Cycling Reports

By Gerry McManus in Aigle, Switzerland

Email: gerry@londonirish.freeserve.co.uk


5 July: Time Trial,6 July: Road Race, 7 July: Track, 8 July: Track, 9 July: Track,

July 8: Track - Men's 30km points race, Women's 3000m pursuit, Women's sprint

 

Men's 30km Points Race

Gold for Kazakhstan

Sergey Lavrenenko (Kazakhstan) won an exciting 30km points race final in Aigle on Tuesday evening.

After two tough qualification races were held in the morning due to the large number of competitors in the event, an elite group of riders contested the 150 lap final in the evening on the 200m circuit.

Kazakhstan and Brazil were the nations controlling the first laps and Lavrenenko set the tone of the evening by taking the first sprint after 10 laps with Armando Carmargo (Brazil) in second spot.

After 17 laps Camargo took a flyer on his own to take maximum points from brave Canadian Mark Ernsting who took the bunch sprint behind him. The Hungarians then took to the front in an attempt to bring a few points their way and succeeded when Attila Arvai took first place at the third sprint from Ernsting again.

Siu Lun Ho from Hong Kong attempted to take a lap on the small circuit but was pulled back by Yuriy Yuda (Kazakhstan) who was content to play the team role for the night.

Finally after 48 laps three riders took 10 points each when the lapped the field, Bang Kyurg Song (Korea) joined up with Lavrenenko and Tanha Abbas Saeidi (Iran) to work their was smoothly to the rear of the field who had failed to hold them off.

The general classification at this stage had Lavrenenko first, Song second, Arvai third and Saeidi fourth.

Saeidi was active again later when he attacked down the banking to win another five points on his own but not fancying his chances of taking a lap he sat up to wait for the main field.

After an attack started by Lavrenenko and Saeidi, a number of riders lapped the field with all the main contenders excluding the Korean Song who moved into third spot and was hanging on to that place by two points from Arvai. Saeidi's efforts had paid dividends as he moved into second place overall.

Song's team mate Soon Young Choi was pulled out of the race when he was lapped three times after putting major efforts in as a team worker. Yuriy Yoda was continually controversial when leading out Lavrenenko and sitting up with 250 m to go but the Kazakhstan rider was not pulled out despite being lapped and continued to help Lavrenenko take maximum points.

Song slipped down into fourth spot as Arvai continued to take points and managed to take the maximum five on the penultimate sprint. Even with the podium finalised the racing still proved exciting as Ernsting showed how some excellent tactical positioning can help you take a number of points. The results could have been a lot different for a nuumber or riders if teamwork was not in evidence.

Men's Sprint Semi-Final

Sprint final to be all-Korean affair

Chi Bum Kim and Hee Chun Yang both won in two straight heats to set up an interesting all Korean affair. With both Olympic places already in the bag for Korea it will be a fight for glory.

Kim defeated Chin Feng Yang (Tapei) by a narrow but predictable margin in the first semi-final.

Lee took the other final place after a controversial match with Canada's Steen. Madsen. Madsen led on the first heat and appeared to flick Lee up the track with about 250m to go and held on to take the heat but the judges reversed the decision in favour of Lee. Lee rode a great second heat confidently holding Madsen on the outside.

Results

Men's 30 km points

1 Sergey Lavrenenko (Kazakhstan) 93 pts
2 Tanha Abbas Saeidi (Iran) 79
3 Attila Arvai (Hungary) 60
4 Kyurg Bang Song (Korea) 49
5 Siu Lun Ho (Hong-Kong) 40
6 Hernandes Quadri (Brazil) 29
7 Paul Doyle (Ireland) 27
8 Prajak Mahawong (Thailand) 26
9 Mark Ernsting (Canada) 17
10 Marc Vanacker (Luxembourg) 11
11 Luis Martinez (Uruguay) 3
12 Tomas Margalef (Uruguay) 2
13 Aurel Vig (Hungary) 2
14 Hedson Matheu (Seychelles) 1
15 Yuriy Yuda (Kazakhstan) -9
16 Amir Zargari (Iran) -13

Women's sprint

1 Evgenia Radanova (Bulgaria)
2 Maya Tachikawa (Japan)
3 Min Hye Lee (Korea)
4 Sayuri Osuga (Japan)
5 Gillian McDarby (Ireland)
6 Sarah White (Ireland)

Women's 3000m pursuit

1 Karin Thuerig (Switzerland) 2.17.650
2 Evelyn Garcia (El Salvador) (caught)
3 Anel Wasserman (South Africa) 3.51.902
4 Ayumu Otsuka (Japan) 3.52.683

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