UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CUP CANADA - VANTAGE NEW ZEALAND DAY 4
New Zealand track riders have shaken off the cobwebs as the Europeans dominated the second UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Canada.
The Vantage New Zealand team’s approach of targeting key qualifying points in the opening two rounds of the world cup, which offers qualifying points towards the world championship and ultimately the Tokyo Olympics, has brought reasonable returns.
The female riders have led the way with the team pursuit third overall in the World Cup standings and the improving team sprint combination fifth overall. Natasha Hansen leads the kiwi sprinters into the top 10 in the world cup points in both sprint and the keirin.
World Championship medallist Rushlee Buchanan is in the top 10 in the omnium after one competition coming off her road season.
Eddie Dawkins leads the kiwi male contingent, lying in second overall in the keirin while Campbell Stewart is fifth overall after finishing on the podium in the omnium in his first outing of the season.
Both the men’s team sprint and team pursuit are seventh overall with both a case of work in progress in the early part of the season.
“It has been a satisfying tour. When we did the planning, we envisaged to hit it hard early to get a good start with qualifying points to enable us to have a good training phase at home before the World Cup circuit comes to Cambridge in January,” said high performance director, Martin Barras.
“By in large those targets have been met, with the exception of the men’s team sprint owing to the mechanical issue they suffered in Paris.
“Of note among the individuals were the effort of Campbell Stewart in the omnium in Canada and Eddie Dawkins in the keirin in Paris for instance, but it is also evident that some of the individual performances are not yet up to the standard we will need to demonstrate at the world championships and on to Tokyo.”
“On the primary objective set by the team to get off to a strong start in terms of Olympic qualification, we can be satisfied we got the job done.
“Now we need to compete our review and debrief process at home, learn from those lessons and re-adjust and fine tune until we get to the next competition.”
On the final day Buchanan finished ninth in her first omnium, placing 20th in the scratch race, fifth in the tempo, sixth in elimination and ninth in points.
Ethan Mitchell was fifth fastest in sprint qualifying in a slick 9.715s while he went out in the first round and Sam Webster in the second round, while Natasha Hansen did not progress to the semifinals of the keirin.
The young combination of Stewart and Harry Waine were 10th in the men’s Madison.
Results:
Men Sprint qualifying: Matthew Glaetzer (AUS) 9.517, 1; Harrie Lavreysen (NED) 9.556, 2; Jeffrey Hoogland (NED) 9.602, 3. Also: Ethan Mitchell 9.715, 5; Sam Webster 9.877, 14. Round 1: Hugo Barrette (CAN) bt Mitchell; Webster bt Pavel Yakushevskity (RUS). Round 2: Hoogland bt Webster. Semifinals: Glaetzer bt Nathan Hart (AUS) 2-0, Lavreysen bt Hoogland 2-0. Gold: Glaetzer beat Lavreysen 2-1. Bronze: Hoogland bt Hart 2-0.
Women Keirin, round 1, heat 1: Natasha Hansen (NZL) 4. Repechage heat 3: Hansen 3. Final: Madalyn Godby (USA) 1, Stephanie Morton (AUS) 2, Martha Bayona Pineda (COL) 3.
Women omnium, scratch race (7.5km): Jennifer Valente (USA) 1, Lizeth Salazar (MEX) 2, Laura Kenny (GBR) 3. Also: Rushlee Buchanan (NZL) 20. Tempo race (7.5km): Lydia Boylan (IRL) 22 points, 1l Salazar 9, 2; Kenny 3, 3. Also: Buchanan 2, 5. Elimination: Kenny 1, Salazar 2, Valente 3. Also: Buchanan 6. Points: Amelie Dideriksen (DEN) 26 points, 1; Kenny 21, 2; Valente 9, 3. Also: Buchanan 5, 9. Overall: Kenny 133 points, 1; Salazar 115, 2; Valente 113, 3. Also: Buchanan 69, 9.
Men, Madison: Denmark 38 points, 1; Great Britain 28, 2; USA 25, 3. Also: New Zealand (Campbell Stewart, Harry Waine) 6, 10.
CAPTION: Campbell Stewart and Harry Waine in action during the men’s Madison . Image courtesy Guy Swarbrick