January 20, 2008 (Los Angeles, CA) – The Belgian Madison team stole the night in front of a boisterous crowd at the ADT Center. The Belgians went on the offensive early on taking a lap and then hanging on, despite not featuring in many of the later points. Denmark rode hard but couldn’t regain the lap and in the end edged out Germany for bronze. Points race winner Cameron Meyer (Australia) took a hard tumble but was able to rejoin the field and continue racing.

Followers of the Burnaby 6 Day will be interested to see that the Slipstream duo of Mike “Meatball” Freedman and Colby Pearce placed 5th, riding aggressively all evening.

After a great ride to make the final earlier in the day, the Canadian pairing of Ryan Mckenzie and Zach Bell had little luck in the final eventually losing two laps and withdrawing near the end of the competition.

“˜’It was my third World Cup in a short period of time and I was starting to feel a lot of fatigue,’’ said Bell in a CCA press release. “˜’Ryan raced well. We tried to save our energy and we gave everything we had.’’

“˜’In the final we didn’t want to go out too strong so we could push hard in the first sprint. That went well but in the second half of the race the other teams were very fast and passed us. We had trouble catching up,’’ added Bell.

The colourful Italian Roberto Chiappa won the men’s sprint competition ahead of Kevin Sireau of Cofidis, with Teun Mulder of Holland rounding out the podium. Travis Smith continues to improve from injury, finishing 15th ahead of compatriot Cam Mackinnon in 22nd.

Smith’s team mate Jennie Reed (Momentum) took a big win in the Keirin in front of a home crowd to move up to second in the Keirin rankings. The final was marred by Anna Meares’ (Toshiba) dramatic high-speed face plant. She clipped a wheel trying to rush over the top and was put on a backboard, but waved to the crowd and seemed to be alright. Willy Kanis (Netherlands) was second and Jinjie Gong (Giant Pro Cycling Team) snuck in for the last spot on the podium. Monique Sullivan (Canada) was eliminated in the repechage earlier in the day.

Ukraine rode a blazing 3:27 over three kilometres in the women’s team pursuit to defeat Russia in the gold medal round. Former world time trial champion Kristen Armstrong captained the US squad to a narrow victory over the Becker sisters (and a Joos) of Germany winning by less than half a second.

Results

Women’s Team Pursuit Final

1. Ukraine 3.27.44
Yelizaveta Bochkarova (Ukraine)
Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine)
Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine)

2. Russian Federation 3.30.02
Anastasiya Chulkova (Russian Federation)
Olga Slyusareva (Russian Federation)
Elena Tchalykh (Russian Federation)

3. United States Of America 3.31.45
Kristin Armstrong (United States Of America)
Lauren Franges (United States Of America)
Christen King (United States Of America)

4. Germany 3.31.86
Charlotte Becker (Germany)
Christina Becker (Germany)
Verena Joos (Germany)

Men’s Sprint

Semifinal

Heat #1
1. Kévin Sireau (Fra) Cofidis 10.652 10.591
2. Gregory Bauge (France) 0.10.74

Heat #2
1. Roberto Chiappa (Italy) 0.10.92 11
2. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)

Final for Gold

1. Roberto Chiappa (Italy) 0.11.67 11.57
2. Kévin Sireau (Fra) Cofidis

Final for Bronze

1. Teun Mulder (Netherlands)
2. Gregory Bauge (France)

Women’s Keirin

Round 2

Heat #1
1. Anna Meares (Aus) Team Toshiba
2. Swetlana Grankowskaja (Russian Federation)
3. Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba)
4. Jane Gerisch (Germany)
5. Diana Maria Garcia Orrego (Colombia)
6. Olga Panarina (Ukraine)

Heat #2
1. Jennie Reed (USA) Momentum Cycling
2. Jinjie Gong (Chn) Giant Pro Cycling
3. Willy Kanis (Netherlands)
4. Valentina Alessio (Italy)
5. Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania)
6. Dana Glöss (Germany)

Final 1-6
1. Jennie Reed (USA) Momentum Cycling
2. Willy Kanis (Netherlands)
3. Jinjie Gong (Chn) Giant Pro Cycling
4. Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba)
5. Swetlana Grankowskaja (Russian Federation)
DNF Anna Meares (Aus) Team Toshiba

Final 7-12
7. Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania)
8. Jane Gerisch (Germany)
9. Dana Glöss (Germany)
10. Valentina Alessio (Italy)
11. Olga Panarina (Ukraine)
12. Diana Maria Garcia Orrego (Colombia)

Men’s Madison

1. Belgium 8 pts
Kenny De Ketele
Tim Mertens

1 Lap Behind

2. Denmark 18 pts
Michael Morkov
Alex Rasmussen

3. Germany 12 pts
Roger Kluge
Olaf Pollack

4. Netherlands 8 pts
Pim Ligthart
Wim Stroetinga

5. Team Slipstream 7 pts
Michael Friedman
Colby Pearce

6. Italy 6 pts
Angelo Ciccone
Fabio Masotti

7. Great Britain 4 pts
Robert Hayles
Peter Kennaugh

8. Colombia 3 pts
Carlos Alzate Escobar
Juan Pablo Forero Carreno

9. Australia 3 pts
Cameron Meyer
Glenn O’s hea

10. Spain
Joan Llaneras Rossello
Asier Maeztu Billelabeitia

2 Laps Behind

11. New Zealand 5 pts
Hayden Godfrey
Hayden Roulston

12. Arda Natura Pinarello 2 pts
Sergiy Lagkuti
Vasyl Yakovlev

13. Argentina
Jose Fernando Antogna
Angel Dario Colla

DNF United States
Charles Bradley Huff
Bobby Lea
DNF Canada
Zachary Bell
Ryan Mckenzie
DNF Poland
Rafal Ratajczyk
Mariusz Wiesiak