March 29, 2007 (Palma, Mallorca, Spain) — Brad Wiggins returned to international level track racing exactly where he left off three years ago – atop the winner’s podium. Riding a qualifying time of 4.15.98 (an average speed of over 56 kph) the Brit qualified just a fraction of a second slower than his 2004 Athen’s Olympic gold winning time. Wiggins continued his domination of the event in the evening final, catching 2000 Olympic Champion Robert Bartko (Germany) to win the gold medal. Victory here comes after several seasons away from the World Championships as Wiggins has been focusing on road racing the past few seasons.

Former world champion Sergi Escobar of Spain defeated compatriot Antonia Tauler in front of a loud home crowd to take the bronze medal with a time of 4:23.40.

Canadian Zach Bell of the Yukon finished 18th in the event, the only Canadian competing today. Bell was using the event solely as a prep race for his focus, the Points Race, later in the competition.

Omnium

The Omnium event returned to the Track World Championships after nearly four decades of absence. Alois Kankovsky of the Czech Republic won the event, which features a mixture of sprint and endurance events in a competition to establish all-around track racing ability.

Heavy favorite Ben Kersten of Australia started out well, qualifying second in the flying 200m, but the Commonwealth Games kilo champion, who has been struggling with back problems, withdrew from the event part way through.

Argentinian Walter Fernando finished second, while American Brad Huff (who rides for the Slipstream team on the road) rounded out the podium, winning the USA’s first medal of the championships.

Women’s Team Sprint

The British pairing of Victria Pendelton and Shanaze Reade added to Great Britain’s medal count by both qualifying fastest and winning the gold medal final ahead of the Netherlands.

The Australian duo of Kristine Bayley and Anna Meares defeated the French team of Sandie Clair and Virginie Cueff by nearly a second to win the bronze medal.

Men’s Team Sprint

The Great Britain team sprint squad started out on par with their women, qualifying fastest ahead of a powerful French lineup by 12 one-hundredths of a second.

The margin in the final was even smaller – 2 thousandths of a second was all it took for the French to upset the top qualified British squad.

Germany defeated the Netherlands to take the bronze medal.

Race Notes
Techies will notice that Canada’s Bell was riding a new prototype Norco rather than the normal Look national team bike that he has been riding at previous World Cups. The bike appears to be modeled heavily on last year’s Diablo TT frame. Bell has been training at the Burnaby velodrome on the bike for the last month.

Results

Men’s Individual Pursuit

Gold Medal Final

1. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)
2. Robert Bartko (Germany) (caught)

Bronze Medal final

3. Sergi Escobar (Spain) 4.23.40 (54.666 km/h)
4. Antonio Tauler (Spain) 4.29.50 (53.425 km/h)

Men’s Omnium

Points Race

1. Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 30 pts
2. Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 27
3. Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 23
4. Karl Christian König (Germany) 23

One Lap Behind

5. Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 18 pts
6. Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 8
7. Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 5
8. Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 3
9. Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 3
10. Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 2
11. Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 1
12. Charles Bradley Huff (USA)

Two Laps Behind

13. Michaël D’Almeida (France) -20
14. Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) -20
15. Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) -20

Three Laps Behind

16. Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) -40
DNS Ben Kersten (Australia)

Kilometre Time Trial

1. Michaël D’Almeida (France) 1.02.40
2. Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 1.04.18
3. Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 1.06.02
4. Charles Bradley Huff (USA) 1.06.32
5. Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 1.06.49
6. Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 1.06.66
7. Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 1.06.69
8. Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 1.07.11
9. Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 1.07.16
10. Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 1.07.50
11. Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 1.07.68
12. Karl Christian König (Germany) 1.08.08
13. Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 1.08.08
14. Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 1.08.24
15. Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 1.08.63
16. Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 1.09.66

Final Omnium Standings

1. Alois Kankovsky (Czech Republic) 19 pts
2. Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina) 28
3. Charles Bradley Huff (USA) 37
4. Aliaksandr Lisouski (Belarus) 37
5. Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 38
6. Dimitri De Fauw (Belgium) 40
7. Michaël D’Almeida (France) 41
8. Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain) 42
9. Robert Slippens (Netherlands) 42
10. Jesse Sergent (New Zealand) 43
11. Alexey Shmidt (Russia) 43
12. Karl Christian König (Germany) 45
13. Enrico Peruffo (Italy) 59
14. Pawel Kosciecha (Poland) 61
15. Pedro Jose Vera Alcaraz (Spain) 63
16. Panagiotis Keloglou (Greece) 63
DNF Ben Kersten (Australia)

