team mate and the reigning champion still to go.

Voinova was down at the end of the first lap and by the end she, too, had dropped a tenth of a second on her earlier performance. The difference from the opening five riders was that it dropped her down two places into the Bronze medal spot behind her compatriot and Welte.

Results
GOLD SHMELEVA Daria RUS 33.282
SILVER WELTE Miriam GER 33.382
BRONZE VOINOVA Anastasiia RUS 33.454

4 LEE Wai Sze HKG 33.723
5 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER 33.855
6 BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL 34.291
7 CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP 34.489
8 VAN RIESSEN Laurine NED 34.526

Individual Pursuit

Qualifying

Kirsti Lay of Canada set a competitive time of 3:32.936 in the opening heat – but with some very fast riders and just four places in the Finals qualification is tough. Still, she stayed top until Heat 6 when Team Pursuit World Champion Chloe Dygert moved the mark to 3:22.920 – just over six tenths outside her compatriot Sarah Hammer’s World Record of 3:22.289.

In the following heat another member of the American Team Pursuit squad – Kelly Catlin – moved into second with a 3:31.073.

Newly crowned Omnium World Champion Katie Archibald recorded a time of 3:31.331 to move into third but in the penultimate heat Australia’s Ashlee Ankudinoff put the Scot into the last of the Finals spots with a 3:29.554.

And in the last heat, the outgoing World Champion Rebecca Wiasak removed the Great Britain rider’s chance of a medal, recording a time of 3:30.938. The set up two USA vs Australia finals – although the gap between Dygert and Ankudinoff suggested that a Silver and a Bronze would be the best Australia could hope for.

Results
1 DYGERT Chloe USA 3:22.920
2 ANKUDINOFF Ashlee AUS 3:29.554
3 WIASAK Rebecca AUS 3:30.938
4 CATLIN Kelly USA 3:31.073

5 ARCHIBALD Katie GBR 3:31.331
6 NIELSEN Jaime NZL 3:31.653
7 LAY Kirsti CAN 3:32.936
8 VALSECCHI Silvia ITA 3:33.088
9 STOCK Gudrun GER 3:34.325
10 FOREMAN-MACKEY Annie CAN 3:34.955

Finals

There was only a second between Ankudinoff and Catlin in qualifying – and the same was true in the Bronze medal final – but now the times were reversed – Catlin taking the Bronze with a 3:30.365.

There were seven seconds between Dygert and Ankudinoff in the morning and, again, the time gap in the final was the same  although this time there was no reversal. The American was two seconds up after a kilometre, three by half way and then started to open up her lead.

Results
GOLD DYGERT Chloe USA 3:24.641
SILVER ANKUDINOFF Ashlee AUS 3:31.784

BRONZE CATLIN Kelly USA 3:30.365
4 WIASAK Rebecca AUS 3:31.173

Madison

The inaugural Women’s Madison World Championship was dominated by five teams – with three pulling away as the tiredness started to show in the final third. With no lap gain, it was all about the points sprints – and the Belgian duo of Lotte Kopecky and Jolien D’Hoore scored in all but one taking four wins, four seconds and two thirds (it would have been five seconds and a third, but they were relegated in Sprint 10 for pushing Elinor Barker and Emily Nelson of Great Britain out of the way on the run-in…)

Great Britain also scored in all but one of the sprints and took three wins and three second places. They went into the Final sprint six points adrift – and took six points with second place. Unfortunately, the followed the Belgians home.

Amy Cure and Alexandra Manly of Australia took a gutsy third place, despite Manly crashing twice.

Results
GOLD Belgium (KOPECKY Lotte, D’HOORE Jolien) 44
SILVER Great Britain (BARKER Elinor, NELSON Emily) 34
BRONZE Australia (CURE Amy, MANLY Alexandra) 25

4 New Zealand (SHEATH Racquel, DRUMMOND Michaela) 15
5 Italy (CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia, BARBIERI Rachele) 14
6 France (DEMAY Coralie, BERTHON Laurie) 5
7 Mexico (SALAZAR VAZQUEZ Lizbeth Yareli, ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia)  5
8 United States (ZUBRIS Kimberly, GEIST Kimberly) 1
9  Russia (AVERINA Mariia, KLIMOVA Diana)
10 Ireland (GURLEY Lydia, BOYLAN Lydia)

Men

Sprint

Quarter Finals

All four Quarter Finals were very close – with two of the three Kiwi Team Sprint riders – Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins – losing out to Denis Dmitriev of Russia and Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands respectively.

The other two heats – between Ryan Owens of Great Britain and Max Niederlag of Germany, and Ethan Mitchell of New Zealand and Matthew Glaetzer of Australia both went to three. Owens got the jump on Niederlag in the first race and the German evened things up, while Mitchell went one down to the Australian and caught him napping in the second.

On the track, Niederlag and Glaetzer prevailed, but it was a measure of how close the heats were that both were adjudged to have made irregular movements to prevent their opponents from passing – and both were relegated.

Results
Heat 1
1 DMITRIEV Denis RUS * *
2 WEBSTER Sam NZL +0.776 +0.061
Heat 2
1 OWENS Ryan GBR * +0.014 *
2 NIEDERLAG Max GER +0.096 * REL

Heat 3
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED * *
2 DAWKINS Edward NZL +0.677 +0.004

Heat 4
1 MITCHELL Ethan NZL +0.049 * *
2 GLAETZER Matthew AUS * +0.062 REL

Semi Finals

Dmitriev cruised through to the Final in his heat against Mitchell, taking two comfortable wins. Owens pushed Lavreysen closed, but the Dutch rider edged it on both occasions.

