Report: Day 1 – Astana Track Cycling World Cup

The first World Cup for the 2011/2012 season started in Astana today (Nov 3) with the qualifying rounds of the Team Pursuit for Men and Women. No British riders were involved.

Related Links: Preview of the World Cup | Interview with Sir Chris Hoy |
| Dave Brailsford Interview Radio 5 Live (starts 10 mins in) |

Day 2 – Report

There were no medals for Great Britain on Day 2 but plenty to talk about as you will see in the event reports below. Sir Chris Hoy on his Facebook page summed up the day like this “some pretty rapid times today at the track; good conditions though, 27.5degrees and 970mb air pressure! Enders from Germany broke Jamie Staff’s fastest ever opening lap in the team sprint with a 17.13, amazing ride. Aussie girls missed out on their own Team Sprint World Record by less than 2 hundredths. GB boys disappointed with 7th place but it’s certainly not all doom and gloom. Keirin for me tomorrow and Sprint on Sunday. Can’t wait!”

Women’s Team Sprint – 4th for GB
There was to be no medal for GB’s young pairing of Jess Varnish and Becky James. They had to settle for fourth which was nevertheless a great ride by the duo against some very tough opposition in Astana. Jess Varnish, who has gone under 19 seconds, was a little off her best with a 19.203 to be fastest in their race against Germany but the lead was not enough to prevent the Germans coming back with their second lap of 14.002 to fast for Becky James’ final lap of 14.385. There were valuable ranking points there though so all positive from that angle.

Meanwhile, the Aussie pairing of Meares and McCulloch went within 0.01 of their World Record to win the Gold to defeat the Ukraine team. Meares’ opening lap of 18.725 must be one of the fastest opening laps ever recorded and while the Ukraine team came back with a faster second lap, the Aussies had too much  of a lead to lose the top spot.

Gold/Silver
1. Australia (18.725/14.213) 32.938 (0.01 off their world record)
2. Ukraine (19.366/13.947) 33.313

3. Germany (19.386/14.002) 33.388
4. Great Britain (19.203/14.385) 33.588

Men’s Team Sprint
Not since the World titles in 2010 have we seen such fast times in the Men’s Team Sprint. Everyone of the finalists went under 44 seconds and it was either the fast conditions or teams moving up a level that saw such quick times. I think the latter was probably the reason!

A look at the splits and you can see where the headaches are for the other countries such as Great Britain with one German rider recording an opening lap of 17.156 and the other German (there were two German teams) a 17.259. Those are times any nation’s team will need to mount a Gold medal challenge in London just as Great Britain did in Beijing with Jamie Staff who did a 17.1 in one of his rides when GB went under 43 seconds.

So the Gold medal in Astana understandably went to a German team, Team Erdgas who recorded a time of 43.474 to the Australians time of 43.661. The difference was the speed of that opening lap, a 17.2!

In the Bronze medal ride off however, between France and Germany, a slow start did not harm the French who came back from Germany’s opening lap of 17.1 to win with 43.757 to Germany’s 43.835. There, the difference was Germany’s man 2 and man 3 both being slower than the French on the opposite side of the track.

Merge the two German teams and you have a Gold medal winning team while France have Gregory Bauge, also a very quick man, to come back and strengthen their team.

Meanwhile, in the morning session, Great Britain continued to experiment with their line up in qualifying with Ross Edgar riding Man 1 and recording a time of 17.661. On Twitter the next morning, Ross said “17.6sec for the standing lap,5 fastest time only 0.01off Ned and 0.10off Aussi’s. Hats off to the Germans 17.13WR”.

Ross is one of a number of riders who are trying out for Man 1 but with the German’s  having two riders capable of the times required, there is a lot of work to be done to catch up to them. Jason Kenny, another who has ridden in Man 1, was certainly on the money in Man 2 with a 12.968 (anything under 13 is regarded as quick). That was however slower than he rode at Beijing by a few tenths but then we’re a long way off London.

The other time of interest was Jason Queally’s 13.697 for the final lap. It was a time around the mark of most other countries but GB want to be in front of the crowd not hanging around with them. The Australian third man meanwhile rode to a 13.254 to be quickest of all man 3s and it will be interesting to see how Jason Queally and the team view that time when he’s only had one summer to turn back from being an Endurance rider to a Sprinter.

