December 13, 2004 – The Los Angeles World Cup concluded Sunday and featured strong performances by several Americans but the host country failed to crack the podium in the final day of world-class competition. Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) posted the most promising result of the day, placing sixth in the women’s keirin after plowing through the first two rounds looking like the woman to beat.

Reed, a sprint specialist and member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team became the first American to medal at the world championships since 1998 with a bronze medal in the keirin last May in Melbourne and is arguably the best American sprinter at the moment. With a deep field of top international sprinters in Los Angeles to get a good look at the facility that will also host the 2005 World Championships next March, Reed handily won her first heat despite the presence of sprint powerhouses Anna Meares (AUS) and Tamilia Abassova (RUS). In the second heat, Reed again took the top spot ahead of notables Elisa Frisoni (ITA) Oxana Grichina (RUS) and Victoria Pendleton (GBR) easily cruising through to the finals.

In the final, Reed faced current world champion Clara Sanchez (FRA), Olympic gold medalist Meares, Olympic silver medalist Grichina, Olympic bronze medalist Natalia Tsylinskaya (BLR) and Pendleton. Reed, who had led out the sprint in each of her two preliminary victories, found herself out of position with two laps to go in the final race, sitting last amongst a strung out line of highly decorated sprinters. Reed pushed up on the outside in an effort to get to the front and briefly made it there before the final surge from the remainder of the field allowed all five riders to finish ahead of Reed in the last dash to the line.

Although Reed finished off the podium, two wins in the qualifying rounds against formidable opponents puts her on pace to contend for the final two world cup races and the world championships.

In the women’s 10km scratch race, Anna Webb (San Diego, Calif.) and Becky Quinn (Quakertown, Pa.) both posted top-10 finishes as Webb placed fifth and Quinn seventh in the mass sprint finish. Earlier in the day, Quinn won her qualifying heat to advance giving the U.S. two entries into the final. Yulia Arustamova (RUS) took the win ahead of Eleonora Soldo (ITA) and Emma Davies (GBR).

The men’s sprint trio of Ryan Nelman (Houston, Texas), Giddeon Massie (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Christian Stahl (Bethany, Conn.) placed seventh with a time of 47.150. The selective curve allowed for only four of the 12 entered nations to advance past the qualifying round. Perennial favorites The Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan qualified fastest with the Dutch team leading the way with a 45.258 behind the efforts of Theo Bos, Theun Mulder and Tim Veldt.

In the gold medal ride The Netherlands beat Germany as France beat Japan for the bronze.

Finally, the madison duo of Colby Pearce (Boulder, Colo.) and Marty Nothstein (Orefield, Pa.) placed 12th. After a fast start that saw Pearce win the first sprint, the Americans didn’t factor into any more sprints and lost two laps to the eventual winning team of Robert Bartko and Leif Lampater (GER).

The second round of the 2004-05 UCI Track World Cup concludes with two podium performances by the U.S. squad including a gold medal ride by Erin Mirabella (Racine, Wis.) in Friday’s points race. Pearce followed up that performance with a silver medal effort on Saturday in the men’s points race. Mirabella and Pearce now sit second and third respectively in the overall world cup standings in their respective events.