The final session of the 2018 Track World Cup London saw the conclusion of the Men’s Omnium, Women’s Keirin and Men’s Sprint, along with a Women’s Madison tailor-made for the home crowd.
Men’s Omnium Elimination Race
After a disappointing performance in the Tempo Race, Elia Viviani (ITA) bounced back to claim the victory in a closely fought Elimination Race. The Olympic Omnium Champion just clinched the victory over Matthew Walls of Great Britain, with Denmark’s Casper von Folsach finishing third.
Ahead of the decisive Points Race, the competition is led by Matthew Walls (GBR) with Christos Volikakis of Greece second overall and Viviani sitting third.
1 VIVIANI Elia ITA
2 WALLS Matthew GBR
3 von FOLSACH Casper DEN
4 VOLIKAKIS Christos GRE
5 van SCHIP Jan Willem NED
6 SCHIR Thery SUI
7 CAVES Aidan CAN
8 MORA VEDRI Sebastian ESP
9 PRADO JUAREZ Ignacio MEX
10 MATIAS Joao POR
11 MALCHAREK Moritz GER
12 de VYLDER Lindsay BEL
13 CHEUNG King Lok HKG
14 SVESHNIKOV Kirill RUS
15 GRONDIN Donavan Vincent FRA
16 POTTS Marc IRL
17 LOVASSY Krisztian HUN
18 PIETRULA Nicolas CZE
19 KRAWCZYK Szymon POL
20 HRYNIV Vitaliy UKR
Men’s Sprint Semifinals
Bucking the trend in the competition so far, both heats in the semifinals went down to three rides.
In heat one, Jack Carlin of Team Inspired went long in the first match to go one up. However, Lavreysen (NED) took the second and third matches and booked his place in the Gold medal final.
Matthew Glaetzer (AUS) and Jeffrey Hoogland (NED) were so evenly matched that it could have gone either way. The world champion came out on top, though, and the Aussie continues his unbeaten run in the Sprints in the World Cup season this year.
Heat 1
1 LAVREYSEN Harrie NED (B) (C)
2 CARLIN Jack TIN (A)
Heat 2
1 GLAETZER Matthew AUS (A) (C)
2 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED (B)
Men’s Omnium Points Race
The first attack came from Ignacio Prado Juarez (MEX) at 86 laps to go. Shortly after, Elia Viviani (ITA) and Jan Willem van Schip (NED) both came down but they were soon back up and in the bunch.
The Mexican rider took a while to gain a lap but he did so eventually and gained those 20 valuable points.
Szymon Krawczyk (POL) and Vitaliy Hryniv (UKR) both went on the attack but it came to nothing.
With 62 to go, Matthew Walls (GBR), Sebastian Mora Vedri (ESP) and Christos Volikakis (GRE) accelerated off the front and soon built up a gap. The trio stayed out front for ten laps but going into the fifth sprint the group was all back together.
Moritz Malcharek (GER) and Jan Willem van Schip (NED) were among riders who tried to get away but the high pace prevented anyone making any ground.
With 33 laps to go, it was Casper von Folsach (DEN), Donavan Vincent Grondin (FRA) and Elia Viviani (ITA) who tried their luck, but again it was neturalised.
Ignacio Prado Juarez (MEX) took the seventh sprint and this put him and Walls (GBR) tied at the top of the leaderboard, with Volikakis (GRE) sitting third.
Walls, though, wasn’t done yet. He showed his strength to take second in the penultimate sprint to go top with just the final dash to the line to go.
As all race, a few riders tried to get away but it wasn’t to be.
Into the final sprint, Matthew Walls showed an incredible turn of speed and British rider crossed the line as the winner of the Men’s Omnium, as the roar of the crowd nearly took the roof off.
The only rider to take a lap, Ignacio Prado Juarez from Mexico finished second and Olympic champion Elia Viviani from Italy clinched the Bronze.
GOLD WALLS Matthew GBR (131)
SILVER PRADO JUAREZ Ignacio MEX (123)
BRONZE VIVIANI Elia ITA (114)
4 VOLIKAKIS Christos GRE (113)
5 MORA VEDRI Sebastian ESP (112)
6 van SCHIP Jan Willem NED (110)
7 von FOLSACH Casper DEN (84)
8 CAVES Aidan CAN (82)
9 de VYLDER Lindsay BEL (81)
10 MATIAS Joao POR (74)
11 MALCHAREK Moritz GER (51)
12 POTTS Marc IRL (49)
13 GRONDIN Donavan Vincent FRA (45)
14 HRYNIV Vitaliy UKR (41)
15 SVESHNIKOV Kirill RUS (34)
16 SCHIR Thery SUI (31)
17 LOVASSY Krisztian HUN (30)
18 CHEUNG King Lok HKG (28)
19 KRAWCZYK Szymon POL (24)
20 PIETRULA Nicolas CZE (4)
Men’s Sprint Finals
With his opponent donning the rainbow jersey, it would have been easy for Harrie Lavreysen to get intimated. The Dutchman didn’t let it phase him, though, and decided to let his legs do the talking. Glaetzer (AUS) put up a good fight but Lavreysen took both the first and second matches to claim Gold in the Men’s Sprint.
