The week’s competition at the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships began with the Team Pursuit Qualifying.
Women
Team Pursuit
Qualifying
The women were up first, and it was the USA who came out on top.
Just the third team to go off, the American quartet of Jennifer Valente, Kelly Catlin, Chloe Dygert and Kimberly Geist tore up the track and posted a time of 4:18.836 which wouldn’t be beaten.
Great Britain pushed them very close, coming in at 4:19.177, just 0.341 down. The Italians also made a serious bid for the top spot, with the first half of their ride in the negative splits, but they couldn’t quite hold on to the pace and ended up third in 4:21.543.
New Zealand clocked 4:23.530 to go fourth, just shy of two seconds behind Italy, and Canada were a tad further behind in fifth with 4:24.071.
Tomorrow’s first round will see Germany vs France, Canada vs Poland, Great Britain vs Italy, and USA vs New Zealand.
1 United States of America (VALENTE Jennifer, CATLIN Kelly, DYGERT Chloe, GEIST Kimberly) 4:18.836
2 Great Britain (ARCHIBALD Katie, BARKER Elinor, KENNY Laura, NELSON Emily) 4:19.177
3 Italy (BALSAMO Elisa, PATERNOSTER Letizia, FRAPPORTI Simona, GUDERZO Tatiana) 4:21.543
4 New Zealand (BUCHANAN Rushlee, BOTHA Bryony, JAMES Kirstie, SHEATH Racquel) 4:23.530
5 Canada (BEVERIDGE Allison, BONHOMME Ariane, FOREMAN-MACKEY Annie, ROORDA Stephanie) 4:24.071
6 Germany (STOCK Gudrun, BECKER Charlotte, BRAUSSE Franziska, BRENNAUER Lisa) 4:26.746
7 France (BERTHON Laurie, DEMAY Coralie, BORRAS Marion, le NET Marie) 4:29.627
8 Poland (PIKULIK Daria, PAWLOWSKA Katarzyna, KACZKOWSKA Justyna, PLOSAJ Nikol) 4:29.799
9 Japan (KAJIHARA Yumi, FURUYAMA Kie, HASHIMOTO Yuya, NAKAMURA Kisato) 4:30.955
10 People’s Republic of China (WANG Xiaofei, LIU Jiali, MA Menglu, WANG Hong) 4:32.389
11 Russian Federation (GONCHAROVA Alexandra, BADYKOVA Gulnaz, IAKOVENKO Anastasiia, ZABELINSKAYA Olga) 4:32.652
12 Belgium (KOPECKY Lotte, CROKET Gilke, DOM Annelies, VANDENBROUCKE Saartje) 4:33.076
13 Belarus (PIVOVAROVA Polina, SAVENKA Ina, DZEDZIKAVA Anastasiya, TSERAKH Hanna) 4:34.254
Men
Team Pursuit
Qualifying
A strong ride in heat 2 saw Canada take an early lead in the Men’s Team Pursuit Qualifying with a time of 4:00.584.
It wasn’t until heat 9 that the time was beaten. The team from Denmark stopped the clock in 3:56.740, and showed their intent in the competition. Russia posted a sub 4 minute time, as did New Zealand and Germany, but they could not beat the Danes’ benchmark.
Switzerland knocked almost a second off their time from a year ago, finishing in 3:59.543, but they still only ended up seventh.
The penultimate heat saw Great Britain bring a mix of experience and youth. The team of Ed Clancy, Kian Emadi, Ethan Hayter and Charlie Tanfield powered round the Apeldoorn velodrome in a time of 3:55.714 to top the table and send out serious warnings to their competitors.
The session concluded with the team from Italy. They executed a very clean and technically sublime ride, and it showed – they crossed the line in 3:56.406, just 0.692 behind the GB squad, to finish second.
Round one this evening will feature Russia vs Switzerland, New Zealand vs Canada, Italy vs Denmark, and Great Britain vs Germany.
1 Great Britain (CLANCY Edward, EMADI Kian, HAYTER Ethan, TANFIELD Charlie) 3:55.714
2 Italy (CONSONNI Simone, BERTAZZO Liam, GANNA Filippo, LAMON Francesco) 3:56.406
3 Denmark (LARSEN Niklas, JOHANSEN Julius, MADSEN Frederik, von FOLSACH Casper) 3:56.740
4 Germany (BEYER Maximilian, GROSS Felix, REINHARDT Theo, THIELE Kersten) 3:57.447
5 New Zealand (STEWART Campbell, GOUGH Regan, KENNETT Dylan, KERGOZOU Nicholas) 3:57.622
6 Russian Federation (STASH Mamyr, EVTUSHENKO Alexander, SMIRNOV Ivan, SVESHNIKOV Kirill) 3:59.362
7 Switzerland (IMHOF Claudio, THIERY Cyrille, PASCHE Frank, THIEBAUD Valere) 3:59.543
8 Canada (FOLEY Michael, GEE Derek, JAMIESON Adam, LAMOUREUX Jay) 4:00.584
9 Japan (CHIKATANI Ryo, ICHIMARU Shogo, IMAMURA Shunsuke, SAWADA Keitaro) 4:01.753
10 Poland (SAJNOK Szymon, BANASZEK Alan, KRAWCZYK Szymon, TEKLINSKI Adrian) 4:01.963
11 France (THOMAS Benjamin, GAREL Adrien, MAITRE Florian, PIJOURLET Louis) 4:02.415
12 Belgium (de VYLDER Lindsay, de KETELE Kenny, de PAUW Moreno, GHYS Robbe) 4:03.367
13 United States of America (YOUNG Eric, HOOVER Gavin, LAMBIE Ashton, SUMMERHILL Daniel) 4:04.203
14 Belarus (TSISHKOU Raman, AKHRAMENKA Yauheni, KARALIOK Yauheni, SHEMETAU Mikhail) 4:06.629
15 People’s Republic of China (HOU Ya Ke, JIANG Zhihui, SHEN Pingan, WANG Fengnian) 4:08.266
16 Spain (TERUEL Eloy, CANELLAS Xavier, GARCIA de MATEOS Vicente, ZUAZUBISKAR Illart) 4:10.677
