UCI Track World Cup IV 2011: Day1

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January 1 - February 20, Men: Sprint, Omnium, Individual pursuit, Manchester, GBR, Track - CDM

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’s live coverage from the fourth and final UCI Track World Cup round of the season at the Manchester velodrome.

We’ll be updating you throughout the day with updates, news, images, and all the action from what will be an exciting day of track racing. Myself (Dan) and Barry Ryan will be swapping in and out throughout the day, so stay tuned.

First update of the day: racing has been brought forward by an hour. The organisers have added something like 80 more riders to the schedule so we’ve got lots of qualifying to get through this morning.

Here’s a list of all the racing we’ve got coming up.

We're about ten minutes into qualifying now for the men's sprint. 16 riders going through to the next round. Shurshin from Russia currently leads the standings with 10.450 Forstemann is now on the track, he was fourth at the Worlds last year.

No real surprise, he comes over the line in 10.333 and sets the new fastest time. Luke warm applause from the crowds. It's pretty quiet here at the moment but things will get a lot busier as the day rolls on.

While we take a quick break from the action let's round up the major headlines from around the world of cycling...

Top story of the day is that Alberto Contador may ride the Giro, or at least he's welcome by the race organisers. While in Oman, Vande Velde and Pinotti are both in the frame for the stage and overall. The riders have a tough uphill finish today so the race should split apart.

And of course you can read this rather excellent race preview for the Manchester World up, right here. Meanwhile if you have any questions or opinions ping them to me at twitter.com/dnlbenson and I'll do my best to answer/post them. It's a long, long day at the track too so updates won't be every minute throughout the day.

Bergemann has now gone fastest in the men's sprint qualifying with a time of 10.315

New best time set by Levy from Germany, with 10.144.

Just a bit of a rant coming....

Pocket rocket, Awang is now on the track. He should set a good time.

Second best for Awang with 10.310. He'll qualify without any trouble.

Jimmy Watkins (USA) comes over the line in 17th place and misses out. That means that Bergmann will qualify for the next round.

Scott Sunderland (Australia) comes in with a storming ride and finishes second. Lots of the big guns coming out in the next few minutes. Hoy, Mulder, and Zhang all to come.

Levy still leads with Hoy and Kenny both warming up.

D Almeida finishes in provisional third and qualifies for the next round. Zhang now on the track and he moves into third, pushing the Frenchman down a place.

Mulder now on the boards, twice a world champion and the Dutchman sets a time of 10.293 and finishes in sixth.

The crowd wake up, Jason Kenny is on the track. 10.049 and the new fastest time.

Can Hoy respond?

10.046 and Hoy takes first place. He was down at the first split too.

Now it's Kevin Sireau the leader in the world cup. Can he break the GB/Sky duo?

He's done it. Fantastic result for the Frenchman. The only man to go under 10 seconds with a time of 9.983. That's a sign of intent and a great way to kick of the world cup.

They're off in the Omnium - heat 1 of qualifying. Starting with a points race. Watch out for Archbold from NZL.

First heat has finished and the second one is now under way. During the first heat I made my way to the team paddocks and caught up with Brailsford and Jamie Staff. Comments coming soon.....

Here's what Brailsford had to say on the significance of this round of the track world cup and the spirit in the GB camp:

Ominium heats are over and we'll post the results as soon as they're official. Right now we're back with the men's sprint with ESTERHUIZEN and Sireau. No contest with the Frenchman taking it easily.

Hoy now rolling of in his heat. He's leading against ZHANG.

Hoy opened the sprint and just had too much for his opponent. The crowds are getting a bit bigger here in Manchester.

Kenny is now on the track, and the crowd show their appreciation. He's off against Fostemann. Kenny sitting at the back for now, both riders starting out at the bottom of the banking. 

Kenny takes it. He went from a long, long way out but won by over a bike length.

Levi wins his first race too. Everything going as predicted so far.

Full results from this morning's men's sprint qualifier can be found here.

Nice to see a school trip organised to the velodrome for today's racing. 20-30 screaming kids getting their first taste of track racing.

Now it Zhang and Bergmann, heat number 6 of 8. Zhang took charge early on in that one and takes the win.