The Team Sprint seems to be work in progress for GB and whilst it may not be right to say panic is setting in, believe me, there are a lot of riders in the Sprint squads (Podium and Academy) all trying to come up with the answer for GB knowing that will be their ticket to the London Olympics.

Names such as John Paul and Craig MacLean are two that have been mentioned on the ‘net and it will be an enthralling period watching GB try and do what they did in 2008 and that is come from behind to top the world in the Men’s Team Sprint.

1. Team Erdgas 43.474
2. Team JaycoAis 43.661

3. France 43.757
4. Germany 43.835

Women’s 500 Metre Time Trial – 4th for Jess Varnish

The non-Olympic Women’s 500 metre Time Trial event gave GB’s Jess Varnish a chance to race another competitive standing start event and what a time she produced; 34.293.  Jess is putting all her energies these days into training for the Team Sprint man 1 position and so to be able to carry that effort on and record a personal best was a great effort by the Halesowen young lady.

The winner of the race though was the Dolan bikes equipped Olga Panarina from Belarus who was only a tenth or so outside the World record held by Simona Krupeckaite, who also rides Dolan bikes. The Silver went to Sandie Clair and Germany’s Miriam Welte won the bronze medal.

1  PANARINA Olga BLR 33.472 (on a Dolan bike)
2  CLAIR Sandie FRA 33.950
3 WELTE Miriam GER 34.172
4  VARNISH Jess GBR 34.293 (Personal Best)

Men’s Team Pursuit
Whilst there may have been no GB interest in this event, the coach of the Russian team, Heiko Salzwedel certainly showed his team are on the pace for London 2012 with a very impressive 3.56.127 against Australia in the final. Leading through all the time checks, their time is one of the fastest in the history of the event. Both Australia and Great Britain have shown they go under 3.56 (the Wold Championship final in 2010, they both recorded 3.55s) but how much faster the Russians can go is the question? Are they the new Denmark?

It was Salzwedel who coached the Danish to be such tough opponents in 2008, getting the Silver medal behind GB at the Bejing Olympics but since he left the Danes service, that country’s team have not shown the same form they did in 2008. After Denmark, Heiko Salzwedel then went to work for GB but was looking for a more coaching role and so moved to the Russian team where he has brought them closer to a medal in London than they have been in an Olympiad for many years.

In the Bronze medal final in Astana, Holland recorded a time of 4.04 to easily beat Denmark who went out quicker and then exploded, finishing with a  time of 4.10.

1. Rusvelo (Russia) 3:56.127
2.  Australia 4:01.417

3.  Netherlands 4:04.035 59.007
4.  Denmark 4:10.454 57.495

WOMEN’S TEAM PURSUIT
The Dutch team that rode a 3.30 in the Europeans a few weeks ago was nowhere to be seen in Astana as they powered to one of the World’s best times in a World Cup, 3.21.550, to defeat the Chinese team who were also very impressive in a time of 3.22.0.

The GB team were not at the event and at the slower track in Holland they also did a 3.22 so whilst the other teams are up there with them, there was nothing too scary for them to worry about. What is interesting is that all four finalists in the Women’s Team Pursuit rode quicker times than GB did at the slower track in Holland which shows that this competition will probably be more competitive than the Men’s Team Pursuit with more countries in with a shout of the medals.

Back in 2009 at Manchester, GB were already in 3.21 territory and in 2011 at the Manchester World Cup, GB and New Zealand both did a ‘3.20’ but the next two teams were in the 23’s and Manchester is a fast track. So perhaps we’re seeing more nations in the hunt for medals … For the first world Cup of the season though, the times are nevertheless very quick indeed.

1 Netherlands 3:21.550
2 China 3:22.079

3 Germany 3:21.701
4 Rusvelo 3:22.086

MEN’S OMNIUM
Former World Champion Ed Clancy was GB’s rider in the event and it was a mixed day for him as he reached the halfway point in 7th place after a victory in the Flying Lap and 15th and 11th in the two bunch races, Points & Elimination respectively.

