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Review of Day 2

Click here to jump on this page to >>    Sprint Qualifying   Sprint 1/8 Finals  Sprint 1/4 Finals  

                                                               Sprint 5th-8th   25km Points

Sprint Qualifying Round

The fastest 16 go through to the 1/8 finals. Times are used to decide which riders will face each other.

Sprint 1/8 Finals

The 1/8 finals are a one race heat. Winner goes through to the 1/4 finals.

Heats

Sprint 1/4 Finals

Winners go through to the 1/2 finals (Saturday), losers go to 5th-8th place final

Kerrie Meares v Natallia Tsylinskaya, on the final lap Tsylinskaya moved out of her line forcing Meares to pull up, as a result Tsylinskaya was relegated.

Anna Meares v Yvonne Hijgenaar, Anna came through easy on the final lap, Hijgenaar tried hard in a last minute effort but could not match Anna Meares speed.

Shaung tried to go early before bell, she had had a 5m lead but Pendleton came round on the last bend and took it easily on the line

Muenzer v Abassova, Abassova went under Muenzer with a lap and a half to go forcing Muenzer up and out  

Sprint 5th-8th

In the fight off for the minor places Tsylinskaya showed her dominance over the other riders, although Muenzer tried to box in Tsylinskaya with one lap to go, but there was not way of stopping her. The young Chinese rider Shuang Guo, who had performed so well in the final round of the World Cup in Sydney earlier this year, did not show the same form at this event. 

Position       Name                         Country           Time

5                    Natallia Tsylinskaya   BLR                     11.968

6                    Yvonne Hijgenaar      NED        

7                    Lori-Ann Muenzer      CAN 

8                    Shuang Guo               CHN

25km Points

The 15 riders rolled out steadily, each rider was checking who was around them. There were a number of key riders to watch in the field, Joanne Kiesanowski NZL, Olga Slyusareva RUS, Katherine Bates AUS, Emma Davies GBR, Tatsiana Sharakova BLR, Mandy Poitras CAN, Erin Mirabella USA and Vera Carrara ITA.

On the approach to the first of the sprint points Adrie Visser NED attempted to get away with 1 lap to go but she was quickly covered by the chasing bunch lead by Slyusareva and Katherine Bates. The first of the sprints went to Bates AUS, closely followed by Visser, Sharakova and Kiesanowski. 

The paced steadied again but as the riders approached the second of the sprints Slyusareva moved to the front with 50m to go, followed by Bates who got squeezed into third by Lyudmyla Vypyraylo UKR on the line, Kiesanowski again took fourth.

As soon as they had crossed the line and started to ease up the Mexican Guerrero went off the front with the Chinese rider Meifang and Poitras CAN in tow. The bunch quickly pulled them back as the third sprint approached.

Emma Davies attempted to get away but was unable to open up more than a 5m gap on the bunch. The key riders positioned themselves well for the sprint; Davies tried to hold the lead to the line but Slyusareva was too strong, bringing Visser through on her wheel to take first and second in the sprint, relegating Davies to third. 

Davies tried again to take a flyer, but was unable to hold it, with 68 laps to go the Chinese rider Meifang tried to get away, managing to get a half lap on Bates who was chasing hard, Slyusareva was working hard on the front of the bunch to bring them back. She managed to hold on for third in the sprint, behind Meifang and Bates. 

Immediately after the sprint in what was the decisive move of the race, Carrara took a flyer off the front of the bunch and took the next sprint and within 4 laps she had caught the bunch and gained a valuable 20 points putting her in the lead.  

The remaining laps saw a number of riders attempt to get away, scoring some points on the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th sprints including Davies GBR, Poitras CAN and Meifang CHN; however all were closed down by the bunch. The main points in the final sprints were shared between Slyusareva, Bates and Carrara as they battled it out for the podium places. With three laps to go, Emma Davies tried to take the lead but she was overtaken by Slyusareva who had to take the final sprint and Carrara had to be un-placed for her to win, Bates appeared to sit up as she realised that her third place was secure. On the line, Slyusareva took the final sprint, however Carrara managed to finish third to take the World Champions jersey. 

Post Race Comments

A number of riders spoke to Women’s Cycling.net after the race, thankyou to them. Here's what they said: 

Vera Carrara ITA seemed completely overwhelmed by her win “It was a very hard race, I am happy because my legs felt strong. It is fantastic” When asked at what point she knew she had the win, she responded “when I took the lap. It was my plan tonight to try to do that tonight and it worked. It was close in the end, I tried so hard to make sure that I scored points in the final sprint and it worked, I am so happy” 

Olga Slyusareva RUS struggled initially to give an interview, feeling unwell after the effort of the race. However after the presentation ceremony she was happy to talk to Women’s Cycling.net. When asked if she was disappointed with the race and her second place, she commented through an interpretator “It was a good race as usual, I was well prepared for the event but it was not meant to be. It is a world championship race you always expect something unusual to happen”. When asked if she was surprised by Carrara taking a lap she added “I knew that she was strong and we expected someone to go, coming second means the future is interesting for me now”

Kate Bates' AUS initial reactions to her third place were “I have to be happy with third, I gave it everything tonight, I felt untouchable in the first half, to a degree that’s great because it means the form’s there, I just have always been weaker in the second half but it means I’m getting stronger every year, give it a few more years and hopefully I will be in first place. I have two more races to focus on now lets see how they go”

Adrie Visser NED talking after the race, “I am a little bit disappointed, I tried to get points and to get a lap but I could not have done any better. Tomorrow I am doing the pursuit and the scratch I hope to do well, although I had prepared specifically for the points race. 5^th place is the best place for me in the Worlds; each year is getting better, so it’s good”

Joanne Kiesanowski NZL missed out on the higher places, finishing 6^th, “I am very disappointed I was hoping to get in the top three, coming 6^th is not where I wanted to be. I missed out in the sprints; it was so frustrating, coming fourth, four times. If I had got third it would have made a huge difference. I prepared well, I have been racing in Australia and New Zealand and thought I had enough”. Looking forward to the rest of the year Women’s Cycling asked what Joanne’s plans were, “I am heading out to Europe to join my team (Nobili-Rubinetterie) to do the Tour of Flanders and the remaining World Cup events”. 

Emma Davies GBR, riding in her second choice event (the pursuit is her main event), was pleased with her performance.  Although after talking to her it appeared that her competition priority was changed in the days running up to the Championships. “It was a different race than I thought, it would be, I thought it would be a lot more aggressive, there were only a few riders trying to go out to takes laps. I thought that Olga (Slyusareva) rode a more conservative race than she has in the past. There were certainly a lot of riders looking to make it a sprinters race, rather than getting a break. With six days preparation I am actually please with my performance. I went in with a game plan that was very different to the type of race I would ride in a pursuit. I came out of the race pleased and with a lot of positives maybe with a lot more preparation I would have been up there. My focus has been on the pursuit for the last 6 months, however my programme changed in the last few weeks, I can relax in the pursuit tomorrow”.

Photos

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