January 21, 2007 – After claiming a gold medal in Friday’s points race, Sarah Hammer (Temecula, Calif./Ouch Pro Cycling) continued her streak of success with a record-breaking performance in the women’s three-kilometer individual pursuit Saturday.

Hammer earned her second gold medal of the weekend with a win over Verena Joos of Germany in the pursuit final after surpassing her own national record during the morning’s qualifying session.

Hammer clocked a personal-best time and rewrote the ADT Event Center record books with a time of 3 minutes, 32.058 seconds on her way to earning the top seed before beating Joos in the head-to-head final to successfully defend her win from a year ago.

In the 12-lap contest for the gold medal, Hammer started strong, but slightly eased off the gas after realizing victory was imminent. She finished the race with a winning time of 3:37.607. Joos finished in 3:44.243.

“Once I had her (Joos) in my sights, I just put it on cruise control,” commented Hammer of her conservative second-half tactics.

The strategy may have left her fresh enough to contend for a win in Sunday’s scratch race – also an event she won a year ago.

With victories the primary objective, Hammer wasn’t sure she’d produce record speed after riding an aggressive points race just 24 hours earlier.

“I didn’t expect a new record today after my effort in the points race yesterday. I knew I could do it on fresh legs, but the points race was really one of the events I wanted to focus on this year.”

The victory was Hammer’s fifth-consecutive significant win in major competition after earning back-to-back World Cup wins in Los Angeles, a World Championship and USA Cycling national titles in 2005 and 2006.

A second American competitor for the U.S., Neva Day (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), placed eighth with a time of 3:49.758.

In other competition for U.S. riders, a pair of Americans – Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) and Liz Carlson (Jim Thorpe, Pa./East Coast Velo) – were in position to earn a third medal for the U.S., but fell just short in the women’s team sprint.

A new world championship discipline this year, the women’s team sprint featured a solid field of nine teams in the qualifier. The duo of Reed and Carlson earned a berth in the bronze-medal final with the third-fastest mark in qualifying after clocking a time of 35.686 seconds. That performance set up a head-to-head match against the fourth-seeded Cuban team. Racing for the final spot on the podium, the Cubans bested the Americans by a slim 0.275-second margin.

In the women’s 500-meter time trial, Carlson placed eighth for the U.S. squad, turning in a time of 36.172 seconds in her first-career World Cup.

In the men’s 30-kilometer points race, both Americans entered in the competition – Michael Creed (Colorado Springs, Colo./Slipstream-Chipotle) and Bobby Lea (Mertztown, Pa./Toyota-United) advanced to the finals from their respective qualifying heats. In the finals, Creed scored three points with a second-place finish in the race’s fifth intermediate sprint. Those points would prove to be his only ones of the evening as he finished in eighth place overall. Lea scored a total of five points in two separate sprints, but fell a lap behind the main pack to eventually finish 14th with -15 points.

A large men’s sprint field featured 43 riders, but only the fastest 16 advanced to the first round – one of which was American Adam Duvendeck (Santa Barbara, Calif./Echelon Santa Barbara). Duvendeck recorded a time of 10.721 seconds in the flying 200-meter round to earn the 15th seed, but immediately fell to second-seeded Ross Edgar of Germany in the ensuing head-to-head matchup in the 1/8 finals. In the consolation bracket, Duvendeck was again beaten, this time by Lei Zhang of China, to end his competiton.

The other American entrant, Giddeon Massie (Colorado Springs, Colo.) ticked off a 10.877 in qualifying. It was the 28th-fastest time and meant his day was over.

The only other event scheduled for Saturday – the men’s team pursuit – did not feature an American team.

The Los Angeles World Cup concludes Sunday with finals in the women’s keirin and scratch race and the men’s team sprint, and madison.