Revolution 52 – Round 1 – Friday

Round 1: 14/15/16 August – Derby

 

Saturday 14th March 2015, Afternoon Session 13.00 – 16.30, Evening Session 19.00 – 22.30.

Build-up

The Revolution Elite Championship and HOY Future Stars will begin at round 2 in Manchester on 24th October following the Special Opening Event at the Derby Arena on 14-16 August.

The Derby event is a special ‘Olympic Qualification’ event which has been developed in conjunction with Team GB to provide an opportunity to score some crucial UCI qualification points before the 15th September 2015 cut-off date.

The Stars are coming out to play in the three day, four session event. Big guns from the road return to the track in a statement of intent, on the path to Rio 2016. None bigger than former Tour de France Winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins.

The Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish who recently road the track in Europe returns in the hope of a chance of Olympic glory, riding the Madison with Sir Brad, whilst regular Trackies Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Mark Christian will want to stamp their authority on the event.

The competition in all disciplines are once more attracting huge European athletes. Tim Veldt, Kenny de Ketele, Aaron Gate, Francois Pervis, Hugo Haak but to name a few, with the Women’s Events attracting Jolien D’Hoore, Pascale Jeuland, Laurie Berthon and Sandie Clair.

Leading British Endurance Women include the darling of the track and the biggest crowd pleaser Laura Trott, with Katie Archibald, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Grace Garner. Competing for the Sprint glory will be Rebecca James, Jessica Varnish and Danielle Khan, whilst Shanaze Reade returns to put on a show.

FRIDAY EVENING SESSION:

Doors open at 18:00. Racing from 19:00 to 22:30.

Stars were falling in more ways than one in the opening session of Revolution 52 in Derby. World Champion Sprinter Francois Pervis tumbled in a collision with Matt Rotherham late-on into the evening as the Revolution Longest Lap came to its conclusion.

Pervis had also been beating by fellow countryman Quentin Lefargue in the kilometer time trial, but surprise of the evening was Callum Skinner going one place better to top the leader board with a 1:01.135.

Crowd favorite Laura Trott road into third position in the opening race of the evening, the 3000m individual pursuit. Riding against a super strong Ciara Horne who’s shown consistant form over the Summer months on the road, pipped former National Champion Joanna Rowsell Shand in this qualifying session.

The pair locked horns again in the final play-off, but this time, Rowsell-Shand had the upper hand on Horne, producing another 03:37.

Another upset in the Women’s 500m Time Trial for the Sprinters, saw Katy Marchant taking the podium from Jess Varnish by a whisker. Youngster Danielle Khan claimed third with France’s Sandie Clair fourth.

The biggest attraction on the evening was of course, Sir Bradley Wiggin’s return to the Track. Riding in the four-man Team Pursuit, brought the crowd alive as the laps began counting down. Setting a qualifying time in first position, Great Britain was just shy of a sub four minute ride with a 04:00.324 going into the final with Youth Team 100% ME.

Substituting Jon Dibben for Ed Clancy in the podium play-off, saw the only sub four performance of the night with a 03:54.974. The Netherlands went on to beat Austria for the final placings.

 

Event 1  Individual Pursuit – Qualifying  Women

  1. Ciara Horne GB 03.37.278
  2. Joanna Rowsell Shand GB 03.37.438
  3. Laura Trott GB 03.39.586
  4. Emily Kay GB 03.42.202
  5. Leire Olaberria Esp 03.43.916
  6. Emily Nelson GB 03.46.938
  7. Katie Archibald GB 03.48.178
  8. Lydia Gurley Irl 03.48.496

Event 2  Team Pursuit – Qualifying  Men

  1. Great Britain Gbr 04.00.324
  2. 100% ME Gbr 04.04.568
  3. Netherlands Ned 04.06.251
  4. Austria Aut 04.26.297

Event 3  500m  Time Trial Women

  1. Katy Marchant GB 00.34.117
  2. Jessica Varnish GB 00.34.292
  3. Danielle Khan GB 00.34.961
  4. Sandie Clair Fra 00.35.262
  5. Yesna Rijhoff Ned 00.35.757
  6. Laurine Van Riessen Ned 00.36.006
  7. Shanaze Reade GB 00.36.472
  8. Ellie Coster GB 00.36.651

Event 4  Individual Pursuit – Finals  Women

Joanna Rowsell Shand beat Ciara Horne in the final play-off. Laura Trott beat Emily Kay for the third place.

