Friday May 28
Session 4 

200m TT - sprint qualifier

Pursuit finals Round 1

"We work together a bit. I love her to death. We've travelled and ridden together and it's going to be great racing off her."

(Mactier on the gold medal ride-off against Ulmer)

Sprint 1/16 final 

Sprint1/16 Repechages

Top 18 riders went through to the sprint rounds.

Pursuit Finals - Round 1

In an exciting morning of action, it looked like local rider Kate Mactier would break the newly-set World Record. Leontien Zijlaard van Moorsel's pursuit reign is over and Emma Davies was swallowed up, spat out and then came back for more from Sarah Ulmer........

In the first heat, Elena Tchalykh beat van Moorsel by 2 seconds, although it is fair to say that the Dutchwoman appeared to relax in the final lap. This was enough to send Tchalykh into the ride off for bronze, courtesy of her 3:34.117 ride. 

Fastest 2 winners go through to the final tonight, the other 2 winners go through to the ride off for bronze. 

In the second heat, Katie Mactier had the crowd well and truly behind her as she chased Karin Thurig around the 12 laps of the track. With 2 laps to go, it looked like Mactier was on World Record pace, but she slowed and finished with 3:32.599.

Another Australian rider stepped up in the third heat, where Kate Bates took on Olga Slyusreva. It was not to be a dream double, though of Australian finalists as the Russian won in 3:35.736. This was only enough to put her into the ride-off for bronze against her compatriot, Tchalykh.

The last qualifying round saw Sarah Ulmer confidently (and who wouldn't be after yesterday's World Record ride) face Britain, Emma Davies. Davies never looked like she was in the race and when Ulmer caught her it looked to be all over. However, with 1 1/2  laps to go, Davies fought back and even looked like she was going to re-take Ulmer as Davies took the bell (1/2/ lap for Ulmer). She didn't manage it, however and Ulmer finished with a fast 3:31.083, whilst Davies was merely recorded as "overlapped" - International Cycling Union (UCI) speak for 'lapped'.

The finals Friday night (Session 5) look like this :

Bronze ride-off

Elena Tchalykh (RUS) vs Olga Slyusareva (RUS)

Gold ride-off

Sarah Ulmer (NZ) vs Katie Mactier (AUS).

Sprint 1/16 Final

The sprint 1/16s were a fairly orderly affair until the last heat, where Chinese rider Cuihua Jiang strayed wildly from her line and took Jennie Reed off. This was at the end of the final bend and the American slid to the bottom of the track. It took a while to extricate her from her bike - her feet were double-strapped into the pedals as is common with sprinters. Before Reed stood up, Jiang had been disqualified from the heat. German Susan Panzer was warned for deliberately riding on the blue band inside the track-proper.

Other riders to win their heat were : 

S Grankovskaya (RUS)

A Meares (AUS)

S Krupeckaite (LTU)

N Tsylinkskaya (BLR)

Y Hijgenaar (NED)

L-A Muenzer (CAN)

T Abassova (RUS)

V Pendleton (GBR)

The losers went into the repechages...

Sprint 1/16 Final Repechage

Results of the repechages (winners go into 1/8 finals Session 5)  :

Heat 1

Katrin Meinke (GER) beat Yongua Jiang (CHN)

Heat 2

Susan Panzer again left her line and again finished the race on the blue inner-track. As a result, she was relegated to third and Oxana Grishina (RUS) was awarded the win. 

Heat 3

Friday May 28
Session 5 

Finals
19:15 - 22:00

Pursuit Final

Sprint Finals - 1/8 results

Sprint 1/4 Finals

"I'm stoked ......

I'm fizzing, Mate.....

Its amazing."

(Sarah Ulmer - 2004 World Pursuit Champion)

Back to top

Back to top

What a night - the eagerly anticipated 3km between local rider, Katie Mactier and New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer.

It was an exciting race - both riders started well, but Mactier had the pace. By mid race, she was well up on Ulmer, almost 2 seconds, in fact. There was no sense of panic for the Kiwi, though as her trackside coach encouraged her to move it "up half" and "up half" on 3 or 4 laps, until with 3 laps to go, she was back in the race. With two to go, Mactier was 0.4seconds down. At the bell, Ulmer was clearly gaining with every pedal revolution. At the finish, there was an easily audible gap between the two gun-shots, each of which indicated a rider had crossed the line.

Whilst Mactier started quickly, Ulmer started slowly. Both riders had fast middle kilometre times and then faded in the final km.

The all-Russian ride-off for bronze was taken easily by Elena Tchalykh. 

Post-race, Mactier was stoic, looking forward to Athens and "really happy for Sarah". She commented that coming second to Ulmer was not such a bad thing, adding that she is "a terrific friend". Although, when asked, she said that competitive rivalry was not affected by the fact that she knows Sarah so well.

Mactier is looking on the bright side, reflecting that there are 11 weeks to Athens and in that time, she intends to do some work on her fast-start, steady decline approach to pursuiting. "If (the pursuit) was a kilo, or 2000m race, I'd be World Champ." Mactier recognises that her fast start and possible over-enthusiasm cost her in the latter stages of the distance. 

The post-race press conference was entertaining and was interrupted by (i) the coughing of both riders after their efforts and (ii) a live-feed monitor in the room caught Ulmer's eye as Greg Henderson (NZ) took a lap on the rest of the field with 2 other breakaway helpers. There were few other questions and proceedings were dismissed to allow Ulmer to watch the remainder of the Men's Scratch Race from within the arena. It turns out she saw him win the second Kiwi Gold Medal of the evening.......... 

Ulmer did stay in the room long enough to say that (once again) she is "stoked" and that the feeling of being a World Champion is amazing. She, like Mactier, is looking forward to Athens and will be heading to the Northern Hemisphere in about one-week's time to prepare. The 24 hours since breaking the World Record had brought far more attention than she had expected and she is looking forward to switching the 'phone off and focussing on the Olympics.

Sprint Finals 

The sprint sessions this evening were the 1/8 finals and 1/4 finals. Winners in their respective heats were:

S Grankovskaya (RUS)

A Meares (AUS)

S Krupeckaite (LTU)

N Tsylinskaya (BLR)

V Pendleton (GBR)

L-A Meunzer (CAN)

The repechages victors were :

J Reed (USA)

O Grishina (RUS)

Sprint Quarter Finals

The sprint quarter finals were run-off as the last races of the evening. It started to get a little 'bumpy' with a couple of crashes and switches. Unlucky / unhappy rider of the day must be Jennie Reed (USA), who was taken off this morning in the early stages. This evening, she was obstructed in the repechages and then soundly beaten by Anna Meares in the 1/4's. 

Another ride which was physical was that between Pendleton and former-World Champ, Natallia Tsylinskaya. The Belarussian swerved up the track, seemed to lose her balance, leaned her front wheel on Pendleton's rear wheel and then slid down the final bend. Pendleton continued to the finish. There was no apparent reason for the error.

The difference in pace of the sprinting was apparent today. Whilst riders such as Reed and Meares started slowly, and not exploding with speed until the final 200-350 metres, others such as Pendleton, Meunzer and the Russians started quickly and kept accelerating throughout the 3 lap races.

Quarter Final Results

Heat 1

S Grankovskaya  bt  O Grishina

Heat 2

A Meares  bt  J Reed

Heat 3

  L-A Muenzer  bt S Krupeckaite

Heat 4

V Pendleton  bt  N Tsylinskaya