Awang and D'Almeida heat seven from eight. The Frenchman leads off...

That was close with the Frenchman taking the win and going through. Each winner from these heats go through and then it becomes best of three.

Mulder wins his heat too and moves through to the next round.

The women's team pursuit qualification round is next. Mexico and ACT kicking things off for us. 23 teams in total for this one so we're looking at around 130 minutes of racing. The big guns - Australian, GB, New Zealand, Holland and Germany - all competing later on.

New Zealand who won this event at the last world cup in China come with a changed line up. Out go Boyd and Buchanan and in come Ellis and Shanks. Nielsen being the only rider to feature in both events.

In other news an ex-Kelme rider is involved with a story on a doping ring in Spain. Story coming soon on Cyclingnews.com

More on that drugs bust in Girona, Spain can be found here. Reyno De Navarra team are on the track and currently have the fourth best time at the 2500 meter mark.

Biggest cheer of the day so is for team Team 100 per cent me who storm into the lead with a time of 3.23.355. Colclough, King and Trott had a great ride. They're about four seconds off world record pace but that's still a great ride from the team.

We've already posted results and photos from this morning's action. Meanwhile it's the Russian team who are on the track now in the women's pursuit qualifying round. Team 100% Me are still leading but many of the big guns are still to come.

The Belgians come home in second and set a new national record but they're still five seconds (roughly) down on Team 100% Me.

Team USA are now on the track with Cari Higgins on the front driving things along. They're over 3 seconds down on Team 100% Me at the 1750m mark.

They're starting to fall apart a bit in the last lap and finish with 3.29.312. They'll miss out on qualifying.

Team GB has just set the fastest time so far with 3.20.962. Great time for the ladies there. OUCH are now on the track as the GB team start their warm down. They'll be very happy with that time.

OUCH Pro Cycling move into second place with 3.23.048. They split slightly in that final lap but that;s still a respectable time.

Kirsten Wild is leading a strong Dutch team now on the track but they're over a second down after 1000m.

The Germans are on the track now and it's not going too well for them. They could well miss out.

Yep. They've finished fifth.

Australia are next off, and the New Zealand will close things out. The Australian team consists of Melissa Hoskins, Amy Cure and Isabelle King.

The Australians are over 2 seconds down with two laps to go.

5th with 3.24.44 so they've missed out on the finals. Just New Zealand to come.

New Zealand are off but GB are now confirmed for the gold/silver ride later tonight. New Zealand all in white are looking good and so far they're the closest to GB.

New Zealand are ahead.

But they've just missed out with 3.20.988. They were leading with a lap to go but just ran out of steam. They've qualified second though and will meet GB in the final. Ouch and then Holland.

The quarters will be as Hoy v D'Almeida, Kenny v Zhang, Sireau v Mulder and Levy v Kitatsuru, all best of three. Mulder and Sireau are on first.

That was pretty convincing, with 10.308 for the final lap with the Frenchman coming out on top. Hoy is up next.

Hoy sitting at the back on the first lap.

Both men still waiting for the right moment to go

That was impressive but Hoy was pushed all the way there. He comes out on top and wins by a length.

It looked for a second like he'd given himself too much work to do but came around on the final corner

Kenny v Zhang now and the Sky rider leads off.

Kenny wins. Going off strong and just holding out on the line.

Levy wins his first heat.  The German looks in fine form so far.

The B quarter finals are now about to start so we'll take a quick lunch break. Don't forget, you can send your questions and opinions to twitter.com/dnlbenson and I'll do my best to answer them.

Before I tuck into a lovely sandwich from the canteen here at the velodrome can I just say that Bergemann and Forstemann are both wearing one of the worst kits I've ever seen in cycling.

Back to the action and it's Sireau v Mulder. Once again the in-form Frenchman comes out on top and he moves into the semis.

Hoy makes it a clean sweep and moves through.

Kenny had to work hard there again, this time coming from behind to win by roughly half a wheel. He's through to the semis too.

Geraint Thomas has just ridden into the track on his Sky TT bike. He'll be on later on this evening.

