Shanks, Sergent into Gold Medal Rides in Melbourne World Cup

BikeNZ cyclist Jesse Sergent grabbed gold while world champion Alison Shanks had to settle for silver to cap a strong opening night for the New Zealand team in the UCI World Cup in Melbourne.
 

Sergent, 21, proved too classy for Australian Rohan Dennis in the final of the men’s 4000m individual pursuit, winning in a time of 4:23.192 on a dead track at the Hisense Arena.

Shanks, 26, was edged out by a Olympic silver medallist Wendy Houvenaghel (GBR) in the final of the women’s 3000m individual pursuit, reversing their close result from the world championships in Poland earlier this year.

The Great Britain rider edged out Shanks in the closing laps to win by 38/100ths of a second in 3:33.771.

The first night of finals also brought strong performances from two riders at different ends of the international spectrum. Highly experienced Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch), the country’s leading road rider in recent years, finished fourth in the women’s scratch race while 19-year-old Tom Scully (Invercargill) impressed many with an aggressive effort to finish eighth in the points race.

Sergent (Feilding), who finished fourth in last year’s world championship when he did not control his pace, was in total charge tonight, opening a lead of 4/10ths of a second after the first kilometre which he stretched to 2.5 seconds after 2km and held to 3km.

The Australian came back in the final kilometre but Sergent had plenty in reserve to win in 4:23.192.

“It was a nice ride and it felt really good,” Sergent said. “The track was dead this morning and I geared up thinking it would be quicker tonight but it was even slower.
“It became a ride for gold which was the important thing. That has qualified us for the world championship which is great.”

This has been a one-off track campaign to complete a long and arduous season which started with the world championship crusade before a tough road season for Lance Armstrong’s Trek Livestrong development team in the USA.

“This was a good performance for the end of the year. Tomorrow is my last ride of the year and I am hanging out for a break and some time off the bike.”

Shanks was disappointed to lose her final to Houvenaghel but was satisfied with her progress.

“I’m gutted any time I lose. I want to win every time I race,” Shanks said. “At the same time it was not too bad and I felt quite good. This is just the start of the season for me – my first real hitout.

“In the big picture my focus is on the end of the year at the Commonwealth Games in October which is a long, long way off. I will sit down and look at all the information but this performance is way ahead of where I was at the same time out from my major competition last campaign.”

Shanks said it was a turnabout from their clash at the world championships, also a closely fought affair, but this time the British athlete proved the stronger in the closing four laps. The pair were separated by just 2/100ths of a second after the first kilometre, with Shanks up by 8/100ths at 2km before the British rider made her move, finishing the stronger in the last two laps to edge out the world champion by 36/100ths of a second.

Kiesanowski, in her first serious tilt at the track for a decade, enjoyed an outstanding fourth place in the 10km scratch race.

The Team TIBCO professional road rider in the USA used her experienced and resilience to be well place in any attack.

The race turned into a bunch sprint after it was neutralized for several laps after a crash. Kiesanowski got squeezed in the final fight for a podium place in a desperate final lap sprint but was impressive nonetheless.

Outstanding Russian rider Evgeniya Romanyuta defended her Melbourne title, following on from second place in Manchester world Cup two weeks ago. Top Italian road racer Giorgia Bronzini was second with multi world skating champion turned bike rider, Theresa Cliff-Ryan (USA) edging out the kiwi, who could lay claim to beat home a number of highly rated riders including the Manchester winner and local favourite Belinda Goss (AUS).

Scully may have finished eighth but he impressed many with an aggressive ride in the 30km points race. He got himself into breaks on three occasions but none of them were able to stick, and he could not bridge over to the break that got away.

Scully was the second highest points scorer of the night, with a win and three second placings in the last six sprints.

“He produced a very impressive performance for a young buy in his first taste of tough international competition in the elite class,” said Mark Elliott, BikeNZ High Performance Director. “Mark him down as a rider of real quality for the future.”

Tomorrow features the women’s points race, men’s team pursuit, men’s keirin, men’s scratch race and men’s kilo time trial.

Day 1 Finals Results:
Men’s points race, 30km: Cameron Meyer (AUS) 33 points, 1; Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE) 33, 2; Lukasz (POL) 28, 3. Tom Scully (NZL) 16, 8.
Women’s 3000m individual pursuit, gold medal ride-off: Wendy Houvenaghel (GBR) 3:33.771, 1; Alison Shanks (NZL) 3:34.133, 2.
Bronze ride-off: Lesya Kalitovska (UKR) 3:38.047, 3; Josephine Tomic (AUS) 3:42.056, 4.
Women’s 10km scratch race: Evgeniya Romanyuta (RUS) 1, Giorgia Bronzini (ITA) 2, Theresa Cliff-Ryan (VBR) 3, Joanne Kiesanowski (NZL) 4. Lauren Ellis (NZL) 21.
Men’s 4000m individual pursuit, gold medal ride-off: Jesse Sergent (NZL) 4:23.192, 1; Rohan Dennis (AUS) 4:24.374, 2.
Bronze ride-off: Vitaliy Shehedov (UKR) 4:32.106, 3; Levi Heimans (NED) 4:37.839, 4.

Image by  Shane Goss/www.licoricegallery.com