The Australians on Team Toshiba (Image credit: John Veage)
By Laura Weislo
Australians led the day at their home World Cup in Sydney on Friday, taking home two gold medals, two silver and one bronze - medaling in every event except the women's scratch race. The Australian trade team Toshiba now leads the standings with 30 points after taking home the men's team sprint gold, bronze in the points race and silver in the women's sprint. New Zealand and the Australian national team are tied for second with 27 points with Russia fourth with 24.
In the men's team sprint, Ryan Bayley, Daniel Ellis and Shane John Kelly powered their way to a 44.639 to edge out the German team radnet.de. The French Cofidis team was third and Great Britain fourth.
Australian national team member Katie Mactier repeated her win of last year in the women's individual pursuit. Mactier, hampered by an arm injury which slowed her start, qualified second, but overtook Lithuanian Vilija Sereikaite to take the gold in the final, dropping 0.36 seconds from last year's time in the process. Karin Thürig (Switzerland) bested British rider Wendy Houvenaghel for the bronze.
In the men's individual pursuit, Drapac Porsche's Phillip Thuaux set a personal best to qualify in second, just half a second behind Ukrainian Volodymyr Dyudya. However, in the final Thuaux couldn't match the pace of Dyudya, and fell five seconds behind the winner. Last year's winner Alexander Serov (Russia) was third ahead of Marc Ryan (New Zealand).
The men's points race went to the Kiwis, with Greg Henderson succeeding in taking a lap along with Australian Cameron Meyer (Team Toshiba) and Spain's Toni Tauler. Henderson took the win with 31 points over Tauler, while Meyer finished third.
In the women's sprint, Australian Anna Meares found herself in the gold medal final after besting Ukranian Lyubov Shulika, French woman Clara Sanchez, and Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus). Tsylinskaya had unexpectedly beaten World Champion Victoria Pendleton in the quarter final round. Mears went up against 23 year-old Dutch woman Willy Kanis. Kanis, who is a two time BMX world champion and recently made the switch to the track, took the gold in three matches over Meares. Tsylinskaya took the bronze after beating China's Shuang Gao in two matches.
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Cuba had its moment in the women's scratch race, where Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso, the reigning World Champion, rocketed out of the final turn and held off Italy's Annalisa Cucinotta and Anastasiay Chulkova (Russia).
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
