British blast into team pursuit finals

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Men's Team Pursuit Qualifying

Team Great Britain blew the opposition away in qualify of the men’s team pursuit at the World Cup at the Manchester Velodrome. The quartet of Edward Clancy, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Steven Burke set a time of 3:57.709 to set up a final with Spain, who posted the second best time of 4:09.744.

World Champions Denmark missed out on a place in the final after finishing fifth with Michael Faerk Christensen the only rider present from their winning ride in Poland. The race for the bronze will be between Germany and Ukraine who were separated by less than half a second.

“It’s all about a new line-up and the preparation for London,” said Paul Manning, a Great Britain coach and former pursuiter. “The aim is to learn and to target the pace they’ve set themselves. Ed is the most experienced but they’re a young team. There are six riders going for four places so we don’t know the line up for the final yet.”

Women's Team Pursuit Qualifying

Great Britain's World Champion trio Wendy Houvenaghel, Lizzie Armitstead and Jo Rowsell qualified fastest for the women's 3000 metre team pursuit final with a time of 3:23.436, but missed out on the World record by just a second. They beat their nearest rival, Germany, into second place by more than four seconds. Third was Australia, who will face Netherlands in the bronze medal race.

France was the first team to post a competitive time with 3:34.912 ride but they were knocked off the top by first the Belgian and then the German teams. Australia looked to have booked their place in the final when they set a time of 3.28.751, but Great Britain relegated them to third.

The British team started slowly though, just down on the Germany's time after the first kilometre. However, they proved too strong and gained time on each of the subsequent intermediate splits.

Women’s Keirin Qualifying

World Champion Shuang Guo (China), Elisa Frisoni (France), Anna Meares (Australia), Olga Panarina (Belarus), Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) and Victoria Pendleton (Sky+ HD) all won their Keirin heats and made it through to the second round.

In the six repechage heats Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania), Virginie Cueff (France), Agnes Ronner (Netherlands), Miriam Welte (Germany), Victoria Baranova (Russia) and Olivia Montauban (France) all won and will take part in the next round.

Men's Scratch Race Heats 1 & 2

Matthieu Lafagnous (France) won the first heat in the Men's Scratch Race in Manchester on Sunday in a sprint finish ahead of Adiq Husainie Othman (Malaysia) and Lukasz Bujko (Poland).

King Wai Cheung (GPC) was the first rider to attack but was swiftly brought back after three laps. However he attacked again a managed to gain a lap with ten to go. Cheung was unable to hold onto the coattails of the field though and quickly lost all of his advantage as the pace increased, finishing a lap down and out of contention.

Sergiy Lagkuti (Ukraine), Leigh Howard (Australia) and Colby Pearce (USA) were the stars of the second heat in the Men's Scratch Race with the three riders gaining a lap on the field to book their place in the final. Local favourite Chris Newton (GBR) led home a chase group and finished in fourth.

The race was sparked into action by Robson Dias (Brazil) who attacked in the opening laps. However he was unable to distance himself from the field and as the speed dropped Howard and Pearce seized the opportunity and broke clear. Lagkuti joined the duo and the triumvirate set about gaining a lap on the field.