News – Success for GB in Hong Kong

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Gold for Laura Trott and Team Sprint’s Kenny, Skinner and Hindes whilst Cavendish is 4th in Men’s Omnium

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News – Success for GB in Hong Kong

Great Britain Cycling Team top the medal table at World Cup in Hong Kong

Olympic champion Laura Trott won yet another Gold in the Women’s omnium on the final day of the 2015/16 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong on Sunday. The British rider who is the team’s most consistent winner of recent years, yet again showed her rivals they will have to improve to beat her on the track.

Trott went into the final race, the Points, well ahead of Sarah Hammer (USA) and with a dominant performance, GB’s Golden girl is well positioned to repeat her success in the Worlds and the Rio Olympics. Trott said afterwards “I think this track, because it’s quite grippy, I think it took the steam out of everybody and it ended up just being a race where you could just follow and sit in a lot more.”

“I’ve really enjoyed it actually – I wasn’t looking forward to the Points race after three days doing the Team Pursuit as well yesterday, it really did take it out of me, and I was worried how I was going to feel,” Trott continued. “With 20 laps to go, because I’d already won, I was like ‘should I just attack’ but it kind of left me on the back foot”.

“So I thought, ‘I best just to get to the finish’ and I guess that’s what I did.”

Rewards at last for Sprint Team
On day two, the GB sprinters secured Gold in the men’s Team Sprint which pleased the riders and supporters alike. “Really happy with that,” said Kenny with man one in the GB line up Hindes adding “It seems like every World Cup we’re doing we’re getting better so it’s a good sign for Rio.”

There was success for Jason Kenny on day 3 as well after a winter where the Sprint team have struggled to make their usual big impact on the world stage. After the Team Sprint Gold with Phillip Hindes and Callum Skinner, Jason Kenny backed that up with a Bronze medal in the Men’s Sprint, beating Francois Pervis of France in two straight rides.

On the way to the medal, Kenny had to beat teammate Callum Skinner in the quarter finals before losing his semi-final against Australia’s Patrick Constable.

“It’s good to go the distance in the sprint competition for a change – not done that in a while,” said Kenny afterwards. “It’s a tricky track to ride, it’s a bit different to normal. Obviously there’s a few names missing but the standard’s been really good today so I’m pretty pleased with the result to be honest.” Callum Skinner was sixth.

Cavendish
The big name on the entry list for the World Cup though was Mark Cavendish. A legend in the Tour de France with stage wins a plenty and a Green jersey, the Manx Missle finished 4th in the Men’s Omnium.

The 2011 road world champion said afterwards “I’m really pleased, personally,” said Cavendish. “I did better than I thought I was going to do. I’d have been happy with a top ten here so to get fourth… It’s been a great group atmosphere – we’ve won the weekend, won the World Cup overall so it’s nice to be a part of that.”

Team Pursuit on Track
Hong Kong saw GB come away with Silver and Bronze in the Team Pursuit. Great Britain’s women took silver in the Team Pursuit after qualifying fastest on Friday (Day 1). Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne then produced a 4:18 to defeat China’s team pursuiters in the first round and book a place in the final against Canada.

Following her Points race Bronze the day before, 19-year-old Emily Nelson came in for Laura Trott for the final but after a kilometre the British team were three-quarters of a second down, the gap narrowing to half a second at the halfway point. Britain narrowed the margin as the contest concluded, stopping the clock on 4:20.034, around a quarter of a second shy of Canada’s winning time.

“It was a good battle out there,” said Rowsell Shand. “We’ve had two really good rides in the first two rounds. We’ve tried different line-ups and Emily’s really stepped up well today. It’s a massive change in pace for Emily and big step up for her.”

The Bronze for GB’s ‘B’ team in the Team Pursuit was a superb achievement for the young team with Cavendish part of the line up during the three round series of rides. They came back well after misfortune in Friday’s qualifying ride, which saw Kian Emadi puncture and crash.

With Germain Burton replacing Mark Cavendish for round 1 alongside Emadi, Ollie Wood and Chris Latham, the squad raced to an impressive 3:59.839 first round effort to elevate them to the bronze medal final against Germany, which they won by almost a second.

“Obviously we’re quite a young team here,” said Germain Burton. “With a little mishap in qualifying – despite that we still knew that we could do a good ride and be in contention for a medal. We knew the strength was there.”

“It’s been good to have (Cavendish) back in the team,” added Chris Latham. “He’s been getting better and better in training. I suppose it’s weird, him asking us for tips and things like that – he’s fitted in well – straight into it after a long time out of it.”

More Silverware
Day 2 also saw Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant finish the Team Sprint competition with a silver medal. After qualifying second on Friday, the British duo lined up against Rusvelo’s Daria Schmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova.

Voivona’s sub-19-second opening lap, the only one of the competition, was too much to overcome however. “This is actually our first Team Sprint medal for two years so we’re really, really happy,” said Varnish.

“It’s a big step in the right direction. We’re not going to read into times too much here because they’re completely irrelevant. We’re really still up against it for Olympic qualification so to come here and put places between us and the other European countries is really been a step in the right direction. We’re fully committed to being there in Rio.”

Other Medals
Great Britain’s Laura Trott and Emily Nelson added to the above medal collection with impressive rides in the Scratch (Trott Silver) and Points (Nelson, Bronze) races on Day 1. Just hours after qualifying fastest in the Team Pursuit alongside Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne, Trott won the sprint for the Scratch race silver ahead of Quianyu Yang of China, with gold going to Belarus’ Marina Shmayaknova who had lapped the field.

Academy rider Emily Nelson scored strongly in the latter half of the 80-lap points race at the Hong Kong Velodrome to secure the bronze medal. The Lichfield rider amassed 11 points, behind gold medal winner Jolien d’Hoore (Belgium) and silver medallist Jasmin Glaesser of Canada. “I didn’t go into it thinking I would get anything so I’m very happy,” said Nelson.

“It was quite a hard race actually – quite a lot of people went for all the sprints at the start so I just played it a bit clever, sat in there and then got the points in the last four sprints when everyone was absolutely dead.”

 

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RESULTS HERE – click here for full results

Medals

Gold:
Laura Trott: Omnium

Jason Kenny, Phillip Hindes, Callum Skinner: Team Sprint

Silver
Joanna Rowsell Shand, Emily Nelson, Ciara Horne, Elinor Barker: Team Pursuit

Jess Varnish, Katy Marchant: Team Sprint

Laura Tott: Scratch Race

Bronze
Jason Kenny: Sprint

Oli Wood, Germaine Burton, Kian Emadi, Chris Latham: Team Pursuit

Emily Nelson: Points

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