By Laura Weislo
The German track team has dominated the second round of the UCI world cup with an impressive overall victory. The team won two events, with former world champion Robert Bartko coming out on top of the men's individual pursuit while Michael Seidenbecher benefited from Theo Bos' decision to forego the kilo in favor of the sprints, and bested Kévin Sireau of France.
The Germans demonstrated the depth of their program by taking second in the men's and women's team sprint, men's team pursuit as well as a second and third in the women's keirin. The team's fourth place finishes in the men's scratch race and keirin and women's sprint helped them to victory in this round of the world cup, bumping them up to the top of the overall standings.
Meanwhile the team from the UK wrapped up their successful weekend with a gold medal in the women's keirin and men's team sprint on Sunday. Former sprint world champion Victoria Pendleton made up for a disappointing competition on Friday, where she failed to make the medals in the sprint, with today's win over Christin Muche and Dana Gloss of Germany.
The British team sprint squad pulled an upset over the Dutch team containing world record holder Theo Bos. The team of Matthew Crampton, Jason Kenny and Craig Mclean won by eleven hundredths of a second, giving the team their fifth medal of the world cup. On Friday, Robert Hayles took the silver in the individual pursuit behind Robert Bartko of Germany, and on Saturday, Britain took a one-two with Rebecca Romero taking silver in the pursuit behind teammate Wendy Houvenhagel.
The British fielded two teams in the men's team pursuit, with the trade team Recycling.co.uk winning ahead of the Germans, and the second British team taking fifth. The madison team of Mark Cavendish and Rob Hayles took fourth in that event, which put the British team second overall in the Moscow world cup, and moved them into fourth place in the overall standings in the UCI track world cup.
The Italian women had two surprise victories in Sunday's endurance events, when Giorgia Bronzini took the points race and Annalisa Cucinotta won the scratch event. Cubans Yoanka Gonzalez Perez and Yumari Gonzalez Valdinieso helped give their small team an excellent weekend, taking second and fourth in the points, and second and third in the scratch race. On Saturday, their teammate Lizandra Guerra won the women's 500m time trial and was second in Friday's sprint competition.
