January 20, 2007 (Los Angeles, USA) — Coming down to the last sprint, Cameron Meyer jumped from a small breakaway to win the Men’s Points race, his first ever World Cup . A first-year senior, it is unlikely to be the young Australian’s last. The race was combative from the gun, and a huge number of riders played decisive roles in the outcome.

Zach Bell was the only Canadian to make the final after Martin Gilbert failed to advance from his qualifying heat. Bell, who finished in 21st, had stated before the race that he would be training through this weekend of racing in an effort to reach peak form at the most important races of his season – the Track World Championships and Pan-Am Games.

Sarah Hammer (USA) made it two wins in two days, winning the pursuit 12-lap final for gold ahead of German Verena Joos. Hammer started strong but upon realizing she was not at a record-setting pace and the victory was hers, sat up to celebrate in front of the home crowd. She finished with a winning time of 3:37.607 with Joos at 3:44.243.

In a bizarre turn of events, Karin Thurig of Switzerland was scratched from the bronze final and Columbia’s Maria Luisa Calle Williams won by simply taking the start.

Race Notes
– Unlike Bell, Gina Grain had planned on arriving in LA in peak form and she succeeded. “The extra track time that my coach and I have put into technique and tactical training combined with the Burnaby 6 Day racing really paid off,” said Grain, “it is reassuring and confidence building to be able to plan a peak and have it work! Now there will be a bit of downtime, and road-mile time, before ramping it back up for the Track World Championships, where I hope to improve on this result.” As she’d said yesterday this was probably Grain’s best World Cup performance, and it puts her in good stead going into the rest of the season. Grain also commented that the women’s field was consistently hitting speeds of 60 kph in the sprints, and that the late move breakaway she was in would likely have lapped the field had the powerful Hammer not missed the move.

– Earlier today we mentioned that Symmetrics may have set a new Canadian record in the team pursuit. While they did break the 1994 Commonwealth Games time of 4:27, the Canadian record was set in 1987 in Austria Vienna. The quartet of Todd McNutt, Gary Altwassen, Gianni Vignaduzzi and Patrick Beauchemin rode to a time of 4:24.40. At that time It’s unlikely the quartet used aero bars, making their performance all the more impressive.

Results

Women’s Individual Pursuit Final

1. Sarah Hammer (USA) 3:37.607
2. Verena Joos (Germany) 3:44.243
3. Maria Louisa Calle Williams (Columbia)
4. Karin Thurig (Switzerland) SCRATCH

Men’s Points Race Final

1. Cameron Meyer (Aus) 24pts
2. Christopher Newton (GBr) 20
3. Sergey Kolesnikov (Rus) 14
4. Joan Llaneras Rosello (Esp) 13
5. Tim Mertens (Bel) 10
6. David O’Loughlin (Irl) 7
7. Martin Blaha (Cze) 6
8. Michael Creed (TIA) 3
9. Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu) 2
10. Roman Kononenko (Ukr) 1
11. Oleksandr Klimenko (Api) 1
12. Oleksandr Polivoda (Isd) 1
13. Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur (Dur) – 1 lap
14. Bobby Lea (USA) – 1 lap
15. Juan Esteban Curuchet (Arg) – 1 lap
16. Kazuhiro Mori (Jpn) – 1 lap
17. Pim Ligthart (Ned) – 1 lap
18. Marcel Kalz (Ger) – 1 lap
19. Bruno Menzi (Sui) – 1 lap
20. Francois Lamiraud (Fra) – 1 lap
21. Zach Bell (Sym) – 1 lap
22. Angelo Ciccone (Ita) – 1 lap
DNF Rafat Ratajczyk (Pol)
DNF Ian Stannard (Hpm)

Women’s 500m Time Trial

1. Lisandra Guerra (Cub) 34.531
2. Willy Kanis (Ned) 34.864
3. Guo Shuang (Chn) 35.247
4. Sandie Clair (Fra) 35.543
5. Jane Gerisch (Ger) 35.838
6. Kaarle Mcculloch (Aus) 35.921
7. Nancy Contreras Reyes (Mex) 36.106
8. Liz Carlson (USA) 36.172
9. Magdalena Sara (Pol) 36.965