It was a long day starting with a qualifying heat where he used his experience to do enough to get through and then in the Flying lap, Clancy was a class act, the only rider under 13 seconds to score top points to lead the competition. It was a repeat of what he did at the Euros where he was the fastest over 250 metres.

The next event in the Omnium though was not a favourite of his, the Points race. It isn’t a favourite! At the Europeans he managed 10th which was good but in Astana, he finished 13th and dropped to seventh overall. It was the Devil (Elimination) that hurt him though as he finished 11th in that where as in the Euros he had finished 6th to stay in touch with the leaders. He now sits in 7th place, 13 points behind the medal places, almost double what he had to make up after day 1 in Holland for the Euros.

In his favour, he has two timed events, the Kilometre which he does well at, and he’ll probably win that, and the Pursuit where he should do okay. There is also the Scratch race in which he is fast enough to do well but will need to duck and dive to make sure of a good position in the final few laps.

The leader at the moment overall, Germany’s Kluge, is an excellent endurance rider and while he may not beat Clancy in the Kilo, and he’s around the same mark in the Pursuit, he should do well in the Scratch though he didn’t at the Euros. So Kluge is certainly the favourite as Viviani was not that impressive on day 3 of the Euros and Elorriaga is an unknown. Looking ahead to the second day, it is going to be tough for Ed to get in the medals but if anyone can do it, it’s the determined Olympic champion from Huddersfield …

RESULTS

WOMEN’S 500 METRES

1  PANARINA Olga BLR 33.472 (on a Dolan bike)
2  CLAIR Sandie FRA 33.950
3 WELTE Miriam GER 34.172
4  VARNISH Jess GBR 34.293 (Personal Best)
5  KANIS Willy NED 34.393
6  VOINOVA Anastasia MTT 34.597
7  LEE Wai Sze HKG 34.620
8  TSOS Olena UKR 34.713
9  CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP 35.009
10  HSIAO Mei Yu TPE 35.474
11  MAEDA Kayono JPN 35.492
12  TAPIA ROMERO Gleydimar VEN 36.391
13  DRUYTS Kelly BEL 36.524
14  JANKUTE Gabriele LTU 36.607
15  WALKER Cristin USA 36.824

WOMEN’S TEAM SPRINT (500 metres)
Racing for GB was Jess Varnish and Becky James.

Finals

Gold/Silver
1. Australia (18.725/14.213) 32.938 (0.01 off their world record)
2. Ukraine (19.366/13.947) 33.313

3. Germany (19.386/14.002) 33.388
4. Great Britain (19.203/14.385) 33.588

Qualifying
1. Australia 33.026
2. Ukraine 33.492
3. Great Britain 33.553
4. Germany 33.633
5. France 33.668
6. Russia 33.901
7. Holland 33.912
8. China
9. Moscow Track Team 34.357
10. Lithuania 34.513
11. Venezuela 34.515
12. Korea 34.651
13. Spain 34.704
14. Japan 35.414
15. USA 35.906
16. Chinese Taipei 36.209
17. Hong Kong 36.930
18. Columbia 39.030

MEN’S OMNIUM
Riding for Great Britain in this event is former World Champion Ed Clancy who is the 2011 European Omnium Champion and also the Olympic C hampion in 2011

Qualifiers

Heat 1
1. L Hansen, Denmark
2. H Cho, Korea
3. H Kwok, Hong Kong
4. R Ratajczykj, Poland
5. K Mori, Japan
6. A Lizouski, Belarus
7. E Vivani, Italy
8. Ed Clancy, Great Britain
9. E Elorriaga,
10. Martyne Irvine, Ireland
11. Walter Perez, Argentina
12. R Unalan, Turkey

Heat 2
1. M Freiberg, Australia
2. V Diudia, Ukraine
3. B Coquard, France
4. B Lea, USA
5. M Sohrabi
6. Roger Kluge, Germany
7. J Dostal, Czech Republic
8. V Tuychiev, Uzb
9. I Savitskiy, Russia
10. M De Pauw, Belgium
11. Tim Veldte, Holland
12. P Wu, TPE

