August 16, 2008 (Beijing, China) — First up on Day 2 of the Olympic Track competition on Saturday was the quarter final in the men’s Individual Pursuit that matched Britain’s Steven Burke riding against Volodymyr Dyudya of the Ukraine. Dydya quickly established a one and a half second lead, but Burke did not flinch. He continued his smooth and contained race, just as teammate Rebecca Romero had done in her heat the day before in the women’s race, and just like Romero, Burke took time out of his competitor until with one lap to go he was leading. On his last lap he continued the pace, crossing the finish line in 4:21.50 to Dyudya’s 4:22.40.

Up next were Alexei Markov of Russia and Antonio Tauler of Spain. The Russian dominated this match from start to finish ending in a 4:22.874 to Tauler’s 4:24.874. But the next match was truly memorable. Taylor Phinney, son of Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney, only turned eighteen in June and already is amongst the top eight pursuiters in the world. He rode against pro rider Hayden Roulston of New Zealand, who had the second fastest qualifying time. Hayden took the lead for the first four laps, but at the 1,000 metre mark, Phinney was only 0.1 seconds back. The New Zealander wasn’t going to let an eighteen-year-old upstage him and pulled ahead again. At the 2,500 mark Roulston was up 3.4 seconds and with five laps to go he had Phinney in his sights on the same stretch of track. Roulston had ridden the fastest time so far with a 4:19.20 while Phinney, who wouldn’t allow himself to be caught and finished in 4:26.60.

“I draw inspiration from those around me. I’m just learning, getting the hang of this whole Olympian thing,” said Phinney afterwards. “I don’t think many people thought I could do as well as I’ve done. I’m young, I’ve got more to do and I’ll be back.”

The next match was between Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain, who had broken his own Olympic record in the qualifying ride when he posted 4:15.031 the day before, and Russian rider Alexander Serov. Wiggins took an early lead and by the 1,000 metre mark had posted a 1.8 second advantage. At the 2,000 metre mark Wiggins was off his record-setting pace of the day before by 1.1 seconds, but looked like he would be catching Serov before the race ended. Sure enough just at the finish line he lapped the Russian, finishing in 4:16.571 to Serov’s 4:25.391. This set up Burke and Marov riding off for the bronze and Wiggins and Roulston vying for the silver and gold places.

Wiggins took the gold with a time of 4:16.97 with Roulston 2.64 seconds behind. “I had to play it safe,” said Wiggins, “not chasing world records. Three other guys deserved to be in this race. It was the least I could do for them.” Wiggins was referring to the depth of the British cycling team. “In the final I just had a job to do. It was a hard final. I was working hard out there.” Wiggins said Roulston, at age twenty-two is someone who is just gaining confidence and could be an Olympic champion.

Wiggins was in a generous mood in terms of offering up more personal information, about how much he admired his teammates and competitors and how he had not appreciated what it meant to be an Olympic champion in 2004 when he first won this event, saying he was “immature” at that time in his life. After “floods of tears” when he realized what he had done by winning the gold there, he said he abandoned his responsibilities to the British team, exploring Athens on a day off while he still had the team pursuit, where he said, he “went through the motions” thinking he’d be winning another gold medal. But the team had to settle for the bronze.

Looking back, he said he should have given his position in the pursuit to someone else, but he wanted the medal. He felt he let his teammates down then and hadn’t kept his head in the race, but he said, the experience made him stronger.

Wiggins also spoke about the “fantastic infrastructure” of the British Cycling Association. “In eight years we’ve become a force in track racing. Not just in the sprints, but all events and in the women’s events too.”

Roulston added that he was “definitely very, very happy. Bradley Wiggins is a true champion. I’ve known for a long time I’ve been on the right road. This is only the beginning.” When asked what has changed in New Zealand cycling, he, like Wiggins, said the structure works well for athletes and is committed to athletes, but also the athletes have “self-belief” which must be there in order for the changes to really have any true effect.

