Home  Cyclingnews TV   News  Tech   Features   Road   MTB   BMX   Cyclo-cross   Track    Photos    Fitness    Letters   Search   Forum  

Recently on Cyclingnews.com


Mt Hood Classic
Photo ©: Swift

 Introduction to Track Racing  -  What's a Wheelrace?  - Introduction to Six Day racing  - UCI codes

Los Angeles Track World Cup - CDM

ADT Velodrome, Carson, California, USA, January 19-21, 2007

Main Page    Results   Overall standings     Next Session

Session 1 - Morning, Friday January 19: Women: sprint qual; points race qual. Men: keirin qual; individual pursuit qual; scratch qual

Upset day in LA

By Rob Jones

Rubbing elbows
Photo ©: Mitch Clinton
(Click for larger image)

The opening session of the Los Angeles Track World Cup did not see any finals contested, but there were plenty of upsets, as numerous favourites did not make it through qualifying or first round action. Among those upset were Olympic sprint silver medalist Tamilia Abassova (Russia) and Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) in the women's sprint, Canada's Travis Smith in Men's Keirin and David O'Loughlin (Ireland) in the Individual Pursuit.

Women's Sprint

Nineteen riders were entered in the sprint, so the top 16 would qualify from the 200M time trial. Normally, this would be straightforward for the top contenders, but both Abassova and Nancy Contreras (Mexico) didn't make the cut. China's Guo Shuang set the fast time of 11.366 seconds, followed by the Dutch pair of Willy Kanis (11.447) and Hijgenaar (11.500).

In the first round Hijgenaar was up against first-time World Cup competitor Liz Carlson - the final qualifier. Hijgenaar may have been too confident because she left the door open late in the second lap for Carlson to drop down and claim the inside lane. Hijgenaar dropped in on Carlson, forcing her onto the apron and was relegated, knocking her out of competition.

"I know she is fast, so I tried to ride from behind and wait for an opportunity to surprise her," explained Carlson. "Then she dropped down and ran into me. But it is pretty amazing to go on to the next round at my first event - holy crap!"

The other favourites made it through to the next round of eight, except for Oksana Grishina (Russia), who lost against former world champion Clara Sanchez (France). The quarter-finals only took two rides each, with Guo, Sanchez, Jane Gerisch (Germany) and Anna Meares (Australia) moving on to tonight's semi-finals.

Men's Keirin

With the exception of Smith and Josiah Ng (Malaysia), all the top riders made it through the first round, with Ng getting to the second round through the repecharge. Smith wasn't so lucky. In the first round he was up against Roberto Chiappa (Italy) and Gregory Bauge (France), and in the repecharge he was relegated for leaving his line and drifting up the track as the race entered the second last corner.

"It was crazy," he said. "I locked bars with somebody and got pulled up the track. This wasn't what I was looking for."

Chris Hoy (Great Britain) has switched over to the Keirin after his Athens gold medal event - the Kilo - was dropped. His transition seems to be going well, with the big Scot not challenged at all as he led his heat from the front.

Men's Individual Pursuit

There were no real surprises in the qualifying round of the men's pursuit, with Vitaliy Popkov (Ukraine) the only rider to go under four and a half minutes. He will be joined by Fabien Sanchez (France) for the gold medal final, while former Los Angeles winner Sergi Escobar (Spain) will go up against Valeriy Valynin (Russia) for the bronze. Third through sixth were all within a second of each other.

Canadian national time trial champion Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), riding his first pursuit at this level started out very strong, with a 1:10 for his first kilometre, but then faded to finish 13th.

"I was feeling good and got a little too excited," he admitted. "But this is hard; as hard as a 40 Kilometre time trial. This is just the start, I plan to stay with the track this year as much as possible."

Men's Scratch Race

The two 7.5 kilometre heats were both filled, with the top 12 moving on to tonight's final. In the first heat Ignatas Konovalovas stole a march on the field early on to take a lap, with the rest of the race coming down to a sprint finish. In the second heat, three riders managed to stay clear of the field and sprinted for the remaining spots in the final.

