Lara Gillespie (UAE Development Team)

After a thrilling opening day of competition yesterday, fans were treated to another spectacle of close racing at Sundrive Velodrome as the Class 2 event drew to a close.

Irish rider Aaron Wade took the first win of the day, securing the gold medal in the Men’s Scratch race. The Cortizo Aluminium Team rider was too strong for his competitors, after launching a solo breakaway with 18 laps to go. Wade took a half a lap advantage with his attack and held it to the finish. Wade stated after the race that: “After a couple of laps we were working well together everybody was doing up and overs to keep the speed going for the first couple of laps and then after 10 laps attacks started happening, I put on a big gear to see if I could go big and did my attack and got away and it was a grim 20 laps, solo then to the line.”

Harvey Barnes used all his sprinting expertise, launching an attack in the final lap sprinting clear of the bunch to secure the silver medal while Yacine Chalel of Algeria won the sprint for bronze in the bunch behind.

Stefan Caulfield-Drier took an impressive win in the Men’s Points race to finish with 31 points ahead of Aaron Wade (27) and Kieran Riley (21). Cauifield Drier “I just tried to race it aggressively and get up the road, decided to run a smaller gear than I normally would knowing that everyone was going to tire out and hopefully I’d have it in the end, and luckily worked out.”

Lara Gillespie led from the beginning of the Women’s Omnium, putting in an impressive finish in all four races to win the Omnium on 154 points. Gillespie spoke after the race: “I had a really goo day out we had really good competitive racing, and it was really good to go for gold.”

Irish rider Emily Kay rode strong for second on 135 points, with UK rider Lucy Nelson a close fought third to round out the podium on 113 points.

Orla Walsh continued her gold rush by taking gold again in the Keirin. The Irish rider used all her experience to take a fine win ahead of a spirited challenge from Bray native Deirbhle Ivory. Lucy Nelson showed her versatility to come in third.

Hungary’s Norbert Szabo was the one to watch in the men’s sprint with the fastest qualifying time of 11.25 in the flying 200m. His form held across the heats to land in the gold medal ride off against Irish based Spanish rider Juan Rodriguez. Alexander Abdul-Wahab took the bronze over Callum O’Toole in the match sprint ride offs.

Results

Women’s Omnium
1st – Lara Gillespie (UAE Development Team)
2nd – Emily Kay (Loughborough Lightning)
3rd – Lucy Nelson (Spectra Cannondale)

Women’s Keirin
1st – Orla Walsh (Nopinz Motip Racing Team)
2nd – Deirbhle Ivory (Longcourt Hotel – NCW)
3rd – Lucy Nelson (Spectra Cannondale)

Men’s Scratch
1st – Aaron Wade - (Cortizo Aluminium Team)
2nd – Harvey Barnes – East Tyrone Cycling Club
3rd – Yacine Chalel – (Algeria)

Men’s Sprint
1st – Norbert Szabo (ASC-SEPSI-SIC)
2nd – Juan Rodriguez (Sundrive Track Team)
3rd – Alexander Abdul-Wahab (Team Di Mascio)

Men’s Points Race
1st – Stefan Caulfield-Dreier (Spellman-Dublin Port)
2nd – Yacine Chalel – (Algeria)
3rd – Aaron Wade - (Cortizo Aluminium Team)

Aaron Wade - (Cortizo Aluminium Team)

Men’s Scratch race

Photos Credit: Ronan Ryan/Sundrive Velodrome