Track World Championships day 3: USA make history with team pursuit gold

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Men's Points Race

Jon Dibben secured Great Britain’s second gold medal of the championships with a fine ride in the men’s points race. He established an early lead in the competition by taking the first sprint. He picked up points in seven more rounds before winning the final sprint to secure the gold medal ahead of Andreas Graf (Austria). The pair were tied on 48 points with the rainbow jersey going to Dibben on count-back.

Kenny de Ketele (Belgium) finished third and five points back on 43. The race was marked by a crash that saw Benjamin Thomas (France) and Eiya Hashimoto (Japan). The pair were in contention for medals but despite remounting and Thomas hitting out in the final laps they were unable to make the podium.

Men’s Omnium - Elimination Race

Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) picked up his second consecutive events in the men’s Omnium with a dominant performance in the Elimination Race. Mark Cavendish gave his overall ambitions a boost with second place with Roger Kluge (Germany) rounding out the top three.

Elia Viviani (Italy) came into the race as the leader of the competition after two events but he was eliminated early on but not as early as defending Olympic champion Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark), who was one of the earliest casualties.

Artyom Zakharov (Kazakhstan) was second in the overall ahead of the race but he two was unable to compete with the top sprinters.

The race was briefly neutralised after a crash took down Tim Veldt (the Netherlands) and Gideoni Monteiro (Brazil). The pair remounted and Veldt helf on valiantly to finish in the top five.

When Kluge sat up Gaviria accelerated clear of Cavendish to deny the crowd a rare chance to see the pair sprint head-to-head.

Gaviria sits atop the standings after three rounds, just ahead of Viviani on countback. The pair have 102 points with Boudat in third on 96 points. Cavendish now sits 7th on 84 points with Hansen back in 10th.

Men Individual Pursuit - Ganna wins gold

Filippo Ganna became the first Italian man to win the individual pursuit at the World Championships since Francesco Moser in 1976 with a winning time of 4:16.141 over Domenic Weinstein’s (Germany) 4:18.275.

The Italian had started the faster of the two and led for the opening 1,000 metres. However, the German came into his own and was almost half a second up at the 2,000 mark. It looked as though the gold medal would be heading to Germany but Ganna produced his four fastest lap in the closing stages while Weinstein dropped from stead 15.6s to a 15.9 and two 16 second laps at the end.

In the bronze medal showdown, Andy Tennant disposed of his team pursuit teammate Owain Doull with a time of 4:18.301. Doull, who had ridden the team pursuit final on Friday night, while Tennant was benched, started out the stronger of the two and lead through the first 2,000 metres.

Tennant began to stamp his authority on the race in the second half and was nearly half a second up after 3,000 metres. Doull came back with a late rally but could not overturn Tennant.

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Team USA secure gold medal in women's team pursuit

Sarah Hammer, Catlin Kelly, Chloe Dygert, and Jennifer Valente secured the United States first medal of the UCI World Championships with gold in the women’s team pursuit. The team set two national records in each of the earlier rounds. The Canadian team of Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Glaesser, Kristi Lay and Georgia Simmerling finished with the silver medal.

The USA team held their nerve to win with a time of 4:16.802. Canada finished with a time of 4:19.525. The USA women were over two seconds slower than in their semi-final ride as the Canadian’s stepped in their bid to win. The two teams remained relatively close over the first 2,000 metres with the American holding their rivals at around a second. Their class showed in the second half of the race and despite a slight wobble in the last lap they claimed a convincing gold.

The Great Britain quartet of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Joanna Rowsell-Shand and Ciara Horne carried their momentum from the first round into the bronze medal match up against New Zealand to post a time of 4:16.540.

The home nation enjoyed a blistering start, and were 0.6 up after first lap. They moved that out to over three seconds after 3,000 meters. At the finish they were nearly four seconds clear of the opposition with New Zealand managing 4:20.225. After Great Britain fell apart in qualifying they resurrected their team pursuit with two impressive rides to secure the final place on the podium.

