Hammer continues Omnium domination

Britain's team pursuiters easily won gold in the World Cup meeting at Manchester, almost catching New Zealand in the final. But on crossing the line, glancing at the time and clocking that they'd just ridden the fifth fastest 4km team pursuit of all time - 3:55.438 - their first reaction was disappointment.

As Bradley Wiggins said, "It was slightly disappointing to see the time when we crossed the line. But in hindsight, it's mid-February, I rode two sessions with the guys before the Tour of Qatar, and I've done my final track sessions this week.

"We've had limited preparation time and we did a 3:55," Wiggins continued. "Had we done 3:55 before Beijing everyone would've been ecstatic. But it shows the level team pursuiting is at now: the four-minute barrier is now the minimum. It's fantastic for the event."

But the four British riders' disappointment also owed, perhaps, to another positive development for the team pursuit: the threat posed by Australia.

The Australians fielded an under-strength team in Manchester, but Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy - all veterans of the Olympic gold medal-winning team in Beijing - and Steven Burke are well aware that, when it comes to next year's London Games, the big danger to a successful defence of their title is likely to be an Australian "A" team including Jack Bobridge and Cameron Meyer.

Clancy explained that their ride in qualifying (a 3:57) suggested the world record could be on the cards in the final. "But it's a pretty good time," he said of their time there. It certainly was: the fifth best of all time, and marginally faster than the 3:55.476 set by a strong Australian quartet on their way to gold in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last October. The other three fastest times were all set by Great Britain, including the world record, 3:53.314, in Beijing.

Thomas joked that they were only riding at "50%" of capacity. "The Aussies have got some work to do," he said, before more seriously adding, "They're pushing us, but it makes for good racing."

While the team pursuit final was arguably the highlight of the final day's racing - certainly as far as the capactiy crowd was concerned - there were also victories for Sarah Hammer (USA) in the women's omnium, France in the men's team sprint and Shuang Guo (China) in the women's keirin, ahead of Clara Sanchez (France) and Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain).

The surprise was that Anna Meares couldn't add to her tally of two gold medals, and complete the clean sweep of sprint victories. Having sailed through to the keirin final, the Australian could only manage fifth behind Guo, upgrading the silver she won in the sprint.

Hammer wrapped up an impressive omnium series with third in the final event, the 500m time trial. That was her lowest position. Over the two days of competition she won the flying lap, the elimination race, the pursuit and scratch race, with her only other defeat coming in the points race, in which she was second.

Yet she insisted that there is still room for improvement after only her second Olympic-format omnium. "Everyone's going to get better because it's a new event," she said. "Everyone's learning.

"For me, the pursuiting comes naturally but the sprint events are something else," Hammer said. "With my physical make up the 500m is the most difficult for me. Riding that, and seeing the world record on the board, you think: god, I'm putting this event to shame!"

Despite her success, Hammer was opposed to the axing of the pursuit and its replacement with the omnium - and she remains to be convinced of the wisdom behind the change. "Do I think dropping the pursuit was a good move? No. But I'm adapting to it. These are the cards we were dealt. You can complain about it but then you've got to move on.

"But I'm having a great amount of fun," she said. "The individual pursuit was very stressful, because you'd have to be hyper focused all the time. You can't be at that intensity starting a points race, for example. But it's still tough: backing up the events, being consistent, and the mental aspect to the omnium is huge."

France ran out as overall winners of the World Cup, helped in no small part by their male sprinters. After Kevin Sireau's victory in the sprint on Friday, he joined Gregory Bauge and a new name, Michael D'Almeida, to qualify fastest and meet Germany in the final.

Great Britain, the Olympic champions - racing in Manchester as Sky Track Cycling - suffered a bad start when Jason Kenny appeared to stall at the gate, and they could only qualify third, to face Team Jayco-AIS in the ride-off for bronze.

And while France once again proved their domination, beating the world champions Germany in 43.534 seconds (to Germany's 43.715), Great Britain only managed a marginal improvement on their qualifying ride to claim bronze in 44.087. "It can be frustrating when it doesn't come together, but that's what team events are like," said Chris Hoy, who rode as second man, with Matt Crampton as anchor.

"We were beaten here by the French at the world championships in 2008, and we hardly beat them before the Olympics, so you don't know when it's going to come together. We'd have loved to win today, but the better team beat us. It doesn't mean that we can't do it when it really counts. Getting all three riders bang on is difficult. You just don't know when it's going to come together."

Women's Omnium - Individual Pursuit

Men's Team Pursuit - Qualifying

Men's Team Sprint - Qualifying

Women's Keirin - First Round

Women's Keirin - First Round Repechage

Men's Team Sprint - Final

Women's Keirin - Second Round

Women's Keirin - Final

Women's Omnium - Scratch Race

Women's Omnium - Time Trial

Women's Omnium - Final Standings

Men's Team Pursuit - Final

Final World Cup Standings