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World Track Championships - CM
Melbourne, Australia, May 26-30, 2004
Tales from the track
News and gossip from day 1 of the Melbourne World Track Championships
By Karen Forman in Melbourne
Unlucky day for Renshaw
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Australian first-year FdJeux.com roadie Mark Renshaw had had high hopes for the points race at the World Track Championships in Melbourne tonight, but bad luck intervened. Renshaw didn't manage to amass the points he wanted in the early stages of the race and then crashed out just before the end.
"I had a couple of goes but there were always a couple of guys there going too and nothing seemed to stick," he said. "I didn't have any luck at all."
Then, about 10 laps from the finish, he slipped on an advertising sign painted on the timber track. "The Uruguay rider was coming up the track sharply as I was coming down. There were two to three laps till the next sprint so I wasn't expecting anyone to be doing that, I didn't realise they would swing up so soon.
"It was all our fault, really." Renshaw landed heavily on his hip but said he didn't think he was injured. "It was more of a shock than anything," he said as he rolled his legs over on a trainer, several ice bags attached, afterwards."
His next event for the championships is the teams pursuit on Saturday, for which Australia is hailed as one of the favourites.
More Day 1 News from the Melbourne World Track Championships
By Karen Forman in Melbourne
- Melbourne abuzz with World Championship spirit - The cosmopolitan Australian city of Melbourne was abuzz with excitement today as the 2004 World Track Championships opened at Vodafone Arena.
- World Cup gold medalists have to be content with bronze at World's - Craig McLean was cautiously optimistic after his British team qualified second fastest in the first round of the men's team sprint, just 0.6 seconds behind the French leaders, at Melbourne's Vodafone Arena velodrome today.
- Australia qualifies for Olympic team sprint - but knocked out of the medals - Host country Australia has achieved its goal to qualify for the Olympics in the team sprint, but failed to made it through the second round and into the medals tonight.
- "It's a crazy feeling" says new World Points Champ - New World Points Race Champion Franck Perque didn't have a minute to absorb the news that he was indeed champion of the world before he was surrounded by French speaking journalists tonight, wanting to know just how he felt about the whole thing.
- Cesario beats viral infection to get on track for Athens - There was a time that doctors feared Chilean team pursuit specialist Enzo Cesario wouldn't ride his bike again - let alone achieve his goal to ride at an Olympic Games.