Women’s track racing in the United States has enjoyed somewhat of a mini-resurgence in recent weeks with Evelyn Steven breaking the women’s UCI Hour Record last week on home soil. The governing body has poured efforts and recourses into the sport in the last few years with the Rio Olympics on the horizon.

Men's Omnium - Individual Pursuit

The men’s Omnium riders returned to action in the second session of the day with the individual pursuit. Last year’s winner, Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) scored maximum points with a composed ride to go 0.8 seconds quicker than the Olympic omnium champion Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark).

Gaviria set his stall out early and put in the fastest times at each kilometre mark and never looked to struggle with a smooth pedalling style and strong position on the bike. He quickly caught and passed Gael Suter (Switzerland), who he had been paired with after finishing together in the morning’s Scratch Race. The result moved him up to fourth place in the standings with 62 points, while Hansen moved three places up to eight.

After putting in a strong performance in the team pursuit earlier in the week, Elia Viviani (Italy) did the same in the individual event. He finished third behind Gaviria and Hansen to match his third place from the morning. Viviani will go into the third round, the Elimination race, in the race lead with 72 points. He leads Kazakhstan’s Artyom Zakharov by six points with scratch race winner Thomas Boudat falling to third place a further two points down. Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish cracked in the final kilometre of the pursuit and could only manage 13th, putting him down to ninth overall.

US and British national records tumble in team pursuit first round

The USA brought the house down again in the women’s team pursuit with another storming time to set their second national record in as many days. Their time of 4:14.806 was just over a second shy of the World Record set by Australia in last year’s competition and was once again the quickest time of the round. Meanwhile the British quartet, who had fallen apart in qualifying, bounced back to set a national record of their own and book a place in the bronze medal ride.

The American team were up against the defending champions Australia after the latter finished only fourth in qualifying. Australia’s chances of defending their title looked slim from the outset as they began losing ground quickly. The gap was already at two seconds by the halfway point and it only increased as time went on and Australia were fighting for their place in the bronze medal.

Canada won their heat against New Zealand to set up an all North American final in the evening session. It wasn’t so easy for the squad as they nearly lost their third rider on the final lap and it appeared that New Zealand were about to book themselves into the final. However, the Canadians rallied to take the victory by just 0.003 seconds.

After falling part in the qualifying round, Great Britain were the picture of composure during their effort in the first round. They were pitted against the Chinese but it was all about the clock as they looked to book their place in the bronze medal. Their intent was immediately apparent and they were almost half a second up on the Chinese after just half a lap.

The gap ballooned as the British never faltered, even as they caught their opponents with over a kilometre still to go. They would go on to set a blistering time of 4:16.350, just fractions slower than the fastest time set by the USA on the qualifying round and enough to put them into the bronze final and set a national record.

"It was great way to bounce back; it was exactly what they needed to do," British Cycling coach Iain Dyer told Cyclingnews.

"There were a lot of learning points to come out of yesterday, so we took things into today and I thought the team did a great job in turning things around. It’s a big boost for them, no question. The challenge yesterday was to turn it around, come back and be better today, and they’re well on the way to doing that."

Women's 500m Time Trial - Final

After a brief interlude for lunch, the racing resumed with the women’s 500-metre time trial. A straight shootout for the medals, there were no second chances for any of the riders. Defending world champion Anastasia Voinova (Russia) demolished the opposition with a time of 32.959 to beat Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong by almost a second – an astonishing gap over such a short distance.

Voinova adds her gold to the one she won on the opening day in the team sprint with her partner Daria Shmeleva. The 2013 world champion, Lee was only the second rider to set a time and the gold medal was looking more and more likely as successive riders came close but failed to beat her time.

The Netherland’s Elis Ligtlee looks like one of those riders who could push Lee off the top spot but, after a quick star, she faded in the second lap to take the bronze medal. Last year’s bronze medallist Miriam Welte (Germany) will be disappointed with her time after she could only manage seventh. There were no such worries for Voinova who was already six tenths clear of Lee by the halfway point.

