The Ukrainians have been consistent (Image credit: Mitch Clinton)
The third round of the UCI Track World Cup heads to the Alcides Nieto Patiño Velodrome in Cali, Colombia, a newly renovated facility which re-opened in 2007. The country last hosted a World Cup in 2002, and this year will see 166 athletes representing 30 different countries descend on the track. In this post-Olympic year, numbers are well under half that of the previous season's World Cup contests.
Because the World Cup has five rounds this year, and due to the first three being scattered around the globe, few riders have participated in all of the rounds. Some of those that did attend the first two have been able to rise to the top of the series standings, giving the leader board a lot of unfamiliar names, many of them from Ukraine.
For example, 20-year-old Lyubov Shulika, a former junior world champion in the sprint, had her previous best performances at the elite level as a member of Ukraine's team pursuit squad. Her best sprint result at the elite level came in Melbourne when she took the gold over German Christian Muche in two races, confirming her ride in Manchester where she got into the finals with the relegation of China's Jinjie Gong, then bested Great Britain's Anna Blyth to take bronze.