Levy makes it 2-0 and moves into the semis. All of the 1/8s were pretty one-sided affairs. So Sireau vs Hoy and Kenny vs Levy will be the semi-final line-ups.

Back to the Omnium and the men are on their flying laps now. Archbold from New Zealand has the quickest time so far with Ben Swift back in 8th.

Here's how the Omnium stood after the first event - the points race:

Moving to the individual pursuit now, one of the events scraped by the UCI in next year's Olympics. We've got 23 riders lining up and Felix Enlgish, the conqueror of Chris Hoy at the Euros is currently in action.

The Irishman is struggling though against Imhof from Switzerland and is in fact caught with a lap to go.

Geraint Thomas will go off in penultimate heat against Cheung. It will be interesting to see how the Sky rider goes.

Marc Ryan currently leads in qualifying with 4.21.637

Felix (Columbia) also catches his opponent - Aro (Finland) and sets the third fastest time.

I don't want to spoil things for you so please come this way for full results, report and images from Oman. One word to describe the stage and final climb - carnage.

Earlier we spoke to Jamie Staff, former GB track rider and now heading up the US track squad.

Away from the action for a second and Tom Zirber, who is currently serving a two-year suspension handed to him from USADA, has made some pretty interesting comments. You can read them right here.

Back at the track and Rohan Dennis is up against Roure Escobar. Spain against Australia.

Dennis was of course part of the whole Pegasus episode. Can I call it that? Perhaps disaster is a better word. Anyway he's back in a team for 2011. You can read about that, right here.

So far the young Australian is putting in a good ride. He's leading the qualification at the 2000m point.

He catches his man and sets a time of 4.15.519 and moves into first place. Good ride but Thomas is about to step onto the track. What sort of time can the young Brit put in?

Thomas is second after the first time check

Still second at 750m

He's caught his man before the half way point.

Thomas is still second, Dennis still leads.

Thomas finishes in a time of 4.16.883 and sits in second.

So to confirm it will be Dennis against Thomas in the final of the men's pursuit.

That's it for the morning session. We're off to catch some riders but stay tuned for the evening session which kicks off at 19:00 GMT.

Welcome back to the evening session at the Manchester velodrome. Here's a list of what's coming up tonight.

Riders are back on the track warming up and the spectators are coming in now. It's going to be a sell out this evening.

First races of the evening start in around 20 minutes. It's the men's sprint semis with Hoy taking on Kenny and Sireau up against Levy. GBR vs GBR and France vs Germany.

After the sprint semis we have the Omnium points race. Archbold from New Zealand leads after a storming flying lap, Ben Swift from GB is currently down in 12th place.

The long-haired New Zealand rider is warming up right now but we'll try and grab him once the points race is over. In case you didn't know it's incredibly hard for journalists to gain access to the rider/team paddocks this year so the only real opportunity to talk to the athletes is after the medal ceremonies.

Just spotted Enrico, the press officer at the UCI. President Pat isn't here this evening but we'll try and talk to Enrico later this evening.

Meanwhile, back to the world outside of the velodrome and Alberto Contador states that he's very happy with his result in Algarve. You can read all about today's stage, right here.

Sireau and Levy are about to get things under way. Not yet a full house here but not far off.

Levy leading around the first lap, carefully watching the Frenchman who is around two bike lengths back.

Sireau moves to the front then drifts back he's got work to do but

does enough in the final 100m to take the first of three races.

Hoy and Kenny now on the track and are ready to start. Hoy will be the favourite in this one.

Well it's a repeat of the 2008 Olympic final but Kenny gets the first round, coming around the outside and winning by a length.

The Omnium points race is up next as Hoy and Kenny begin their warm-downs.

Bit of pressure here on Swift, he won't have been too happy with his ride in the flying lap. He's sitting in the middle of the pack for now. All together.

Crash.

Big crash with a lap to go before the first sprint, a Dutch rider hit the deck along with a few others. Seemed to all happen in slow motion as one rider went down and others behind him couldn't avoid going down either.

Coquard, Sakavets and Byrgesen meanwhile took the top three points spots. A couple of the fallers are still receiving treatment.