S Mohd Bakri (Malaysia misses out)

Flying Lap (round 1)

Ed Clancy, 12.839
B Coquard 13.087
Tim Veldt 13.169
E Viviviani 13.205
R Unalan 13.361
Roger Kluge 13.399
Martyne Irvine 13.399
L Hansen 13.502
U Elorriaga 13.508
H Cho 13.529
R Ratajczyk 13.549
K Mori 13.566
J Dostal 13.598
P Wu 13.605
M de Pauw 13.613
B Lea 13.652
A Lisouski 13.805
M Freiberg 13.950
I Savitskiy 13.975
H Kwok 14.03
V Diudia 14.066
Walter Perez 14.171
V Tuychiev 14.369
M Sohrabi 14.487

Points Race Round 2
In round 2 of the Men’s Omnium, probably Ed Clancy’s weakest event in the six, the first sprint was won by Martyn Irvine who got the 5 points to take an early lead. The next sprint saw Italian favourite Viviani get the five to join Irvine at the top of the leaderboard with Clancy still yet to score. The third sprint in the 120 lap race with 12 sprints in all, was won by Cho of Korea with a completely different set of riders in the points which pushed Clancy even further down the table, 13th at this point in the race.

Sprint four went to Hansen from Viviani which put the Italian at the top of the table while at the other end of the race, Wu of Taipei lost a lap and with it, went to minus 20 points. These races see the riders in the red for most of the race with sprints every ten laps and with the pace starting to bite by now, Viviani extended his lead by winning sprint five, opening up a five point lead over Hansen.

The pace was relentless and with Tim Veldt, a former sprinter, losing a lap, it showed just how brutal the speed of the race was becoming with two riders already out of the race after losing laps on the leaders. At the halfway point, it was getting even hotter as Aussie Freidberg got in on the action, second to Hansen who joined Viviani at the top of the leaderboard with Irvine getting a point which pushed him into equal fourth at that stage with still 60 laps to go.

Two riders then took a lap, Danish rider Hansen and Aussie Freidberg who had chosen the classic tactic of sit in for the first half while his rivals put themselves into boxes. He hit them with a lap take. It worked for Rob Hayles and Mark Cavendish at the 2005 World Championships in the Madison!

Sprint seven and Clancy got on the scoreboard with two points after third in sprint 7 while multi world champion Walter Perez at 36 was showing them the way home by also taking a lap. It was going crazy by now with no less than eight riders getting a lap which meant Clancy’s two points didn’t count for a lot and he was in 15th place.

The battle for the lead was still between Hansen and Viviani with yet more riders trying to take a lap and scooping up the points and leaving nothing for Clancy. That was until sprint ten when Clancy took the opportunity for points when the race came together and his three points lifted him to 12th.
The best Ed was going to get was 10th with two sprints two go as the rest were all out of his reach. In Sprint 11 however, there was no gain or loss of position as Kluge took the five with only the final sprint to go.

In that, Ed Clancy scored two more to bring his total to 7 hard fought for points and 13th, one point behind the rider who finished 12th and beat him in that fional sprint, Kowk of Hong Kong. Roger Kluge of Germany took the win and the lead in the overall with Clancy dropping to sixth.

Results
1 R Kluge 49
2. U Elorriaga 47
3. R Unalan 42
4. L Hansen 38
5. H Cho 36
6. E Viviani 36
7. Martyne Irvine 27
8. M Freidberg 24
9. K Mori 23
10. Walter Perez 20
11. I Savitskiy 11
12. H Kwok 8
13. Ed Clancy (Gb) 7
14. B Coquard 7
15. M de Pauw 5
16. R Ratajczyk 4
17. V Tutchiev 1
18. J Dostal 1
19. B Lea 0
20. A Lisouski 0
21. Time Veldt -17

Overall after two rounds

1  KLUGE Roger GER 6 1 7
6  CLANCY Edward GBR 1 15 16

Elimination Race – Round 3 of 6
1  COQUARD Bryan FRA
2  VIVIANI Elia ITA
3  ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR Unai EUS
4  KLUGE Roger GER
5  RATAJCZYK Rafal POL
6  ÜNALAN Recep TUR
7  FREIBERG Michael AUS
8  CHO Ho Sung KOR
9  PEREZ Walter Fernando ARG
10  LEA Bobby USA
11  CLANCY Edward GBR
12  VELDT Tim NED
13  DOSTAL Jan CZE
14  HANSEN Lasse Norman DEN
15  DE PAUW Moreno BEL
16  MORI Kazuhiro JPN
17  SOHRABI Mehdi IRI
18  DIUDIA Volodymyr UKR
19  SAVITSKIY Ivan RUS
20  KWOK Ho Ting HKG
21  WU Po Hung TPE
22  LISOUSKI Aliaksandr BLR
23  TUYCHIEV Vladimir UZB
29 IRVINE Martyn IRL DSQ

OVERALL AFTER 3 EVENTS
1  KLUGE Roger GER 6 1 4 11
2  VIVIANI Elia ITA 4 8 2 14
3  ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR Unai EUS 9 2 3 14
4  ÜNALAN Recep TUR 5 5 6 16
5  COQUARD Bryan FRA 2 16 1 19
6  CHO Ho Sung KOR 10 7 8 25
7  CLANCY Edward GBR 1 15 11 27
8  HANSEN Lasse Norman DEN 8 6 14 28
9  FREIBERG Michael AUS 18 3 7 28
10  MORI Kazuhiro JPN 12 4 16 32
11  RATAJCZYK Rafal POL 11 18 5 34
12  VELDT Tim NED 3 21 12 36
13  PEREZ Walter Fernando ARG 22 12 9 43
14  DOSTAL Jan CZE 13 19 13 45
15  LEA Bobby USA 16 20 10 46
16  DE PAUW Moreno BEL 15 17 15 47
17  KWOK Ho Ting HKG 20 9 20 49
18  LISOUSKI Aliaksandr BLR 17 13 22 52
19  SAVITSKIY Ivan RUS 19 14 19 52
20  TUYCHIEV Vladimir UZB 23 11 23 57
21  WU Po Hung TPE 14 48 21 83
22  DIUDIA Volodymyr UKR 21 46 18 85
23  SOHRABI Mehdi IRI 24 47 17 88
24  IRVINE Martyn IRL 7 10

MEN’S TEAM SPRINT

Finals

1. Team Erdgas 43.474
2. Team JaycoAis 43.661

3. France 43.757
4. Germany 43.835

Qualifying

1. Erdgas (Germany 43.416 (17.364/29.921)
(Eilers/Forstemann/Levy)

2. Jayco (Australia) 43.589  (17.565/30.335)
(Matt Glaetzer, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland)

3. Germany 43.873 (17.135/30.432)
(Bergemann, Enders, Nimke)

4. France 43.914 (17.712/30.638
(Bourgain, Sireau, D’Almeida)

5. Moscow Track Team 43.981

6. Holland 44.188
(Haak, Mulder, Van den Berg)

7. Great Britain 17.661/30.629 – 44.326
(Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny, Jason Queally)

8. Poland 44.547

9. Cyclo Channel 44.605
10. Venezuela 44.783
11. China 44.977
12. Petroholding  45.83
13. Russia 45.109
14. USA 45.116
15. Canada 45.993
16. Japan 45.993
17. Iran 47.012
18. Brazil 47.707