Women’s Team Sprint

1. (Great Britain) 33.63
Victoria Pendleton
Shanaze Reade
2. (Netherlands) 34.071
Yvonne Hijgenaar
Willy Kanis
3. (Australia) 34.155
Kristine Bayley
Anna Meares
4. (France) 34.314
Sandie Clair
Virginie Cueff
5. (Germany) 34.578
Jane Gerisch
Christin Muche
6. (People’s Republic of China) 34.676
Fang Tian
Jinjie Gong
7. (New Zealand) 34.799
Fiona Carswell
Jocelyn Rastrick
8. (Russian Federation) 34.862
Swetlana Grankowskaja
Oksana Grishina
9. (Poland) 36.159
Renata Dabrowska
Magdalena Sara
10. (Spain) 36.354
Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro
Ainhoa Pagola Alvarez
11. (Czech Republic) 37.348
Lada Kozlikova
Lenka Valova

Gold Medal Final

1. Great Britain 0.33.63 (53.522 km/h)
Victoria Pendleton
Shanaze Reade

2. Netherlands 0.33.97 (52.981 km/h)
Yvonne Hijgenaar
Willy Kanis
Bronze Medal final

3. Australia 0.33.81 (53.238 km/h)
Kristine Bayley
Anna Meares
4. France 0.34.64 (51.957 km/h)
Sandie Clair
Virginie Cueff

Men’s Team Sprint

Qualifying

1. Great Britain 0.43.92 (61.479 km/h)
Ross Edgar
Chris Hoy
Craig Maclean

2. France 0.44.04 (61.313 km/h)
Gregory Bauge
Mickaël Bourgain
Arnaud Tournant

3. Germany 0.44.13 (61.171 km/h)
Robert Forstemann
Maximilian Levy
Stefan Nimke

4. Netherlands 0.44.45 (60.734 km/h)
Theo Bos
Teun Mulder
Tim Veldt

5. Australia 0.44.59 (60.553 km/h)
Ryan Bayley
Mark French
Shane Perkins

6. Spain 0.44.74 (60.348 km/h)
Alvaro Alonso Rubio
Ruben Donet Gregori
Salvador Melia Mangrinan

7. Japan 0.45.45 (59.404 km/h)
Masaki Inoue
Kazuya Narita
Kazunari Watanabe

8. China 0.45.49 (59.357 km/h)
Yong Feng
Feng Lin
Lei Zhang

9. Poland 0.45.76 (59.008 km/h)
Maciej Bielecki
Lukasz Kwiatkowski
Damian Zielinski

10. Russia 0.46.12 (58.541 km/h)
Sergey Borisov
Denis Dmitriev
Sergey Polynskiy

11. Ukraine 0.46.20 (58.446 km/h)
Yevgen Bolibrukh
Yuriy Tsyupyk
Andriy Vynokurov

12. Czech Republic 0.46.24 (58.397 km/h)
Tomas Babek
Adam Ptacnik
Ivan Vrba

13. Greece 0.46.52 (58.043 km/h)
Athanasios Mantzouranis
Vasileios Reppas
Panagiotis Voukelatos

14. Malaysia 0.47.27 (57.121 km/h)
Azizulhasni Awang
Josiah Ng Onn Lam
Mohd Rizal Tisin

Gold Medal Final

1. France 0.43.830 (61.601 km/h)
Gregory Bauge
Mickaël Bourgain
Arnaud Tournant
2. Great Britain 0.43.832 (61.598 km/h)
Ross Edgar
Chris Hoy
Craig Maclean

Bronze Medal Final

3. Germany 0.44.240 (61.03 km/h)
Robert Forstemann
Maximilian Levy
Stefan Nimke
4. Netherlands 0.44.286 (60.967 km/h)
5. Australia
6. Spain
7. Japan
8. China
9. Poland
10. Russia
11. Ukraine
12. Czech Republic
13. Greece
14. Malaysia