There are 12 sprints in total. All the riders are back up now as they compete the second sprint. Swift took 3 points but Coquard takes maximum again. He was lying second before the start of this event. Ten sprints still to go.

There's a bit of a split with three riders gaining around 20 meters and the bell goes for one lap to go until the next sprint.

Kwok, Irvine and Jin take the top three with Swift in fourth. Coquard leads with 6 points.

Archbold has managed to sneak into a move here but as I type it all comes back together.

Jin, took that sprint with Ratajczyk getting the second spot. Coquard still leads with six points but Archbold is still in there, he's got three points.

Archbold is certainly putting himself about, constantly trying to go clear from the front. Meanwhile Coquard is sitting further back.

Viviani takes that one with Freiberg in second.

With that Viviani moves into second place, one point behind Coquard.

Nine riders off the front now, including Archbold. Coquard isn't there.

The Frenchman is forced to chase. Freiberg takes that one and is now equal with Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur at the top with 8 points.

56 laps to go now.

Swift is still chipping away and picks up a point in the last sprint. There's a bit of confusion with the officials here, they seem to have lost touch with who is leading.

Irvine for Ireland IS at the front right now and Viviani is now third overall. He's having a good race.

Uran from Columbia just beaten in the latest sprint by Cocquyt. Viviani goes again in a break of three riders. He's having a storming rider. the Spaniard is still leading but Freiberg notices the danger and chases.

Zubiaur is leading at the moment in the points race by one point from Freiberg and Viviani another point down. The Australian is leading the field with 200m until the next sprint.

The Australian lost out there and Long won that sprint. Viviani was second and Coquard came in third.

Hung Cho is now leading the race and he was 6th in the TT so he's a big danger.

Swift with a last ditch move. He's certainly breaking the race up but he's been caught. 22 laps to go and three sprints left.

The Pole takes that sprint then Uran and then Archbold from NZ.

Ho Sung Cho is still leading with 11 points.

Four riders nip off the front and Archbold is there again. he's been very consistent.

These four out front, include Archbold, Perez, Ratajczyk and Uran

Archbold takes the five points, three for Ratajczyk

With one sprint to go Ratajczyk leads Cho, Archbold in third in the overall for the points race.

These four will stay away and there are just 4 laps to go.

Well it could all come back together now, the leaders are messing around.

Well Cocquyt came from no where and won that final sprint, Archbold took second and Uran third. That means that Archbold leads overall after two events. Great riding from the New Zealand rider. We'll post full results as soon as we can.

The women's team pursuit now for the bronze medal. OUCH vs Holland.

Hammer for OUCH is doing a tremendous amount of work on the front but the Dutch are leading, just.

OUCH are nearly a second down now. Just over a second in fact now.

Kirsten Wild now driving things along but the gap is coming down to .4 of a second.

The American take it with 3.23.136 to 3.23.804. That was a a really classy ride from the American team.

Now the battle for the gold with GB against NZ. This could be a real battle.

Storey will start third wheel for GB with Rowsell getting things started. And they're off.

Everyone is on their feet here, including most of the press gang, meaning yours truly cant see much.

GB are leading by just .3 seconds

Can the GB team break the world record ? 

NZ have slipped back badly and they're on the edge.

GB are 0.6 ahead.

GB win with 3.19.757 a new British record and the fastest ever at sea level. They wobbled a bit with two laps to go but held it together.

Back the men's sprint semis now. Sireau vs Levy with the Frenchman leading 1-0. The Frenchman will be the favourite to move through to the final but dont rule out the German.

Sireau is just too, too strong and makes it look easy. He moves through the final where he'll either face Kenny or Hoy.

Big moment for Hoy and Kenny here. Hoy has to respond to Kenny or he's out.

Kenny kills it. 2-0 to Kenny and he moves through to the final.

Hoy will now race Levy for the bronze.

Back to women's racing and the GB women's team have just set the second best time so far in the team sprint.

Lithuania currently have the best time. Germany and Russia are the next heat and there are still three after that.

Germany post the fastest time so far, and that's a terrific ride from them. They had a great start and built it from there. Very smooth ride and good change-overs. The Sky are down to third now.

