News: Thrilling Final Day at World Cup

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It was an adrenalin filled day of racing on the final day of the World Cup in Glasgow with Gold for GB and Team Raleigh GAC Riders

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News: Thrilling Final Day at World Cup

It was an adrenalin filled day of racing on the final day of the World Cup in Glasgow with Gold for GB and Team Raleigh GAC Riders

For British UCI Team, Raleigh GAC, there was much to celebrate as two of their riders, Albert Torres and Seb Mora, won one of the most brutal finishes to a bike race you’re likely to see in the Men’s Madison.

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With only a few points between the leading teams, and after being the first to take a lap, the Spanish pair who have lit up the racing in the UK in 2016 with wins and podiums on the road, managed to hold on by a single point to win the Madison to add that Gold to that of the one they won in the Europeans. British duo Mark Stewart and Ollie Wood improved on their performance in the European championships with seventh against some tough opposition.

It was also a great night for the Great Britain riders after Emily Kay and then the men’s Team Sprint trio (Joe Truman, Ryan Owens and home rider Jack Carlin) won gold. The GB team won five gold medals over the three-day competition, topping the medal table.

In the Women’s Omnium, Emily Kay’s experience in bunch racing which goes back to when she was competing in track leagues as a very young girl, scored big in all the Omnium events and whilst it was close between her and a number of others, and she had to wait for confirmation of the win after the Points race as she got her breathe back, that confirmation soon came as the crowd roared when her name was top of the result.

Emily Kay started her day in the Omnium with fourth in the Scratch race and then in the Tempo race, Kay, omnium leader Kajihara and Belarussian rider Tatsiana Sharakova broke away from the bunch and took a very slow lap, picking up all but three of the sprint points between them in the intervening laps.

In the Elimination race, the third event of the new-look omnium, the field was whittled down until the race came down to a sprint between the last two riders standing, Kay and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky who edged the win in a photo finish.

In the crucial last event, The Points Race, Kay’s big rival Kajihara attempted to take a lap but Kay reeled her back in and took the five points from the second sprint in doing so. Kay and Kopecky continued to pick up sprint points but it was the lap and five sprint points taken by Sharakova that shook the standings, as she joined Kay on 119 points at the top of the table.

Kay grabbed three points from the penultimate sprint and, while Kopecky managed four points in the last gasp sprint, Kay’s finishing position was enough for her to hold on to Gold and win her first individual World Cup gold medal.

Kay was delighted with her the result: “It’s the first time I’ve ridden that new format, but I was really happy. I was pretty consistent through the whole day and I just took each race as it came,” she said. “I’m over the moon, I didn’t really expect to win.”

“Every time I got on the start line and my name was announced, the crowd backed me all the way and all the way through that race, especially that Points race where it was so close. Every time I went for a sprint they were shouting the whole way and when I won I can’t explain how it feels to celebrate in front of this home crowd.”

Team Sprint
One of the most pleasing results for the GB team will surely be the Team Sprint where a young squad of three with none of the Rio stars in it, recorded a very fast time to win the final against France and win Gold.

Joe Truman, Ryan Owens and local boy Jack Carlin thrilled the packed venue during their three Team Sprint rounds, going quicker and quicker with each one. It was a nervous start for them in qualifying when they and then their French opponents false started, forcing them to re-set twice. However the British trio were not put off by the disrupted start, finishing third in the standings.

Then, in the first round, Jack Carlin, Ryan Owens and Joe Truman set the fastest time in winning their heat and set up a gold medal race with France; the team they had previously beaten in the qualifying round.

That race was not as close as many expected as the GB youngsters raced round the track three times in 43.479 – their fastest ride of the competition and a truly world class time.

In other events, Emily Nelson was 10th in the Women’s Scratch race whilst Andy Tennant was seventh in the Men’s Individual Pursuit.

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