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Session 5 - Morning, Sunday, January 21: Women: Scratch final; keirin final, Men: team sprint final; Madison final
Hammer hits World Cup hard
By Rob Jones
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The Los Angeles round of the Track World Cup concluded on Sunday, with hometown favourite Sarah Hammer (Team Ouch) winning her third gold medal of the weekend in the Women's Scratch Race. Hammer's single-person team also took top honours for the entire World Cup with four gold medals won, and ranked fourth among 'nations' for total medals. A total of four medal events took place on the final day, concluding with the men's Team Sprint, won by Great Britain.
Madison
The Danish duo of Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen dominated the 160 lap (40 kilometre) Madison final, taking two laps and winning four of eight sprint competitions. The only two teams able to finish on the same lap were second place Belgium duo Kenny de Ketele and Steve Schets with 6 points and third place Russians Konstantin Ponomarev and Alexey Shmidt with 5 points. Argentina, Ukraine, Italy and Netherlands finished one lap down, with the remainder a further lap behind.
The constant attacks and counterattacks splintered the field quickly, making it difficult to keep track of who was on which lap. Perennial favourites Argentina managed to gain a single lap, but were stymied in their efforts to take a second lap and finished just out of the medals in fourth place.
Rasmussen was one of the riders on the Danish Team Pursuit squad which had to re-ride the qualifier after crashing at the three-quarter mark. The team then lost a gold medal chance when the team blew apart while going head-to-head with the Ukrainian team.
"It was definitely a good feeling today because I was so disappointed after the team pursuit," said Rasmussen. "We were definitely the strongest in the pursuit but we just had a bad day. So it was good to get a win."
Women's Keirin
The first round of the Keirin gave a clear indication of who was going well, with the four heat winners moving on to the final. Guo Shuang (China), Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands), Clara Sanchez (France) and world champion Daniela Larreal (Venezuela) were joined in the final by Jennie Reed (USA) and Sandie Claire (France). Guo went to the front after the pace bike pulled off and held the inside line all the way to the finish line. Larreal managed to put on a burst of speed in the final lap and edged in front at the line, while Reed followed Larreal to take third behind Guo.
Women's Scratch Race
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Last year, Sarah Hammer won the scratch race by going to the front with 12 laps to go and keeping the speed high enough to discourage anyone from passing her. This year, after winning both the Points race and the Pursuit, in a US record time, the Temecula, California rider started more slowly in the scratch, sitting at the back for most of the race.
Despite a few tentative breakaway attempts, the field seemed content to roll around the track, setting up for a final sprint to the line. It wasn't until five laps to go that Hammer made her move, heading straight to the front, with team mate Rebecca Quinn on her wheel. Once at the front, she kept up a fierce pace, and no one could overtake. Adrie Visser (Netherlands) tried on the back straight, and managed to pull level before dropping back slightly in the final corners to hang on for third.
"The best thing about Becky is you don't mess with her when she's fighting for a wheel," commented Hammer. "We had no plan going into it, but it's kind of that unspoken thing where she knows what I'm going to do and I know what she's going to do, and so we're a pretty dangerous duo, I think."
"Coming in, I wanted to win all three, but in reality whether or not that would happen, you never know. This morning I woke up and didn't even want to do the scratch race because I was getting tired both physically and mentally. But once I get on the start line, I'm ready to go."
Men's Team Sprint
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The final in the men's team sprint pitted Great Britain against France, with the second British squad, ScienceinSport.com, going against Germany for the bronze. Matthew Crompton, Chris Hoy and Janie Staff were pitted against Gregory Bauge, Francois Pervis and Kevin Sireau for gold, and were neck-and-neck after the first lap.
Halfway into their second lap, Sireau rolled his front tire and went down hard, forcing a restart. In the re-run, Bauge put France in the lead after one lap, but Hoy put the Brits into the lead on the second lap, and Crompton maintained it to the finish.
Afterwards, Hoy admitted that he wasn't used to racing as many events, and the fatigue after the restart made it difficult. "It was tough, but it was the same for all of us, and the French guy must have been pretty sore," noted Hoy. "The most frustrating part for me was that we have been spending a lot of time working on our transitions, and I think I got it perfect in the ride that was stopped!"
