Germany top team in track World Cup

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Germany closed the International Cycling Union's (UCI) Track Cycling World Cup Classics season as the top team throughout the four events of the 2009/2010 series. Despite claiming just two medals at the final round in Beijing, China, Germany finished safely clear of Australia with The Netherlands overtaking Great Britain for third after a late charge in China.

While the home nations performed strongly in each of their own World Cup rounds, the Germans' consistency through the first three events – Manchester, Melbourne and Cali – allowed them take their foot off the gas for the finale in Beijing. Miriam Welte and Joachim Eilers claimed silver medals in the women's keirin and men's kilo, respectively. A moderate success by their previous standards, it was enough to see Germany finish with a total of 342 points.

China and Australia dominated the final round, as the Chinese sprinters and Australian endurance riders saw results largely distributed between the two nations. With victory in both the men's and women's team pursuit finals, silver in both the men's and women's individual pursuit events and Megan Dunn's gold in the women's points race, Australia finished the World Cup season with a 325 point total.

China's dominance of the women's and men's sprints over the weekend boosted them to the top of the round standings, but wasn't enough to finish higher than fifth overall.

The absence of Great Britain's main track stars over the final three rounds showed as they slipped to fourth with 223 points, after what had been an auspicious start in Manchester in November. The Britons' relative inattention to the Cali and Beijing rounds allowed The Netherlands to leapfrog into third, just two points clear on 225. Vera Koedooder's gold in the women's scratch race and Willy Kanis' upstaging of the local hopes for the same result in the 500m time trial, was the basis for the Dutch squad's late ascension.

With the World Cup Classics now finished, the countries will have two months to regroup before the Track World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark (March 24-28).

Team Jayco were the highest non-national team throughout the series, in tenth overall. With the trade teams to give way to national squads for the Worlds, Australia's sprinting stocks will be bolstered in time for the Championships, which are expected to be attended by a full-strength British squad.