Track Cycling World Cup 2012: Day 2 - The World Records Tumble

With the Olympics only five months away, the Olympic Velodrome was set alight with World Records.

All the riders were eager to show their form, at the test event, and it was Australia and Great Britain leading the way. Australia were the first team to win gold, when Melissa Hoskins went with 2km to go in the women’s scratch race. Hoskins managed to leave the rest of the field behind and take a great solo victory.

Women’s Team Sprint

Great Britain were next up and have changed their Women’s Team Sprint line-up, since the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but they are no less a force to be reckoned with. Jess Varnish has been solely focused on training for the opening lap and it showed when she set a British record in the heats. All the pressure was put on the five time Individual Sprint champion, Victoria Pendleton, to fight back.

Track World Championships - Day 1

Olga Panarina became the first gold medallist of the 2011 World Championships, as she took victory in the women’s 500 metre time trial.

Women’s 500 t.t.

The Belarusian just managed to pip Sandie Clair, to the win, by two tenths of a second, with a time of 14.649 seconds. Clair took gold in this event at the European Championships, but didn’t have enough in the tank. The event has fallen out of favour since it was axed from the Olympics, but that didn’t stop a top class field taking part. Just behind the leading pair, were Miriam Welte and Willy Kanis.  

Men’s Team Pursuit

Australia was the surprise winners in the team pursuit, as current Olympic Champions Great Britain, only managed a bronze medal. The Aussies put out a formidable team of; Jack Bobridge, Rohan Denis, Michael Hepburn and, Commonwealth time-trial bronze medallist Luke Durbridge. Russia had no answer to Australia and crossed the line almost five seconds down. Great Britain’s performance was almost as good, despite not having their normal big hitters, as they took three seconds out of New Zealand.

Koichi Nakano a Cycling Legend: The Greatest Track Sprinter

Over recent years Japanese track cycling has struggled against some of the better funded nations like Australia and Great Britain. This wasn’t the case back in the ‘70s and ‘80s when Japan was the proud home of one of the top track cyclists in the sport’s history.

Koichi Nakano was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1955 and remains the only rider to win sprint gold at the world championships 10 times in a row. He is also the only Japanese rider to have ever won gold in the sprint competition. Known as the “de laatste Keizer” (the last emperor), he was one of the most successful on the Japanese Kerin circuit, but never won a world championship as it was introduced toward the end of his reign. He was coached by Bill Long, who was one of Australia’s top cyclists and journalists.

European track Championships - Jason Queally wins Gold at 40

Great Britain were the big winners in the opening day of the inaugural European track cycling championships winning two of the first blue jerseys awarded on Friday 5^th November in Pruszkow.

Jason Queally became a gold medallist at the age of 40 in an event he’s never competed in at international level. Great Britain showed their intentions before London 2012 as they beat Russia in the men’s 4km pursuit by over four seconds with Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Andrew Tennant and Queally.

Russia got off to the better start but was soon overhauled by the Olympic champions by the end of the first lap. The Russians held on for the first eleven laps with the time split hovering around 0.3 seconds, but the Brits put their foot on the gas and dropped their opponents with ease. The Netherlands took the bronze ahead of Spain who just weren’t able to hold on to the pace of the Dutch.

European Track Championships - Britain dominate Friday morning sesson

Britain got the first European Championships off to the best possible start putting in the fastest times in three of the four morning qualifying sessions on Friday 5th November in Pruszkow, Poland.

Obviously a little too early for some the seats wear nearly empty for the morning session which started at 10am, but that didn’t dampen the excitement for the events that lay ahead.

Setting the Standard
It was the Olympic champions who set the standard in the team pursuit to open the three day event with a time of 4min 01.953 secs. Ed Clancy was the only member of the 2008 team who won the gold in Beijing. Bradley Wiggins chose not to race in this event, after it was taken from the schedule for London 2012, to focus on his own Olympic events.