Men’s Keirin
The Keirin was frought with close calls, a crash and infractions, but in the end, as usual Britain dominated. Three groups of riders went out in groups of six, while the fourth had seven in the first batch of heats. This paired the field down to round two in which only the top rider from each heat advanced. The final race for 7-12 place saw two of Malaysia’s athletes, Mohd Zaizhlhasni and Josiah Ng place ninth and tenth – a breakthrough for the country – with Australia’s Ryan Bayley and France’s Gregory Bauge in seventh and eighth place, a finish they hadn’t expected as both went into the race as top-six favorites.

But it was Chris Hoy, who was fresh from a gold medal race the night before in the team sprint, who demolished the field, not just in each of his heats, but in the final as he rode away from the field and took his second gold in two days. He was followed by teammate Ross Edgar while Japan’s Kiyofumi Nagai winning the bronze.

Men’s Points Race
The men’s Points Race saw twenty-three riders contesting the event, including Canada’s Zach Bell, who started the race at the blue band by the track’s apron with twelve others, while eleven riders lined up at the fence, or the top of the banking on the start line straight-away. Facing 160 laps, this race saw plenty of action with Britain’s Chris Newton taking the first sprint, which gave him five points off the start. Bell looked comfortable in the pack as the action commenced, but sat tight, not jumping after every break.

Early on American Bobby Lea established the first gap eight laps into the race. A group of six riders chased and Bell’s group easily caught both Lea and the chase group, but soon after Lea jumped again and ended up lapping the field twice, only to die early, get lapped by the field and drop out. Chun-Kai Feng of Chinese-Tapei was also lapped and pulled.

Soon after this Germany’s Roger Kluge became aggressive, along with Greg Henderson of New Zealand, Rafal Rataajczyk of Poland, Iijo Keisse of Belgium, Agnelo Ciccone of Italy, Volodymyr Rybin, and Bell of as the Canadian placed second in the second sprint.

With 101 laps to go things started to shake up as a break of five established itself, taking all the points while Bell chased hard with Belgium’s Keisse to bridge to the five who were away. At 85 laps to go, the field was back together, with Bell sitting in 13th place with two points. But at this point he chased after Vasili Kiryienka of Belarus and established a fabulous break, dropping Kiryienka and flying out on his own.

What a great move by Bell. In no time he was chasing the back of the pack and made contact with it, gaining twenty points and moving up to sixth place as he lapped the field. It wasn’t until the latter part of the race that Bell moved down to seventh – where he remained in the standings – as six riders in total lapped the field once, thus also gaining a bonus twenty points each, and gaining sprint points on top of this as they contested more sprints than did Bell.

Things broke up again and Bell sat comfortably so when a chase group went again, he went after them, staying in the top ten, and reeling in the group. But the race-deciding break occurred as Spanish rider Joan Llaneras kept an unrelenting pace with Henderson, Kluge, Newton, and Meyer in the decisive break. Llaneras, Kluge and Newton all lapped the field twice while Meyer, Vasili Kiryienka of Belarus and Daniel Kreutzfeldt of Denmark lapped them once and gained points in sprints.

At the eleventh sprint Bell attacked again and took fifth place. Given that he was riding against a mainly European field, many of whom ride together all season, his race was superb. With less than ten laps to go, and the group of five untouchable, given that three of them had lapped the field twice and two had lapped it once, Bell went for another flyer, trying to gain a lap himself. He nearly made it and wasn’t reeled in by the pack until just metres before the final sprint where he finished sixth, for a total of 27 points and seventh place overall in the field of 23. It was another strong finish by the Canadian men that speaks of great medal potential in years to come.

Llaneras of Spain took the gold with 60 points, Kluge of Germany the silver with 58 points, and Newton of Britain takes home the bronze with 56 points. Cameron Meyer of Australia finished with 36 points for fourth position, Kiryienka of Belarus was fifth with 34 points and Daniel Kueutzfeldt of Denmark took the sixth position with 29 points.

“It went pretty well,” said Bell of his race. “I mean I knew I could ride a top 8 if I rode a good race, but if I rode a perfect race, it would be a top 5″. He confirmed that he had waited until the latter half of the event before he made his move. “I wanted to be well into the race. I have a good capacity to go strong at the beginning. It more or less went as planned, though I couldn’t contest as many sprints as I would have liked to.