Event 5  1km Time Trial  Men

  1. Callum Skinner GB 01.01.135
  2. Quentin Lafague Fra 01.01.878
  3. Francois Pervis Fra 01.02.336
  4. Lewis Oliva GB 01.02.749
  5. Matthew Rotherham GB 01.02.810
  6. Matthew Crampton GB 01.03.786
  7. Hugo Haak Ned 01.03.794
  8. Jose Moreno Sanchez Esp 01.04.935

Event 6  Young Riders Scratch Race  Mixed

 

The Youth Scratch race ran over two rounds with Brad Dransfield (Kirkless CA)winning both races. Thamana Nel, Tom Humphrey and Ellie Russell finished both races in the same positions. In the first round, many of the field were lapped as they settled into a high pace of the twenty lap race, but managed to stay together for round two.

Event 7  Team Pursuit – Finals  Men

Great Britain beat 100% ME in the Men’s Team Pursuit final. The Netherlands beat Austria for third place.

 

Event 8  Revolution Longest Lap – Sprinters  Men

Great Britain’s Lewis Oliva won the Revolution Longest lap sprint to the line, beating fellow countryman Callum Skinner. The Netherlands Hugo Haak came home third with France’s Quentin Lefarague fourth.

 

Event 10  Scratch Race  Women

Katie Archibald (GB)gained a lap halfway through the Women’s Scratch Race to claim the podium finishing safely in the bunch. Although several attacks were made to escape the peleton, it was Laura Trott that took the final bunch sprint.

UCI Track Cycling World Cup – Day 1 Report

©Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com

Men’s Team Pursuit

 

GOLD – Denmark (FOLSACH, HANSEN, NIELSEN, QUAADE) – 4:01.289

SILVER – Germany (BEYER, BOMMEL, REINHARDT, THIELE) – OVL

BRONZE – Belgium (DE KETELE, DE BUYST, DE PAUW, VAN HOECKE) – 4:06.951

 

Denmark took GOLD in the Men’s Team Pursuit Final, beating Germany convincingly to win the first gold medal of  the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Glasgow. Germany lost two riders which gave Denmark the chance to catch their opponents finishing with a time of 4:01.289.

 

Spain and Belgium faced each other in the bronze medal shoot out on the track, both evenly matched.  Spain was the first team to make a mistake as Spain went down to three riders, giving Belgium an immediate advantage. Spain never recovered from their error, resulting in Belgium taking the bronze medal with a time of 4.06.951.

 

The big shock of the day came in the qualifying when the relatively inexperienced Great Britain team crashed out earlier in the day, with Owain Doull the only rider to stay on his bike as Sam Harrison, Joe Kelly and World Champion Andrew Tennant crashed onto the boards.

 

World Cup standings after 2 round:

 

  1. Belgium (15 points)
  2. Switzerland (14 points)
  3. Denmark (12 points)

 

===

 

Women’s Team Sprint

 

GOLD – Great Britain (VARNISH, JAMES) – 33.428

SILVER – Spain (CALVO BARBERO, CASAS ROIGE) – 34.102

BRONZE – France (CLAIR, MONTAUBAN) – 34.197

 

Jess VARNISH and Becky JAMES won Great Britain’s first gold medal of the competition, riding a great race to take gold against Spain in a time of 33.428. James replaced the retired Victoria PENDLETON and she and Varnish brought the packed Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome crowd to their feet with a fine ride. This was the second World Cup win for the pair who took gold in the first round in Cali last month and are already proving themselves on the road to Rio 2016.

 

The bronze medal race saw France and Russia go head-to-head. The race was tipped to be close but France edged out Russia for the medal with a fine performance on track.

 

World Cup standings after 2 round:

 

  1. Great Britain (24 points)
  2. Japan (13 points)
  3. Spain (10 points)

 

===

 

Women’s Team Pursuit

 

GOLD – Great Britain (TROTT, BARKER, KING) – 3:21.043

SILVER – Australia (ANKUDINOFF, CURE, HOSKINS) – 3:22.026

BRONZE – Belarus (SHARAKOVA, DYLKO, PAPKO) – 3:25.737

 

The two big rivals went head to head in the Women’s team pursuit. The race was a closely fought in the early stages but Great Britain started to pull away at the later stages, gaining a narrow lead over their rivals. The Great Britain trio featured two of the Olympic gold medal winning squad in Laura Trott and Dani King alongside British Cycling Olympic Academy Programme rider 18 year old Elinor Barker.

 

In the bronze medal race Lithuania always had a lot of work to do if they hoped to beat Belarus. The pattern was set early with Belarus starting well and leaving too big a gap to the Lithuanians to close. Belarus took the bronze medal and lead the standings after two rounds of the series.

 

World Cup standings after 2 round:

 

  1. Belarus (15 points)
  2. Great Britain (12 points)
  3. Italy (12 points)

 

===

 

Men’s Team Sprint

 

GOLD – Germany (ENDERS, FOERSTEMANN, BOETTICHER) – 43.887

SILVER – Great Britain (HINDES, KENNY, CLANCY) – 44.175

BRONZE – France (PALMA, SIREAU, LAFARGUE) – 44.803

 

Germany won Gold in the Men’s Team Sprint, beating Great Britain in the final. Germany’s performance was just too good for the Olympic Champions who took silver in Ed Clancy’s first race since making the transition from endurance to sprint to fill the place of Sir Chris Hoy’s in the new-look team.

 

Bronze medal went to France who beat Poland.

 

World Cup standings after 2 round:

 

  1. Germany (24 points)
  2. Japan (12 points)
  3. Russia (12 points)

 

===

 

Women’s 500m TT

 

GOLD – Belarus (PANARINA) – 34.121

SILVER – Germany (VOGEL) – 34.318

BRONZE – Spain (CALVO BARBERO) – 34.451

 

The Women’s 500m Time Trial race saw Olga PANARINA take gold with Germany’s Kristina VOGEL taking silver and Spain’s Tania CALVO BARBERO taking bronze. Fresh from winning gold in the Team Sprint Great Britain’s Jess Varnish took to the track again, this time finishing 6th.

 

World Cup standings after 2 round:

 

  1. Belarus (12 points)
  2. Germany (10 points)
  3. Spain (8 points)

 

===

 

Men’s Scratch Race

 

GOLD – Switzerland (MARGUET, Tristan)

SILVER – Ireland (IRVINE, Martyn)

BRONZE –  Netherlands (EEFTING, Roy)

 

The race saw a lot of movement in the initial stages with a number of break-out groups through the race. With 23 laps to go, the group came back together with nobody able to get a decent amount of daylight between themselves and the main pack. No one seemed able to make that move that would separate themselves from the pack. Great Britain’s Simon YATES was involved in a number of attempted break away packs. With 15 laps to go another breakout group tried to break away from the peloton but in the end it came down to a sprint which was won by Tristan MARGUET from Switzerland. Martyn IRVINE from Ireland was hugely committed through the entire race and was rewarded with silver. In the bronze medal place was Roy Eefting of the Netherlands.

 

===

 

Men’s Omnium

 

Omnium I – Flying Lap

Rank 1 Germany (LISS) – 13.252

Rank 2 Switzerland (BEER) – 13.349

Rank 3 Australia (O’SHEA) – 13.354

 

Omnium II – Points Race 30km

Rank 1 Australia (O’SHEA)

Rank 2 France (BRISSE)

Rank 3 Netherlands (VELDT)

 

Omnium III – Elimination Race

Rank 1 Spain (ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR)

Rank 2 Australia (O’SHEA)

Rank 3 Czech Republic (RYBIN)

 

Overall standings after 3 events

Rank 1 Spain (ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR)

Rank 2 Germany (LISS)

Rank 3 Switzerland (BEER)

 

The crowd were treated to some great action during the first three of six Omnium events on Day 1 of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Glasgow.

 

Germany’s Lucas Liss drew first blood, posting the fastest time (13.252) in the Flying Lap. Next up was the 30km Points Race which was won by current World Champion Glenn O’Shea of Australia. O’Shea narrowly missed out on a second win as he was outsprinted by Spain’s Unai ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR on the final lap of the Elimination Race.

 

ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR, who now leads the Omnium at the midway stage. The German, LISS, is in second overall with BEER in third.  Great Britain’s Jon Dibben lies in 11thoverall.

 

BBC Broadcast Times

Ponderings from the Velodrome

Newport Velodrome – ©Dave Gratton AKA SunflowerDave (on Flickr)

For someone who always has a lot to say for himself, thinking what to write about is more difficult than I thought! I should hasten to add, that’s not because I can’t think of anything, it’s because I’ve got so many ideas running around in my head it’s so difficult to chose.

So my decision has been made for me because for the first time in weeks I have an hour or so to spare to put pen to paper (yes, I am actually writing this on paper) as I’m sitting in the stands watching my daughter Ffion take part in a Welsh Cycling youth track session. So the subject: the importance of good cycling facilities, specifically Newport Velodrome.

The difference this sporting facility has made to Wales is difficult to quantify, but if you look at the numbers of riders both before and after this facility was built who are at or on their way to the top of the cycling tree, it’s obvious that its impact has been massive! The same can be said of Manchester Velodrome and I am sure it will be the case with the Olympic Velodrome; we should also consider Herne Hill and the riders that have benefitted from that facility. What it shows it that good facilities really do make a difference to the progression of riders coming through the ranks, whatever their cycling discipline. Of course we also need champions to inspire youngsters into the sport, but we’ve got such a conveyor belt going at the moment there is no worry about these facilities being under used.

So what memories have I taken from Newport Velodrome over the last 8 or 9 years that I’ve been making the 30-minute drive from Abergavenny to get here?

Well I might as well start with my number one memory and also because “why shouldn’t women’s cycling be given priority over men’s for a change?” If I can find the photo to accompany this when I next go hunting in the attic I’ll post it at a later date, as even now I find it quite hard to believe. Picture this: a women’s keirin with six riders on the start line. In amongst the six, the current senior World Champion wearing her stripes Clara Sanchez. Also on the start line I think it was Sandie Clair. Next up to them, a few star struck young girls from the UK including two from Wales, my 13-year-old daughter Becky and Katie Curtis. I can’t recall another current senior world champion ever racing in Newport, so that line-up is implanted very firmly in my head. By the way, it was France first and second with Becky coming in third to the disbelief of the French coach, especially when finding out Becky’s age.

As for other memories of female competition in Newport, between 2006 and 2007 the Youth and Junior Track National Championships had such strong fields the racing really was fantastic to watch. Seeing Becky, Lizzie Armistead, Joanna Rowsell, Jess Varnish, Laura Trott, Dani King…(I could go on) racing against each other with Hugh Porter getting very excited on the microphone really was brilliant. Looking back now I honestly think you could see then who was going to make it to the top and they weren’t all winners. The look of determination in a rider’s eyes is something I believe is what sets them apart and that is something you can spot at a young age. If someone happens to win a Youth National Championship on the way to the top that’s nice, but ultimately you need to look at the bigger picture and remember it’s not a sprint, it takes a lot of time and effort to win at elite level. And that’s what people will remember; senior champions not 11-year-old ‘superstars’!

On that last point, some really bad memories for me have been watching young girls of Under 12 and Under 14 level attempting to break a National Record as if it was the be all and end all. They have been all kitted out with the best equipment money can buy and their parents have been shouting so loudly at them as if they were doing it themselves, but why? Many of those I have watched are either no longer riding or just riding now and again. And why provide the best equipment at such a young age? Good equipment yes, but keep the very best as a reward and as an incentive when they are racing at international level. I really would like to see some sort of equipment specification cap on all youth riders to make it more of a level playing field and to give them something to aim for.

While I’m in the process of airing my concerns, the other thing that really worries me is that young riders seem to be specialising on one cycling discipline at ever-younger ages and training to the detriment of their education. Youth sport should not be like that. If I could single out one young rider who has got the balance right and sets an example for other to follow it is Elinor Barker and look where she is now! Elinor has given most forms of cycling a go, but over the time I’ve known her and the family her education has come first. She’s obviously had coaching, but it has been Elinor’s drive and determination to succeed that has won her the Junior World Time Trial and of course her supportive parents (I believe there could be another reason and the same applies to Becky as well; both Graham, Elinor’s dad and myself are ardent Newcastle United followers and maybe it’s because the girls have never seen us celebrate the winning of a trophy that they are doing their bit to cheer us up!).

On the male side of things, at the same time as that outstanding crop of girls I mentioned the boys’ fields were also amazingly strong and they provided fantastic racing to watch. Jason Kenny, Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett, Luke Rowe, Adam Blythe, Andy Fenn…(once again, I could go on) are just a few of the names that cycling fans would recognise from the Olympics and pro-peloton this last year. Despite many outstanding races and individual performances the one that stands out still after these years is Andy Fenn’s Youth 500 metre time trial. Here was someone mixing it up with the best youth riders this country had to offer in all the circuit races around the country and he was winning the endurance and pursuit events on the track. In the 500 metre time trail he was up against all the best youth sprinters in the country including current BC Academy sprint member Peter Mitchell. I can still picture him going around the track now. I seem to recall I was sitting in the stands next to Iain Dyer, National Sprint Coach and Trevor King, father of Dani and a few others and the first thing that came to my mind was that here was the person to follow in Jason Kenny’s footsteps. Well I was wrong on that front, but I really think he has the potential to be the next big road sprinter from GB. I am not saying that Andy will be another ‘Cav’, because I am not sure there’ll be another in my lifetime, but I am sure that he’ll be winning many races and stages over the next few years. Another rider I’ve watched in Newport in a similar mold to Andy is Sam Harrison, although he’s got a few years to catch up yet.

As recent as last winter I was sitting in the stands of Newport Velodrome watching the annual ‘Winter Track League’, which mixes all abilities up into different races, both male and female. In Wales we are very lucky indeed to not only have Elinor Barker coming up into the senior ranks, but we also have Amy Roberts. To see both Elinor and Amy mixing it up with the men in the ‘A’ league really is a great sight and I am really excited about the prospect of those two girls representing Wales and GB around the world over the next few years. The girls often found themselves riding in amongst elite men, well not just elite, but professional riders. Last year watching Luke Rowe, Magnus Backstedt, Jonny Bellis and many more on a Tuesday night with the rain hammering down on the velodrome roof, whilst sipping a cup of tea, is fascinating, enjoyable and a relaxing time in amongst my hectic lifestyle.

I have never been in Newport Velodrome with a full stand of spectators, but with the success of this last season and the accessibility of cycling stars to the general public I think I might get to see that over the next couple of years. What Newport needs is the right event to fill the stands, something that has got my mind running wildfire again! Now, if that event gives equal precedence to the women riders or better still star billing, wouldn’t that be amazing?

…Next time, whenever that will be, I’ll probably write about organising my first ever hill-climb and also about the importance and thrills of cyclocross.

Thanks for reading.

David James

Twitter: @Dai_Cwmheulog
 
 
 
 

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