In the Bronze medal ride off, Jack Carlin of Team Inspired took the first match and then Jeffrey Hoogland (NED) claimed the second to make it one all. In the final match, it was the rider from the Netherlands who claimed the victory and with it the Bronze medal.
GOLD LAVREYSEN Harrie NED (A) (B)
SILVER GLAETZER Matthew AUS
BRONZE HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED (B) (C)
4 CARLIN Jack TIN (A)
Women’s Keirin Second Round
One would expect the World Champion to clean up at the World Cups, but that wasn’t to be the case in the Women’s Keirin. Beat Cycling Club’s Nicky Degrendele finished fourth in her heat and will only be able to get seventh at best in the final.
Martha Bayona Pineda (COL) continued her stellar form to take the first heat, with Hyejin Lee (KOR) and Katy Marchant (GBR) also bagging the spots in the major final.
Stephanie Morton (AUS), winner of yesterday’s Sprint, took the second heat. Gazprom-RusVelo’s Daria Shmeleva was second over the line and Usrzula Los from Poland was third.
Heat 1
1 BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL
2 LEE Hyejin KOR
3 MARCHANT Katy GBR
4 ZHONG Tianshi CHN
5 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
6 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER
Heat 2
1 MORTON Stephanie AUS
2 SHMELEVA Daria RVL
3 LOS Urszula POL
4 DEGRENDELE Nicky BCC
5 van RIESSEN Laurine NED
6 LEE Hoi Yan Jessica HKG
Women’s Madison
None of the teams wanted to take it up in the early part of the Women’s Madison. It wasn’t until the 59 laps to go when we saw any action, and that action was a crash which neutralised the race. Luckily all the riders were soon back up and the gun was fired once again.
The duo from Great Britain took the second and third sprints, taking an early lead but with Australia hot on their heels.
With some teams clearly struggling with the pace, there were riders spread out all over the track.
The Australian pairing crossed the line first in the fifth sprint to move into the lead and then the Brits won the sixth sprint to take the lead back.
The team from Great Britain then took another 5 points in sprint seven to extend their lead.
Canada, Belgium and Ireland attacked with six laps to go but they were soon brought back.
With 2 showing on the lapboard, the British team powered away from the front of the bunch. Showing their dominance in the race, Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny CBE crossed the line first to the deafening roar of the home crowd. Australia finished second and Belgium held on to claim the Bronze medal.
GOLD Great Britain (ARCHIBALD Katie, KENNY CBE Laura) (34)
SILVER Australia (CURE Amy, EDMONDSON Annette) (19)
BRONZE Belgium (D’HOORE Jolien, KOPECKY Lotte) (17)
4 Netherlands (WILD Kirsten, PIETERS Amy) (14)
5 Italy (CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia, GUAZZINI Vittoria) (6)
6 Poland (PIKULIK Wiktoria, PIKULIK Daria) (3)
7 Switzerland (SEITZ Aline, WALDIS Andrea) (2)
8 Ireland (BOYLAN Lydia, McCURLEY Shannon) (2)
9 France (BERTHON Laurie, le NET Marie) (2)
10 Canada (BEVERIDGE Allison, ROORDA Stephanie) (0)
11 Japan (KAJIHARA Yumi, FURUYAMA Kie) (0)
12 Ukraine (KLIACHINA Oksana, SOLOVEI Ganna) (0)
13 Hong Kong, China (YANG Qianyu, PANG Yao) (-20)
14 Mexico (SALAZAR VAZQUEZ Lizbeth Yareli, ARREOLA NAVARRO Sofia) (-20)
15 Germany (TEUTENBERG Lea Lin, EBERT Michaela) (-20)
16 Czech Republic (HOCHMANN Lucie, MACHACOVA Jarmila) (-40)
Women’s Keirin Finals
Stephanie Morton of Australia was without doubt the women in form this weekend. After victory in the Sprint competition yesterday, the Aussie also claimed the win in the Keirin today. Russian Daria Shmeleva bagged the Silver medal and it was Urszula Los of Poland who claimed Bronze, after a crash in the last lap brought down Hyejin Lee (KOR) and Martha Bayona Pineda (COL).
Laurine van Riessen (NED) won the heat for seventh place but she will no doubt be ruing a missed opportunity.
GOLD MORTON Stephanie AUS
SILVER SHMELEVA Daria RVL
BRONZE LOS Urszula POL
4 MARCHANT Katy GBR
DNF LEE Hyejin KOR
DNF BAYONA PINEDA Martha COL
7 van RIESSEN Laurine NED
8 ZHONG Tianshi CHN
9 GRABOSCH Pauline Sophie GER
10 DEGRENDELE Nicky BCC
11 LEE Hoi Yan Jessica HKG
12 KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU
