Girls Strike Gold, Sprinters Bronze at Track Cycling World Cup

The New Zealand women’s track programme is on track for the London Olympics after winning the team pursuit final at the UCI World Cup in Colombia.

The trio of Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis and Rushlee Buchanan beat a full strength USA team in a superb performance in the final in Cali.

It was a double medal night for New Zealand with the printers grabbing the bronze medal in the men’s team sprint, outlasting Poland in the ride-off and establishing a new best time in the process.

It was a strong message from the team on the day that BikeNZ received an increase in funding from SPARC for their campaign through to the London Olympics.

Behind by more than half a second after the first kilometre of the 3000m final, the BikeNZ pursuit women put in a sizzling 1:05 second kilometre and then a 1.06 final kilometre to blow the Americans away.

BikeNZ national women’s coach Dayle Cheatley was enthusiastic about the performances today from the same combination that won bronze at the world championships and set a world record in the process.

“While the ride for the world record at the world championships was special, I would rate today as our best team pursuiting performance in that we executed the qualifying really well to get into the gold medal ride and we came out to produce a pretty well perfect ride in the final,” Cheatley said.

“They rode really tight and in good formation in the final. I wasn’t surprised that they would turn out and have a good ride tonight even though only one of them rode at the Melbourne World Cup. But to be only around half a second off the world record at this time of year is pretty encouraging.”

Cheatley said he was not concerned with the fast start made by the Americans.
“I didn’t panic after the first kilometre because they were bang on the schedule. From lap five they started to pick them up and in the end we cracked them and just about had them in the same straight at the finish.

“We are sitting really well. There were 21 nations here tonight, the biggest field ever for a women’s pursuit. While we are progressing well there are a lot of teams coming up like the Germans, Canadians and Lithuania, as well as Australia, USA and Great Britain.

They topped the qualifiers in 3:23.132 but went a superb 3:22.202 in the final, only 75/100ths off their world record, which was set in beating off the Americans for the bronze medal at this year’s world championships in Copenhagen.

The Americans, led by individual pursuit world record holder Sarah Hammer, were just under a second slower than the kiwis in qualifying while world silver medallists Great Britain beat Germany for the bronze medal.

The burgeoning New Zealand sprint trio of teenagers Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster along with 21-year-old Eddie Dawkins picked up their second straight medal, winning bronze in the team pursuit.

They were the third fastest in qualifying behind Olympic gold medallists Great Britain and world silver medallists France in 44.318, which was under the time set in winning silver behind Great Britain in Melbourne two weeks ago.

The kiwis were more impressive in the bronze ride against Poland, clocking 44.118 in a new best time, more than a second faster than the Poles and highly competitive with the gold medal ride where France beat the British combination.

Given their opposition are seasoned campaigners mostly in their late 20s, the New Zealanders have massive potential under coach Justin Grace.

Meanwhile Timaru’s Shane Archbold is in seventh place after the first three events in the six-race omnium.

The gold medallist from Melbourne was sixth in the 250m Flying Lap, 15th in the points race where he missed the break, and seventh in the elimination.

He rides the individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial tomorrow to complete the programme tomorrow.

The World Cup continues until Sunday.

UCI Track World Cup, Cali, Colombia, finals day 1:
Women’s 3000m team pursuit, gold medal ride: New Zealand (Rushlee Buchanan, Lauren Ellis, Alison Shanks) 3:22.202, 1; USA 3:25.222, 2. Bronze medal ride: Great Britain 3:23.789, 3; Germany 3:26.262, 4.
Qualifying: New Zealand 3:23.132, 1; USA 3:23.917, 2; Great Britain 3:24.323, 3; Germany 3:25.673, 4.
Men’s team sprint, qualifying: Great Britain (Jason Kenny, Chris Hoy, Matthew Crampton) 43.893, 1; France (Greg Bauge, Kevin Sireau, Michael D’Almeida) 44.318, 2; New Zealand (Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster, Eddie Dawkins) 44.318, 3.
Gold medal ride: France 43.539, 1; Great Britain 43.830, 2. Bronze medal ride: New Zealand 434.118, 3; Poland 45.117, 4.
Men’s Omnium, day 1:
250m Flying Lap: Juan Arango Carvajal (COL) 13.263, 1; Ed Clancy (GBR) 13.354, 2; Jan Dostak (CZE) 13.427, 3. Shane Archbold (NZL) 13.496, 6.
Points race: Eloy Rovira (ESP) 71, 1; Carvajal 60, 2; Zach Bell (CAN) 57, 3. Archbold 8, 15.
Elimination: Luis Mansilla (CHI) 1, Walter Prez (ARG) 2, Niki Byrgesen (DEN) 3. Archbold 7.
Points after day 1: Carvajal 13 points, 1; Clancy 16, 2; Erik Mohs (GER) and Bell 23, equal 3. Also: Archbold 28, equal 7.