“I was trying to get into position, and I’m really happy to use that tool [of strategy] to position myself well.” Bell said he decided to take the chance on his second attempt to lap the field because, for him, “fifth or seventh place was virtually the same. If it had been the World Championships or a World Cup, I would have probably stayed back, but it’s the Olympics. The guys up there, in the end who won, they are all guys I can sprint with.”

I think the only decision I would take back to get a top 5 is that second shot when I tried to go for a lap,” said Bell.

Llaneras of Spain said the race was his final and at thirty-nine-years of age, this is the best way to go out of his sport. “The gold is certainly the top level of achievement” he said, “Bear in mind the race I ride in as an endurance event””age is not such a factor. Luckily today athletes can enjoy an extended career.”

When asked how his tactics went, he said that originally he was going to initiate more aggressive riding and gain early points, but he had to change this plan as no one else would do anything – they were just watching him. He added that “the people who shouldered some of the responsibility [to share much of the work] did well. Others did less well.”

Llaneras was referring to Kluge and Newton, who initiated many of the successful breaks. During the second half, Llaneras gained the extra laps and could relax. “I enjoyed the last half of the race, and right now I feel fatigue, exhaustion, elation, and emotion. It’s almost a dream to take a gold medal. This is the last day with the Spanish team jersey. We have taken this as a family decision. I’ve done my time with cycling. It’s the right time to leave. I am now saying good-bye to cycling.”

Women’s 3,000m Individual Pursuit
The first heat saw New Zealand’s Allison Shanks up against American Sarah Hammer. At the 1,000 metre mark Hammer was ahead by 0.1 second, but by the 2,000 metre mark Shanks had gained on the American and was 0.2 seconds ahead, increasing that lead at 2,500 metres to 0.9 seconds. She took the heat in 3:32.4 versus Hammer’s 3:34.20.

The second heat saw Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine riding against Lithuania’s Vilija Sereikaite. Kalitovska took control of the race from the start and by the 2,000 metre point was in at 2:21.1 while Sereikaite hit it at 2:24.2. In the end it was Kalitovska in 3:31.7 to Sereeikaite’s 3:36.8.

But a showdown came in the third heat as the second fastest qualifier, Britain’s Rebecca Romero rode against Australia’s Katie Mactier, who had taken the silver in 2004. At the 1,000 metre point Romero hit the line at 1:19.1 with Mactier 1.41 seconds back. One thousand metres later Romero came in at 2:10.9 and was 3.43 seconds up. With two laps to go Romero had Mactier in her scope on the back stretch and with one lap to go caught Mactier for a final time of 3:27.30 to Mactier’s 3:37.29, a full ten seconds ahead. Romero is a superb athlete having won the silver medal in Athens in the women’s quadruple sculls.

The final heat saw Romero’s teammate Wendy Houvenaghel, who had fastest qualifying time the night before up against Lada Kozlikova of the Czech Repbulic. Houvenaghel took the lead immediately, finishing the first 1000 metres in 1:12, a phenomenally fast first one-third of the race. Kozlikova was already two seconds behind. Just after 2,000 metres Houvenaghel caught Kozlikova and flew to a 3:27.829.

These finishes put the two British riders up against one another for gold and silver while Allison Shanks of New Zealand and the Ukraine’s Lesya Kalitovska will ride for the bronze on Sunday.

Results

Men’s Points Race Final

1. Joan Llaneras (Spain) 60 points
2. Roger Kluge (Germany) 58
3. Chris Newton (Great Britain) 56
4. Cameron Meyer (Australia) 36
5. Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) 34
6. Daniel Kreutzfeldt (Denmark) 29
7. Zach Bell (Canada) 27
8. Makoto Iijima (Japan) 23
9. Milan Kadlec (Czech Republic) 22
10. Greg Henderson (New Zealand) 13
11. Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 10
12. Iljo Keisse (Belgium) 8
13. Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 8
14. Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 8
15. Wong Kam-Po (Hong Kong) 5
16. Milton Wynants (Uruguay) 5
17. Mikhail Ignatiev (Russian Federation) 4
18. Juan Curuchet (Argentina) 1
19. Marco Arriagada (Chile) 1
20. Peter Schep (Netherlands) 0
21. Christophe Riblon (France) -17
DNF Bobby Lea (USA)
DNF Feng Chun Kai (Taipei)

