Sarah Hammer (USA) began her Saturday with a new track record in the women's individual pursuit at the ADT Event Center velodrome and ended it with a commanding gold medal performance over 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Marie Calle Williams of Colombia.

Hammer clocked a time of three minutes, 37.799 seconds in the morning qualifying round to surpass the previous track record of 3:38.325 set by Australia's Katie Mactier at the 2005 World Championships last March. The mark earned Hammer the top seed in the gold medal round and set up a head-to-head match with the second-seeded Wililams who turned in a qualifying time of 3:41.955.

In the final, Hammer bested Williams in front of a sold-out crowd by nearly five seconds to take both the win and the overall UCI World Cup series lead. "I really wanted to win and take the World Cup lead in front of a hometown crowd," said the Southern California resident. "I was definitely pumped with the crowd."

Hammer's win on Saturday is the latest in a short list of significant accomplishments since she began riding competitively again after announcing her retirement from the sport. In the last five months, the 22-year-old also captured an elite U.S. title and a silver medal at a world cup this past December.

"This week has been about a year since I started training again," said Hammer. "I thought I was done. I was sick and didn't want to look at a bike anymore. But this is very motivating. Truthfully, I never dedicated myself to cycling like I do now. Now it's my life."

Hammer will now turn her attention to the World Championships, forgoing the final round of the World Cup in March to focus on the rainbow jersey in April.

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Results

500m Time Trial

1. TSYLINSKAYA Natallia     BLR    34.426

2. GUO Shuang                    CHN    34.824

3. HIJGENAAR Yvonne          NED   35.182

Individual Pursuit

1. HAMMER Sarah                USA  3:41.512

2. CALLE WILLIAMS Maria Luisa COL 3:46.114

3. ARUSTAMOVA Yulia         RUS  3:47.711 .