Women's Point Race

The first heat saw five riders take a lap on the field, with world pursuit champion Sarah Hammer (USA) spending much of the race at the front of field to keep up the tempo. Hammer, her team mate Rebecca Quinn and Worlds Scratch Race silver medal Gina Grain (Canada) were among the qualifiers. The second heat followed a similar pattern, with five riders also lapping the field. Rochelle Gilmore (Australia) was also among the qualifiers.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com

Images by Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com

Images by Rob Jones/www.canadiancyclist.com

Results

Men's Individual Pursuit qualifying    
 
1 Vitaliy Popkov (Ukr)                                                                        4.29.40
2 Fabien Sanchez (Fra)                                                                        4.30.44
3 Sergi Escobar Roure (Spa)                                                                   4.30.91
4 Valeriy Valynin (Rus)                                                                       4.31.40
5 David O'loughlin (Irl)                                                                      4.31.84
6 Patrick Gretsch (Ger)                                                                       4.31.93
7 Jenning Huizenga (Ned)                                                                      4.32.48
8 Tom Zirbel (USA)                                                                            4.34.27
9 Giairo Ermeti (Ita)                                                                         4.34.31
10 Sam Bewley (NZl)                                                                           4.36.37
11 Andrew Tennant (GBr)                                                                       4.38.37
12 Aliaksandr Lisouski (Blr)                                                                  4.39.46
13 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team                                                   4.39.69
14 Hayden Josefski (Aus)                                                                      4.41.51
15 Sergiy Laghkuti (Ukr) Arda Natura Pinarello Ukraina                                        4.42.00
16 Sergejus Apionkinas (Ltu)                                                                  4.42.23
17 Ian Stannard (GBr) Team 100% Me                                                            4.44.30
18 Martin Lollesgaard (Den)                                                                   4.51.21
19 Christian Valenzuela (Mex)                                                                 5.05.45
DNF Ingmar De Poortere (Bel)                                                                         
 
Men's Keirin - round one

Heat 1
1 Gregory Bauge (Fra)                                                                                
2 Roberto Chiappa (Ita)                                                                              
3 Ricardo Lynch (Jam)                                                                                
4 Travis Smith (Can)                                                                                 
5 Anton Rudoy (Rus)                                                                                  

Heat 2
1 Chris Hoy (GBr)                                                                                    
2 Kazuya Narita (Jpn)                                                                                
3 Cédric Stoller (Swi)                                                                               
4 Dan Wu (Chn)                                                                                       
5 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Pol)                                                                           

Heat 3
1 Ross Edgar (GBr) Scienceinsport.Com                                                                
2 Shane Perkins (Aus) South Australia.Com                                                            
3 Jaroslav Jerabek (Svk)                                                                             
4 Adam Ptacnik (Cze)                                                                                 
5 Panagiotis Keloglou (Gre)                                                                          

Heat 4
1 José Antonio Escuredo Raimondez (Spa)                                                              
2 Scott Sunderland (Aus)                                                                             
3 Gideon Massie (USA)                                                                                
4 Josiah Ng Onn Lam (Mas)                                                                            
5 Luis Toussaint (Mex)                                                                               
6 Haseem Mclean (Tri)                                                                                
 
Repechage 1

Heat 1
1 Josiah Ng Onn Lam (Mas)                                                                            
2 Gideon Massie (USA)                                                                                
3 Ricardo Lynch (Jam)                                                                                
5 Anton Rudoy (Rus)                                                                                  
6 Luis Toussaint (Mex)                                                                               
REL Travis Smith (Can)                                                                               
 
Heat 2
1 Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Pol)                                                                           
2 Panagiotis Keloglou (Gre)                                                                          
3 Adam Ptacnik (Cze)                                                                                 
4 Dan Wu (Chn)                                                                                       
5 Cédric Stoller (Swi)                                                                               
6 Haseem Mclean (Tri)                                                                                
7 Jaroslav Jerabek (Svk)      

Men's scratch qualifying 

Heat 1
1 Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu) 
                                
One lap behind
2 Rafat Ratajczyk (Pol)                                     
3 Jesse Sergent (NZl)                                       
4 Steve Schets (Bel)                                        
5 Fabio Masotti (Ita)                                       
6 Martin Liska (Svk)                                        
7 Jhon G. Durango (Col)                                     
8 Marcel Kalz (Ger)                                         
9 Ho Ting Kwok (HKg)                                        
10 Russel Hampton (GBr) Team 100% Me                        
11 Charles Bradley Huff (USA) Team Tiaa ­Cref               
12 Guillermo Ferrer Garcia (Spa)                            
13 Andrey Klyuev (Rus) Moscow                               
14 Hayden Josefski (Aus)                                    
15 Martin Lollesgaard (Den)                                 
16 Oleksandr Klymko (Ukr) Arda Natura Pinarello Ukraina     
17 Austin Carroll (USA)                                     
DNS Rodrigo Silva (Bra)                                     
DNS James Carney (USA) Team Fuji   
                         