Men's Individual Sprint - Qualifying

Friday’s morning session saw the start of the men’s team sprint competition, and there were two high-profile early casualties in Francois Pervis (France) and Theo Bos (Netherlands).

Bos, who won silver in the kilo on Thursday, had scraped through qualifying by the skin of his teeth, posting 10.047 in the flying lap to be the slowest of a very swift set of times from the 24 riders who progressed. In his match against fastest qualifier Matthew Glaetzer (Australia), he stretched it out early but Glaetzer was simply too strong and, after the high of the silver medal, this is undoubtedly a blow for the Dutchman ahead of the Olympic Games.

It’s a similar tale for Pervis, who has shone so brightly in recent world championships. The 2013 sprint champion was 22nd in qualifying and was comfortably beaten by Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) in his first round match-up

Elsewhere, defending champion Grégory Baugé (France) secured his place in the 1/8 finals despite a couple of casual displays. He didn’t seem to be pushing it in the flying lap and he left it late to come round Hugo Barrette for a photo-finish victory in his match.

In welcome scenes for Great Britain, it was plain sailing for Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner. Kenny will take on New Zealand’s Edward Dawkins while Skinnner is up against Baugé. Also through are China’s Zu Chao, Colombia’s Fabian Hernando Puerta Zapata, Denis Dmitriev (Russia), Sam Webster (New Zealand), Max Niederlag (Germany), and Damian Zielinski (Poland).<

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Men’s individual pursuit

Records were sent tumbling in the qualifying heats of the men’s individual pursuit. Not once, not twice, but three times the Lee Valley Velodrome’s 4-kilometre individual pursuit mark was broken, first by Dylan Kennett (New Zealand), then by home favourite Owain Doull, and finally by Italian Filippo Ganna.

The new record stands at 4:16.127 and it’s the 19-year-old who will go head-to-head with Dominic Weinstein (Germany), who produced the second fast time, for the gold medal later today.

The bronze medal match-up is one that will whet the appetite of the home crowd, with Andy Tennant going up against Doull after posting the fourth fastest time, just over a second slower than his teammate.

Despite both posting what would have been velodrome record-breaking times had they been set at the start of the day, there is no place in the medals for Mikhail Shemetau of Belarus or Russia’s Kirill Sveshinov. Australian Michael Hepburn, who had won gold in the team pursuit the previous night, finished eighth.

Men's Omnium

The first blows in the men’s Omnium were exchanged on Friday morning and it was 2014 world champion Thomas Boudat (France) who took the initiative with victory in the scratch race.

Towards the end of a fast and furious but fairly contained race, the Frenchman broke away with Kazakhstan’s Artyom Zakharov with 9 laps remaining and comfortably outsprinted him to the line.

The rest of the field was less half a lap behind and it was Elia Viviani (Italy) who timed his sprint best to take third while Roger Kluge (Germany) was fourth and Glenn O’Shea (Australia) fifth. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) was up there in six while fellow favourites Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) and Olympic champion Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark) lost some early ground, finishing 10th and 16th respectively.

Just one lap was taken over the course of the 15km race but that was cancelled out almost as soon as it had been established. New Zealand’s Aaron Gate attacked a third of the way through but such were the efforts of completing the lap-take, he was soon off the back, and ended up dropping away completely, unable to finish.

Lasse Norman Hansen put in a couple of digs and did some mammoth turns on the front, while Cavendish, Gaviria and Viviani joined him in playing a prominent role near the front in the closing stages.

The omnium continues in the afternoon session with the individual pursuit.

Men's Omnium I - Scratch Race

Results

Men's Individual Sprint - Qualifying Round

Men's Individual Sprint - 1/16 Finals

Men's Individual Sprint - 1/8 Finals

Men's Individual Sprint - Repechages

Men's Individual Pursuit - Qualifying