MEN’S TEAM PURSUIT

Finals

1. Rusvelo (Russia) 3:56.127
2.  Australia 4:01.417

3.  Netherlands 4:04.035 59.007
4.  Denmark 4:10.454 57.495

WOMEN’S TEAM PURSUIT

Finals

1 Netherlands 3:21.550
2 China 3:22.079

3 Germany 3:21.701
4 Rusvelo 3:22.086

MEN’S SCRATCH RACE

1  VAN HOECKE Gijs BEL
2  COLLA Angel Dario ARG 1
3  ARNDT Nikias GER 1
4  BRISSE Vivien FRA 1
5  MÜLLER Andreas AUT 1
6  FILIP Jakub CZE 1
7  SCHEP Peter NED 1
8  NATEGHI Hossein IRI 1
9 HOFFMAN Nolan RSA 1
10  BYRGESEN Niki DEN 1
11  SVESHNIKOV Kirill LOK 1
12  O’LOUGHLIN David CGA 1
13  IM Jaeyeon KOR 1
14  THIÈRY Cyrille SUI 1
15  RACKWITZ Daniel TMV 1
16  MIRALIYEV Sultanmurat TTA 1
17  CHOI Ki Ho HKG 1
18  NOWAK Mateusz POL 1
19  NIKITIN Matvey KAZ 1
20  CICCONE Angelo ITA 1
21  MARTYNENKO Oleksandr ISD 1
22  QIN Chenglu CHN 1
23  LISOUSKI Aliaksandr BLR 1
182 YUE Hao HBC DNF

Women’s Points Race
1  NA Ahreum KOR 5 3 2 1 11 20 20 31
2  POHL Stephanie GER 2 5 3 2 20 20 30
3  CECCHINI Elena ITA 5 1 3 10 20 20 29
4  CARLETON Gillian CAN 5 3 18 20 20 28
5  MACHACOVA Jarmila CZE 2 5 1 20 20 27
6  WONG Wan Yiu Jamie HKG 5 6 20 20 25
7  POLSPOEL Maaike BEL 1 8 20 20 21
8  HORNE Ciara CGA 5 12 5
9  WOJTYRA Malgorzata POL 5 19 5
10  BATES Katherine AUS 3 1 4 4
11  PAPKO Aksana BLR 2 2 16 4
12  PAVLENDOVA Alzbeta SVK 1 3 20 4
13  SOSENKO Aleksandra LTU 3 13 3
14  LOZANO RAMIREZ Laura Camila COL 2 3 2
15  USABIAGA BALERDI Ana EUS 2 7 2
16  NAGIRNAYA Anna UKR 2 17 2
17  CHACON Lilibeth VEN 1 5 1
18  BUBNENKOVA Svetlana RUS 9 0
19  STEFANSKAYA Natalya KAZ 14 0
20  ABSALYAMOVA Venera RVL 15 0
TABATA Maki JPN 1 1 DNF
HUANG Li CHN

Day 1

On day 1 of theAstana World Cup, the first time the event has been held in Astana, there were two events, the Men’s and Women’s qualifying. The Dutch Women’s team, a full strength one, qualified fastest in a fast time of 3.23.539 to go through against China in the Gold medal final. Germany and a trade team from Russia will find for the bronze medal after one of the favourites, former world champions, Australia, only qualified 5th fastest. There was better news for the Aussies in the Men’s qualifying when a strong team including Omnium rider Freiberg and Madison rider O’Shea finished second fastest to the Russians. Denmark and the Netherlands will fight for the Bronze medal.

Women’s Team Pursuit

Qualifying
1 Netherlands 3:23.539
Wild, Koedooder, Van Dijk

2 China 3:25.209
JIANG, JIANG, LIANG,

3 Germany 3:25.229
Brennauer, Becker, Sandig

4 RUSVELO 3:25.652

5  Australia 3:25.825
Bates, Ankudinoff, Kent

6 Belarus 3:26.546
7 Belgium 3:31.320
8 Korea 3:32.030
9 Ukraine 3:32.719
10 Japan 3:34.704
11 Russia 3:35.010
12 Canada 3:35.363
13 Poland 3:37.652
14 Hong Kong 3:40.413
15 Venezuela 3:57.763

Men’s Team Pursuit

Qualifying
1 Rusvelo 4:00.601
2 Australia 4:04.279
(Freiberg, Edmondson, Mulhern, Oshea)

3 Denmark 4:05.898
4 Netherlands 4:05.978
5 Belgium 4:06.746
6 Germany 4:08.694
7 Russia 4:08.827
8 Ukraine 4:10.154
9 Lokosphinx 4:10.209
10 Hong Kong 4:11.428
11 Italy 4:11.982
12 France 4:12.115
13 China 4:14.877
14 Switzerland 4:15.362
15 Holy Brother Cycling Team 4:16.684
16 Poland 4:18.220
17 Korea 4:18.452
18 Iran 4:19.568
19 Track Team Astana 4:23.255

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