"When I hit the back straight on the final second lap my legs were jelly. The day before, I really felt the fatigue more and more through the day as the sprinting went on, so I had nothing left to give against Chiappa (Italy). I know that I have to work on being able to make multiple efforts. The speed is there - I qualified fastest - but I'm more used to making one big effort."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Mitch Clinton/www.clintonphoto.com
- The Belgians execute a hand sling in the Madison
- Team Denmark celebrates
- Sarah Hammer (OPC) early in the scratch race
- Sarah Hammer (OPC) wins the scratch race
- Sarah Hammer (OPC) & Becky Quinn (USA) Gold and Silver in the scratch race
- After the fall in the team sprint gold medal ride, Team France has a moment to reflect
- Great Britain team sprint Gold
- Team Italy
- Team Australia
- Team Canada shows it is all in the tongue
- Team Denmark
Images by Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com
- Anna Meares takes a photo as she is photographed
- Aussie team sprint
- Polish team sprint
- Polish team on the way
- Russia’s Tamilia Abassova just had an off weekend
- Brad Huff and Mike Creed in the Madison
- Sarah Hammer on here way to winning the Scratch race
- Anna Lang leads Kaarie McCulloch in a Keirin round
- Michael Morkov slings in Alex Rasmussen to win the Madison
- The Russian girls hanging out between races
- Sarah Hammer and Rebecca Quinn wave to the crowd
- The Italian girls have fun with World Cup Leader Annalisa Cucinotta
- Lead out rider Gregory Bauge is up high watching as anchor rider Kevin Sireau goes down as Francois Pervis is still pulling hard
- The British team on the restart of the team sprint took the gold
Images by Michael Grundmann/www.michaelgrundmann.com
- Team USA sprint qualifier (9th place)
- 5th place Australians in the team sprint qualifiers
- Ryan Mckenzie (CAN) takes the third sprint in the madison
- Alex Rasmussen from the dominant team from Denmark in the madison
- Clara Sanchez (FRA) ready to jump on Jennie Reed (USA) and Anna Meares (AUS) in the 2nd round keirin race
- Becky Quinn (USA) ready for the scratch race
- Sarah Hammer rolling out for the start of the scratch race
- Americans Becky Quinn and Sarah Hammer lead early on in the scratch race
- Sarah Hammer (OPC) on her way to win the scratch race
- Women's keirin final round in a packed Home Depot Center
- Daniela Larreal (VEN) takes the win in the keirin finals
- Team GBR in the sprint finals before a crash caused a restart
- Prep work for Great Britain's final team sprint race
- Great Britain on their way to a win in the team sprint
- Team France on their way to a second place finish in the team sprint after a crash
Results
Women's Scratch final
1 Sarah Hammer (USA) Ouch Pro Cycling
2 Rebecca Quinn (USA)
3 Adrie Visser (Ned)
4 Yulia Arustamova (Rus) Moscow
5 Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita)
6 Gema Pascual Torrecilla (Spa)
7 Yumari Gonzalez Valdinieso (Cub)
8 Olga Slyusareva (Rus)
9 Yoanka Gonzalez Perez (Cub)
10 Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro (Spa) Cespa - Eustrak.Com
11 Tess Downing (Aus) Drapac Porsche
12 Pascale Schnider (Swi)
13 Kate Cullen (GBr) Recycling.Co.Uk
14 Debora Galvez Lopez (Spa)
15 Monia Baccaille (Ita)
16 Jarmila Machacova (Cze)
17 Belem Guerrero Mdez (Mex)
18 Gina Grain (Can)
19 Maria Luisa Calle Williams (Col)
20 Tatiana Antoshina (Rus)
21 Verena Joos (Ger)
22 Charlotte Becker (Ger)
23 Cathy Moncassin (Fra)
24 Marllijn Binnendijk (Ned)
Women's Keirin final
N/A
Men's Team Sprint final
Gold Great Britain 44.606 (60,529 km/h)
Matthew Crampton
Chris Hoy
Jamie Staff
Silver France 44.913
Gregory Bauge
François Pervis
Kévin Sireau
Bronze Scienceinsport.Com 44.725
Edgar Ross
Jason Kenny
Jason Queally
4 Germany 45.015
Carsten Bergemann
Robert Forstemann
René Wolff
5 Australia
6 Poland
7 Japan
8 China
9 United States
10 Spain
11 Canada
12 Greece
13 Malaysia
14 Cuba
15 Russia
16 Switzerland
17 Trinidad &Tobago
18 Slovakia
19 Puerto Rico
Men's Madison final
1 Denmark 20pts
Michael Morkov
Alex Rasmussen
2 Belgium 6
Kenny De Ketele
Steve Schets
3 Russia 5
Konstantin Ponomarev
Alexey Shmidt
1 lap down
4 Argentina
Juan Esteban Curuchet
Walter Perez
5 Ukraine
Lyubomyr Polatayko
Volodymyry Rybin
6 Italy
Angelo Ciccone
Fabio Masotti
7 Netherlands
Pim Ligthart
Jens Mouris
2 laps down
8 Moscow
Andrey Klyuev
Roman Maximov
9 Spain
Asier Maeztu
Carlos Torrent Tarres
10 Czech Republic
Martin Blaha
Jiri Hochmann
11 Germany
Marcel Kalz
Christian Kux
12 Canada
Martin Gilbert
Ryan Mckenzie
13 Great Britain
Jonathan Bellis
Ross Sander
14 Austria
Roland Garber
Andreas Graf
15 Cespa Eustrak.Com
Aitor Alonso Granados
Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur
4 laps down
16 France
François Lamiraud
Alexandre Lemair
