Words By Phil Jones in Manchester, Sportsbeat – Images by Chris Maher
Jennifer Valente won a titanic tussle with reigning world champion Katie Archibald as the American took omnium gold to end a sparkling first night at the TISSOT UCI Track World Cup.
Leading Archibald by six points heading into the final points race, Valente’s advantage was almost overturned by the final sprint, but she beat Archibald to the line and claimed the gold.
Elsewhere at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester, there was double team sprint glory for Germany, while Rachele Barbieri and Nikita Panassenko won their scratch races.
Women’s Omnium
The women’s omnium was set up for a thrilling conclusion as Archibald beat Valente in a tight and tense elimination race to start the evening session.
Amalie Dideriksen finished third, but as Archibald and Valente entered the final lap the American surrendered and gave the Brit a clear run to the line – meaning the reigning world champion went into the points race in second place, six points behind Valente.
And Archibald looked to have done enough during the final race, just needing to beat Valente to the line in the final sprint to secure the win – but the American took on the Brit in the final lap and out-paced her to the line.
We might not have raced head to head but she’s the one wearing the rainbow stripes so that deserves respect and you have to watch out for that,
She is an incredible team pursuiter as well so it was nothing new for me.
I think you really have to take things one race at a time, and even in the points race break it up into sections and focus on a section at a time.
All the fans here are incredible. It’s really great. All the community programmes. Coming into this World Cup, people know about it, it’s on social media and it’s exciting for the riders to see that and experience it.
Team Sprint
Earlier in the night the German team sprint outfits had both qualified fastest in their respective competitions.
The women in a time of 32.542 as they beat Great Britain in the first round, while the men beat the Czech Republic with a mark of 43.129 to book their final place against Beat Cycling Club.
The Dutch teams both had to settle for a place in the bronze medal ride-offs as the women set up a clash against the Holy Brother Cycling Team, while the men faced off against home trio Great Britain.
Holy Brother and the Netherlands were victorious, but the night belonged to Germany.
Birthday girl Kristina Vogel who won a hat-trick of gold medals at last weekend’s opening World Cup in Poland said…
At the beginning of the season, when I saw that the World Cup in Manchester was on my birthday, I was a bit sad – I thought, no, a competition on my birthday?!
But to win here, with Miriam [Welte], together, getting a gold medal is one of the best birthday gifts I could have given myself.
Why not three golds again?!
Twelve years ago I won my first World Cup in Manchester, so it’s good to be back on the podium so many years after I started my senior career.
It’s hard. I have to go to Milton, in Canada, as well for the next World Cup. I was prepared for a lot of racing and I used the Six Day in London to get into shape and improve a little, without giving it all.
I saved a little energy to come back to the UK and get the World Cup victory.
Scratch Race
In the men’s scratch race a fragmented affair saw ten riders take a lap, with eight riders a lap back and a further three finishing two laps down.
It was Kazakhstan’s Panassenko that took the win ahead of Wales’ Jon Mould and the Netherlands’ Wim Stroetinga.
While the women’s race saw a much closer affair as all riders finished on the same lap, with reigning world champion Barbieri taking the sprint in a photo-finish ahead of Hong Kong’s Yang Qianyu and Belgium’s Jolien D’Hoore.
Team Pursuit Qualifying & Round 1
But one of the loudest cheers of the night came as Great Britain’s team pursuit quartet pegged back half a second in the closing 500m to beat European champions France and book their place in Saturday’s gold medal ride with a time of 3:56.137.
There they will face Denmark, while British national champions Team KGF will ride against France for the bronze.
SILVER Katie Archibald Great Britain
BRONZE Amalie Dideriksen Denmark
SILVER Russian Federation Anastasiia Voinova, Daria Smeleva
BRONZE Holy Brother Cycling Team Shanju Bao, Yufang Guo
SILVER Beat Cycling Club Theo Bos, Roy Van Den Berg, Matthijs Buchli
BRONZE Netherlands Sam Ligtlee, Nils Van’t Hoenderdaal
SILVER Qianyu Yang Hong Kong
BRONZE Jolien D’Hoore Belgium
SILVER Jon MouldWales
BRONZE Win Stroetinga Netherlands
TISSOT UCI Track World Cup – Manchester | Day 1 Highlights
Phil Jones
Writer
Phil Jones is a senior journalist with Sportsbeat.
Whose clients include the British Olympic Association, Six Nations Rugby, the British and Irish Lions and The Open Golf championships.
Website: www.sportsbeat.co.uk
Chris Maher
Photographer
Based in the North East of England; photographer Chris Maher specialises in sports photography with his main interests in Cycling and Super Bikes. Chris has covered sports events from local and national level right up to the Olympics for CyclingShorts.cc.
Website: www.ChrisMaher.co.uk
All reports from 2nd Round UCI World Cup 2017
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