Team Pursuit Qualifying

1. Denmark (Casper Jorgensen, Jens Erik Madsen, Michael Morkov, Alex Rasmussen) 4:09.884
2. Ukraine (Lyubomyr Polatayko, Maksym Polischuk, Vitaliy Popkov, Vitaliy Shchedov) 4:10.908
3. Russia (Vasily Khatuntsev, Konstantin Ponomarev, Alexey Shmidt, Valeriy Valynin) 4:11.592
4. Great Britain (Jonathan Bellis, Steven Burke, Ross Sander, Andrew Tennant) 4:12.052
5. New Zealand (Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Shem Rodger, Jesse Sergent) 4:12.919
6. Belgium (Kenny De Ketele, Ingmar De Poortere, Tim Mertens, Steve Schets) 4:12.986
7. Spain (Sergi Escobar Roure, Guillermo Ferrer Garcia, Asier Maeztu, Carlos Torrent Tarres) 4:14.445
8. Netherlands (Jenning Huizenga, Ismael Kip, Eelke Van Der Wal, Sipke Zijlstra) 4:16.171
9. Germany (Patrick Gretsch, Christian Kux, Stefan Schafer, Frank Schulz) 4:17.950
10. France (Benoit Daeninck, Kevin Lalouette, Alexandre Lemair, Fabien Sanchez) 4:19.860
11. Italy (Gianpaolo Biolo, Giairo Ermeti, Claudio Masnata, Daniel Oss) 4:20.747
12. Lithuania (Sergejus Apionkinas, Andris Buividas, Vytautas Kaupas, Ignatas Konovalovas) 4:21.075
13. Poland (Mateusz Czapla, Kamil Kuczynski, Michal Nawrocki, Hubert Tulacz) 4:24.074
14. Symmetrics Cycling Team (Zach Bell, Cameron Evans, Christian Meier, Svein Tuft) 4:26.031

Points Race Qualifiers

Heat 1
1. David O’Loughlin (Irl) 28
2. Michael Creed (TIA) 28
3. Tim Mertens (Bel) 8, – 1 lap
4. Juan Esteban Curuchet (Arg) 8, – 1 lap
5. Roman Kononenko (Ukr) 7, – 1 lap
6. Pim Ligthart (Ned) 7, – 1 lap
7. Joan Llaneras Rosello (Esp) 6, – 1 lap
8. Christopher Newton (GBr) 6, – 1 lap
9. Francois Lamiraud (Fra) 5, – 1 lap
10. Rafat Ratajczyk (Pol) 3, – 1 lap
11. Zach Bell (Sym) 0, – 1 lap
12. Oleksandr Polivoda (Isd) 0, – 1 lap
13. Andreas Graf (Aut) 0, – 1 lap
14. Carlos Hernandez Santana (Mex) 0, – 1 lap
15. Roman Maximov (Mos) 0, – 1 lap
DNF Panagiotis Keloglou (Gre)
DNF Eduardo Colon Ortiz (Pur)
DNS Jhon G. Durango (Col)

Heat 2

1. Angelo Ciccone (Ita) 28
2. Cameron Meyer (Aus) 26
3. Kazuhiro Mori (Jpn) 23
4. Martin Blaha (Cze) 22
5. Sergey Kolesnikov (Rus) 8, – 1 lap
6. Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu) 6, – 1 lap
7. Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur (Dur) 5, – 1 lap
8. Ian Stannard (Hpm) 5, – 1 lap
9. Marcel Kalz (Ger) 5, – 1 lap
10. Bruno Menzi (Sui) 4, – 1 lap
11. Oleksandr Klimenko (Api) 3, – 1 lap
12. Bobby Lea (USA) 3, – 1 lap
13. Siarhei Daubniuk (Blr) 3, – 1 lap
14. King Wai Cheung (Hkg) 3, – 1 lap
15. Shem Rodger (Nzl) 0, – 1 lap
16. Martin Gilbert (Can) 18, – 2 laps


Men’s Sprint final

1. Gregory Bauge (Fra) 10.960 11.014
2. Roberto Chiappa (Ita)
3. Ross Edgar (GBr) Scienceinsport.Com
4. Jason Kenny (GBr) Scienceinsport.Com
5. Chris Hoy (GBr)
6. Kévin Sireau (Fra)
7. Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Pol)
8. Ricardo Lynch (Jam)
9. Kiofumi Nagai (Jpn)
10. Matthew Crampton (GBr)
—-
16 Travis Smith (Can)


Women’s Team Sprint Final

1. Netherlands 34.255 (52.547 km/h)
Yvonne Hijgenaar (Ned)
Willy Kanis (Ned)
2. Australia 34.761 (51.782 km/h)
Kaarle Mcculloch (Aus)
Anna Meares (Aus)
3. Cuba 35.531 (50.659 km/h)
Yumari Gonzalez Valdinieso (Cub)
Lisandra Guerra (Cub)
4. United States 35.806 (50.270 km/h)
Liz Carlson (USA)
Jennie Reed (USA)
5. Russia
6. Poland
7. Italy
8. Mexico
9. Germany