Women’s Individual Pursuit

Round #1

Heat 1
1. Alison Shanks (New Zealand) 3:32.478
2. Sarah Hammer (United States) 3:34.237

Heat 2
1. Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine) 3:31.785
2. Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania) 3:36.808

Heat 3
1. Rebecca Romero (Great Britain) 3:27.703
2. Katie Mactier (Australia) 3:37.296

Heat 4
1. Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain) 3:27.829
DNF Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic)

Men’s Individual Pursuit

Round #1

Heat 1
1. Steven Burke (Great Britain) 4:21.558
2. Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) 4:22.471

Heat 2
1. Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) 4:22.308
2. Antonio Tauler (Spain) 4:24.974

Heat 3
1. Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 4:19.232
2. Taylor Phinney (United States) 4:26.644

Heat 4
1. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 4:16.571
2. Alexander Serov (Russian Federation) 4:25.391

Final

For Gold and Silver
1. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 4:16.977
2. Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 4:19.611

For Bronze
3. Steven Burke (Great Britain) 4:20.947
4. Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) 4:24.149

Men’s Keirin

Round #1

Heat 1
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain) 10.492
2. Carsten Bergemann (Germany)
3. Toshiaki Fushimi (Japan)
4. Gregory Bauge (France)
5. Kamil Kuczynski (Poland)
6. Denis Dmitriev (Russian Federation)

Heat 2
1. Azizul Hasni Awang (Malaysia) 10.613
2. Shane Kelly (Australia)
3. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
4. Andrii Vynokurov (Ukraine)
5. Sergey Polynskiy (Russian Federation)
6. Yong Feng (China)

Heat 3
1. Ross Edgar (Great Britain) 10.787
2. Josiah Ng (Malaysia)
3. Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan)
4. Denis Spicka (Czech Republic)
5. Christos Volikakis (Greece)
REL Roberto Chiappa (Italy)

Heat 4
1. Ryan Bayley (Australia) 10.500
2. Theo Bos (Netherlands)
3. Giddeon Massie (United States)
4. Arnaud Tournant (France)
5. Athanasios Mantzouranis (Greece)
6. Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)
7. Maximilian Levy (Germany)

Repechage

Heat 1
1. Arnaud Tournant (France) 10.487
2. Christos Volikakis (Greece)
3. Yong Feng (China)
4. Toshiaki Fushimi (Japan)

Heat 2
1. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) 10.669
2. Kamil Kuczynski (Poland)
3. Denis Spicka (Czech Republic)
4. Denis Dmitriev (Russian Federation)

Heat 3
1. Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan) 10.758
2. Andrii Vynokurov (Ukraine)
3. Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica)
4. Sergey Polynskiy (Russian Federation)

Heat 4
1. Gregory Bauge (France) 10.880
2. Maximilian Levy (Germany)
3. Athanasios Mantzouranis (Greece)
4. Roberto Chiappa (Italy)

Semi Final

Heat 1
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain) 10.481
2. Shane Kelly (Australia)
3. Arnaud Tournant (France)
4. Josiah Ng (Malaysia)
5. Gregory Bauge (France)
6. Ryan Bayley (Australia)

Heat 2
1. Ross Edgar (Great Britain) 10.974
2. Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan)
3. Carsten Bergemann (Germany)
4. Azizul Hasni Awang (Malaysia)
DNF Theo Bos (Netherlands)
DNF Kamil Kuczynski (Poland)

Final 7-12
1. Gregory Bauge (France) 10.69
2. Ryan Bayley (Australia)
3. Josiah Ng (Malaysia)
4. Azizul Hasni Awang (Malaysia)
5. Kamil Kuczynski (Poland)
DNS Theo Bos (Netherlands)

Final
1. Chris Hoy (Great Britain) 10.45
2. Ross Edgar (Great Britain)
3. Kiyofumi Nagai (Japan)
4. Shane Kelly (Australia)
5. Carsten Bergemann (Germany)
6. Arnaud Tournant (France)