Results
Heat 1
1 DMITRIEV Denis RUS * *
2 MITCHELL Ethan NZL +0.197 +0.154

Heat 2
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED * *
2 OWENS Ryan GBR +0.066 +0.080

Finals

The Bronze medal ride saw Mitchell get the better of Owens on both occasions, powering away from the Briton twice to win both races by big margins.

Dmitriev’s domination continued as he stormed through to the Gold medal against Lavreysen – the delight in the victory evident in the celebrations.

Results
GOLD DMITRIEV Denis RUS * *
SILVER LAVREYSEN Harrie NED +0.201 +0.179

BRONZE MITCHELL Ethan NZL * *
4 OWENS Ryan GBR +0.526 +0.255

Omnium I –  Scratch Race

Aaron Gate of New Zealand and Max Beyer of Germany lapped the field in the opening Omnium event just before the half way mark – and were joined a lap up by Benjamin Thomas of France, Simon Consonni of Italy. Albert Torres of Spain, Szymon Sajnok of Poland and Roy Eefting of the Netherlands.

The sprint within a sprint went to Torres, with Thomas second and Consonni third.

Results
1 TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP
2 THOMAS Benjamin FRA
3 CONSONNI Simone ITA
4 BEYER Maximilian GER
5 SAJNOK Szymon POL
6 GATE Aaron NZL
7 EEFTING Roy NED
8 MIRALIYEV Sultanmurat KAZ -1
9 OLIVEIRA Ivo POR -1
10 WELSFORD Sam AUS -1

Omnium II –  Tempo Race

The Tempo Race has improved immeasurably since the rules are change to give 20 points for a lap gain – the change in dynamics illustrated by the fact that 14 of the 21 riders took at least a lap during the race. Normally, the skill is in seeing how long you can hang off the back of the bunch picking up points before you lose you nerve and take a lap. Sajnok and Pedersen managed five points apiece but, on this occasion it wasn’t enough.

Gate picked up three sprint points, but took a second lap in company with Torres – who didn’t pick up a single sprint win. The balance may have swung too far in the direction of lap gains…

Results
1 GATE Aaron NZL 43
2 TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP 40
3 SAJNOK Szymon POL 25
4 PEDERSEN Casper DEN 25
5 EEFTING Roy NED 24
6 THOMAS Benjamin FRA 23
7 BEYER Maximilian GER 22
8 SUTER Gael SUI 22
9 WELSFORD Sam AUS 22
10 DE VYLDER Lindsay BEL 21

Omnium II –  Tempo Race

The Tempo Race has improved immeasurably since the rules are change to give 20 points for a lap gain – the change in dynamics illustrated by the fact that 14 of the 21 riders took at least a lap during the race. Normally, the skill is in seeing how long you can hang off the back of the bunch picking up points before you lose you nerve and take a lap. Sajnok and Pedersen managed five points apiece but, on this occasion it wasn’t enough.

Gate picked up three sprint points, but took a second lap in company with Torres – who didn’t pick up a single sprint win. The balance may have swung too far in the direction of lap gains…

Results
1 GATE Aaron NZL 43
2 TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP 40
3 SAJNOK Szymon POL 25
4 PEDERSEN Casper DEN 25
5 EEFTING Roy NED 24
6 THOMAS Benjamin FRA 23
7 BEYER Maximilian GER 22
8 SUTER Gael SUI 22
9 WELSFORD Sam AUS 22
10 DE VYLDER Lindsay BEL 21

Omnium III – Elimination

In terms of the overall standings, the biggest shock in the Elimination race was Gate’s 10^th place finish. With Torres going out with just three to go – and Sam Welsford of Australia, Consonni and Thomas taking the top three spots, it left the competition wide open going into the final race. Ust 22 point separated first and fifth with Torres on 112, Thomas on 104, Gate and Consonni on 92 and Eefting on 90.

Results
1 WELSFORD Sam AUS
2 CONSONNI Simone ITA
3 THOMAS Benjamin FRA
4 TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP
5 BEYER Maximilian GER
6 EEFTING Roy NED
7 TSISHKOU Raman BLR
8 SUTER Gael SUI
9 IMAMURA Shunsuke JPN
10 GATE Aaron NZL

Omnium IV – Points Race

Gate took and early lap and scored consistently to put himself in pole position for most of the race. Thomas scored in all but the first two sprint, though and edged closer, sitting on Gates wheel and using his impressive sprint to come round and outscore the Kiwi sprint after sprint.

Gate took a second lap, but unfortunately for him most of the major contenders took their first, moving every one that mattered back to square one. Going in to the final, double points, sprint Gate and Thomas were tied on 145 points – with Torres 15 points back. Whoever finished ahead of the other – regardless of whether they scored points – would win the Gold medal.

Inevitably, Thomas kicked at the bell and although Gate got within touching distance of him, the Frenchman took third and four points – Gate fourth and two.

Results
GOLD THOMAS Benjamin FRA 149
SILVER GATE Aaron NZL 147
BRONZE TORRES BARCELO Albert ESP 138

4 CONSONNI Simone ITA 121
5 EEFTING Roy NED 119
6 PEDERSEN Casper DEN 99
7 WELSFORD Sam AUS 94
8 SAJNOK Szymon POL 85
9 BEYER Maximilian GER 78
10 OLIVEIRA Ivo POR 77