BikeNZ Womens Through To Team Pursuit Gold Medal Ride

The fledgling New Zealand women’s team pursuit have assured New Zealand of a second medal on the second day of the UCI World Track Cycling Championships in Poland.

The trio of individual pursuit champion Alison Shanks, Jaime Nielsen and Lauren Ellis will ride-off against world champions Great Britain in the final later this morning.
They clocked a solid 3:26.023 after a conservative start, with the Great Britain combination going nearly one second faster.

Earlier World Cup winner Jesse Sergent had a disappointing ride to be fifth fastest and miss out on a medal chance in the men’s individual pursuit.

The Feilding rider, in his first time as an individual pursuiter at the world championships, showed some inexperience by going out too fast and fading over the final kilometre. He clocked 4:21.253, more than three seconds outside his winning time at Beijing World Cup.

“I just went out just too fast and then got bogged down trying to get back on pace,” Sergent said. “At around 2km I was counting down the laps knowing I had just not got the early phase of the race right. A real experience for me, and one I will really learn from.”

Fellow Manawatu rider Simon Van Velthooven did not qualify in the men’s kierin.