Heat 2 
1 Volodymyry Rybin (Ukr)                                    
2 Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukr) Isd ­Sport Donetsk               
3 Bruno Mzi (Swi)                                           
4 Jiri Hochmann (Cze)                                       
5 Wim Stroetinga (Ned)                                      
6 Walter Perez (Arg)                                        
7 Aitor Alonso Granados (Spa) Cespa - Eustrak.Com           
8 Siarhei Daubniuk (Blr)                                    
9 Ryan Mckenzie (Can)                                       
10 François Lamiraud (Fra)                                  
11 Ben Swift (GBr)                                          
12 Panagiotis Keloglou (Gre)                                
13 Mario Lexmüller (Aut)                                    
14 Sergey Kolesnikov (Rus)                                  
15 Carlos Manuel Hernandez Santana (Mex)                    
16 Marsh Cooper (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team               
17 Taiji Nishitani (Jpn)                                    
DNF Roberto Alvarado Torres (PRc)                           
DNS Paul Che Altamirano (Per)                               
DNS Yriy Ivoljatov (Uzb)  

Women's Sprint qualifying

1 Shuang Guo (Chn)                       0.11.37
2 Willy Kanis (Ned)                      0.11.45
3 Yvonne Hijgenaar (Ned)                 0.11.50
4 Swetlana Grankowskaja (Rus) Moscow     0.11.55
5 Clara Sanchez (Fra)                    0.11.56
6 Lisandra Guerra (Cub)                  0.11.56
7 Daniela Larreal (Ven)                  0.11.62
8 Jinjie Gong (Chn)                      0.11.69
9 Jennie Reed (USA)                      0.11.71
10 Anna Meares (Aus)                     0.11.72
11 Jane Gerisch (Ger)                    0.11.77
12 Oksana Grishina (Rus)                 0.11.86
13 Magdalena Sara (Pol)                  0.11.98
14 Liz Carlson (USA)                     0.12.01
15 Sandie Clair (Fra)                    0.12.09
16 Kaarle Mcculloch (Aus)                0.12.18
17 Tamilia Abassova (Rus)                0.12.18
18 Nancy Contreras Reyes (Mex)           0.12.26
19 Renata Dabrowska (Pol)                0.12.32

Women's Points Race qualifying

Heat 1 1 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spa) 25 pts 2 Charlotte Becker (Ger) 23 3 Marllijn Binnendijk (Ned) 21 4 Bettina Kuhn (Swi) 20 5 Jianling Wang (Chn) 20 One lap behind 6 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spa) Cespa - Eustrak.Com 7 pts 7 Gina Grain (Can) 5 8 Sarah Hammer (USA) 5 9 Gonzalez Valdinieso (Cub) 5 10 Olga Slyusareva (Rus) 3 11 Rebecca Quinn (USA) 3 12 Vera Carrara (Ita) 3 13 Jarmila Machacova (Cze) 2 14 Jessica Jurado (Mex) 1 15 Elodie Henriette (Fra) 1 16 Iona Wynter (Jam) 17 Graciela Martinez (Arg) Heat 2 1 Guerrero Mdez Belem (Mex) 22 pts 2 Ruzickova Martina (Cze) 20 3 Antoshina Tatiana (Rus) 20 4 Moncassin Cathy (Fra) 20 5 Galvez Lopez Debora (Spa) 20 One lap behind 6 Visser Adrie (Ned) 10 7 Yulia Arustamova (Rus) Moscow 7 8 Gilmore Rochelle (Aus) 6 9 Li Yan (Chn) 5 10 Gonzalez Perez Yoanka (Cub) 5 11 Bronzini Giorgia (Ita) 5 12 Tess Downing (Aus) Drapac Porsche 4 13 Vypyraylo Lyudmyla (Ukr) 14 Kate Cullen (GBr) Recycling.Co.Uk 15 Schnider Pascale (Swi) 16 Tzoumanika Maria (Gre) 17 Joos Verena (Ger)