Holland and Spain are off now but there's a problem for one of the Spanish riders, with one of the gates not opening. They're going to have to start that one again.

Reade and Pendleton for Sky really wont be happy with their ride.

The Dutch take that one with 33.805 and that moves Sky into fourth place. Some very talented teams still to come.

Now it's GB. A young pair of James and Varnish and they're up against Australia.

Big match up this one with the young Brits against the world champions.

Australia take it with 33.581 but GB come in with a life time best for Varnish. The GB team qualify second.

Team GB finished with 33.581 and Australia won with 33.372. Looked like a false start there from Australia, a big one too but the result looks like it will stand. Final heat now with France and China.

33.140 for China and they qualify fastest. Australia will race them for the silver and GB will race France for the bronze. Reade and Pendleton don't go through.

Women's medal ceremony done and dusted for the women's team pursuit. The action doesn't stop there though. We've got the men's individual pursuit coming up. Starting us off are Ryan (NZ) against Huizenga (NED).

Via twitter, @rbmoore73 says "Very impressive from James and Varnish. With Kenny beating Hoy, is the coming generation...coming?"

Ryan takes the bronze with 4.24.855.

Now it's Dennis against Thomas. Huge ovation for for Thomas as he steps out onto the track. Dennis looks pretty calm right now though.

Thomas is down at the first check.

Thomas 0.2 down

Now he's leading! Dennis is 0.7 down.

1.1 seconds down now for Dennis. Thomas is having a great ride.

Dennis is holding Thomas at 1.4 seconds.

The GB rider still leading but the gap is coming down.

0.7 now the Aussie is catching him.

He;s leading  Dennis is leading!!!

4.15.614 from Dennis and he takes it from Thomas who finished with 4.16.477 That was an incredible ride from the Australian who was 1.4 seconds down at one point.

Back to the men's sprint now with Sir Chris Hoy against Max Levy for the first ride for the bronze medal.

Hoy takes that first round, but only just.

Now it's Kenny against Sireau. Can he topple the Frenchman? It's best of three for the gold and Kenny takes the lead on the first lap.

Kenny with a stunning win there, holding off Sireau who was trying desperately to come around the outside. 1-0 to Kenny.

Bronze ride for the women's team sprint and France nip GB to the medal with a time of 33.347. GB finish with 33.651.

Australia beat China for the gold medal with a time of 33.173. They're not world champs for nothing.

Hoy and Levy back on the track now. Hoy is 1-0 in the best of three and Levy gets us under way in the second race.

Hoy wins and takes bronze beating Levy to win 2-0.

Kenny vs Sireau, with Kenny leading 1-0.

Sireau takes it to level it 1-1. Kenny just gave himself too much to do there and couldn't get back on terms with the Frenchman winning by around half a wheel.

Kenny against Sireau for the decider. It's poised at 1-1.

Sireau takes it 2-1. Very similar to the last round with Kenny unable to come over the top.

The elimination race now, the final event of the evening. Jil Long is the second man to be eliminated here, competition for places in front is fierce.

Ben Swift and Ireland's Martyn Irvine are staying close to the front.

Archbold is leading the omnium overall, and he's determined not to throw that away by being careless here. He's a constant at the front.

Irvine came off the track and has been eliminated. Elia Viviani is still in the race and looking comfortable.

We're down to the last 8 riders now, as Archbold is just sitting on the front controlling things.

Bobby Lee from the USA is the next man to go. Viviani is riding very intelligently, his positioning has been excellent here so far.

Perez of Argentina is gone, and it's just the strongest left now.

Ben Swift was a tyre width away from elimination there, we're done to four. Swift, Viviani, Archbold and Ratajczyk.

Archbold is the fourth last man to go, then Ratajczyk. It's just Swift and Viviani left...

It's a sprint between two men who've been showing serious road form recently. The Manchester crowd is urging Swift on....

Viviani pips Swift in the sprint and cuts Archbold's omnium lead to 3 points.

And that's it from the track and what's been a fantastic day of racing here in Manchester. Tune in tomorrow for the evening session when we'll bring you more live coverage from the World Cup.

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