WAIS Cyclists Win World Cup Gold
WAIS athletes Cameron Meyer and Luke Durbridge have helped Australia claim bragging rights over Great Britain in the team pursuit at the Melbourne round of the UCI Track World Cup with a newly minted quartet winning gold in an Australian All-comers record time.
2009 Elite World Championship silver medallists Cameron Meyer, 21, and Rohan Dennis, 19, joined forces with Junior World Championship silver medallists Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn, both 18, to deliver a gold medal ride that had the crowd on its feet.
The Australians came in under the magic four minute barrier to clock 3min59.599sec for the 16 lap, four kilometre ride after Hepburn, put Australia in front from his lead out lap. Great Britain’s team was led by Ed Clancy, a member of the victorious Beijing Olympic Games line up who was joined by Steven Burke, Andrew Fenn and team debutant Andrew Tennant and went into the showdown as the fastest qualifiers.
But while the Australians youngsters demonstrated well disciplined precision the Brits self destructed under the pressure losing their rhythm and a rider as the race entered the final kilometre.
Meantime the Australians became only the second team to ride a sub-four minute time on Australian soil eclipsing the gold medal time of 3min59.710sec ridden by Germany at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
“To go sub-four minute tonight in front of a home crowd is just sensational and the boys just did so much training, so much hard work over the last month really preparing for this and to beat the Brits in the final, there’s no better feeling,” said Meyer who last night won the points race. “The coach told us that we were up and that was even more motivating that we were up on the Brits and we knew in the qualifying that we came home the stronger team so to be up on them at 3km I was quite confident that we were going to bring it home in the last kilometre.
“We had shown in the qualifying we were quite capable of bringing it up to the Brits tonight and we had great confidence going into it,” said Meyer. “We felt good, we studied what we did this morning and we come out and put it altogether and it was just a flawless ride by us.
“In front of a big home crowd against the Brits, there’s not much more pressure that those boys have been under and for them to handle it so well and to really come together as a team and ride that fast was something special tonight.”
For Hepburn and Durbridge it was a first outing in elite competition. Hepburn in August at the Junior World Championships in Moscow broke his own World Record to win the 3km Individual Pursuit while Durbridge won the road time trial and the Madison. Both overcame the disappointment of a crash in the team pursuit final that ended their gold medal hopes.
“Australia has had a great history in pursuiting and the team pursuit. I am really pleased to be a part of this program towards London,” said Hepburn who as the starting rider for Australia went head to head with Clancy out of the gate. “It’s just the beginning now, but each year we hope to make the necessary steps to win gold in 2012.”
Earlier in the night Team Jayco’s Scott Sunderland got Australia off to a great start when he won the kilometre time trial in a time of 1min02.171sec, just three hundredths of a second outside the personal best time he rode at the World Championships in Poland in March.
“The confidence is good at the moment, I’m very happy with my form,” said the West Australian who was fifth at both the World Championships and at the Manchester round of the World Cup series earlier this month. “It was close to my world time I did at the world championships in Poland so I am very happy with that for the start of the season.”
For the twenty-one-year old the victory was bitter-sweet coming only two weeks after the death of his Grandmother, Coral.
“I was a bit unsure coming here because my Nan passed away straight after Manchester (World Cup) and I got home to see her before she passed,” said Sunderland whose parents were in the stands to support him tonight.
“So since then, if she can hold on, I can go through whatever pain she did.
“She helped me get to where I am today,” he said. “If I ever needed support or funding she would always help me no matter what so I owe a lot to her so it’s good to do this for her tonight.”
China’s Chongyang Wang (1:02.204) took the silver and former World Champion Teun Mulder of the Netherlands was third (1:02.404).
Reigning womens team sprint World Champion Anna Meares, and fellow Queenslander Emily Rosemond, won bronze in women’s team sprint in their first competition together. The duo’s time of 34.238sec was too good for French pair Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez (34.308).
“This is the first time Gary West (coach) has trialled Anna and myself in the team sprint,” said Rosemond a former Olympic short track speed skater. “It’s been a little bit tricky and we’ve had to practice a little bit of timing on the start but I have got the best in the world to run with and with more practice will come better results.”
“It was actually very close, between us and the French,” said Meares. “Emily had an amazing last lap and the start was much better considering we only had two chances to practice previously.
“I think we can be really proud of how we worked together at such short notice,”
China’s Jinjie Gong and Lin Junhong won the gold medal in a time of 33.500, defeating the Netherlands Yvonne Higenaar and Willy Kanis (33.828).
In the men’s keirin, Team Jayco’s Shane Perkins was looking to add to his team sprint gold from night one, but after crossing the line in second place behind Germany’s Carsten Bergemann, he was relegated to sixth by cycling officials. Locked in a tight tussle on the final lap with the Malaysian pair of Azizulhasni Awang and Josiah Ng, Perkins was deemed to have interfered with the path of Awang on the final bend.
Awang was awarded the silver and Ng, who crossed in fourth place, was awarded bronze. Australia’s Alex Bird was second in the B final to finish eighth.
In the women’s points race, reigning World Champion Giorgia Bronzini of Italy won with 16 points ahead of Shelley Olds who claimed the silver medal on a countback with Madeleine Sandig of Germany after both finished on 11 points.
Tasmania’s Belinda Goss was the highest placed Australian in fifth, with reigning omnium World Champion, Josephine Tomic (WA) ninth.
New Zealand’s Thomas Scully won the men’s scratch race, with Poland’s Lukasz Bujko taking silver and Team Katyusha’s Viktor Shmalko the bronze. Australia’s Dale Parker was 14th.
WAIS athletes also enjoyed success at the 2009 Australian Cyclist of the Year Awards in Melbourne over the weekend.
Cameron Meyer was lauded as Elite male track cyclist of the year, whilst Luke Durbridge won the junior male road cyclist of the year, following his junior world championship win in Russia, earlier this year.
WAIS BMX rider Lauren Reynolds was named junior BMX cyclist of the year, but Josie Tomic was pipped for the Elite women’s track cyclist of the year, with Anna Meares taking the award ahead of the Omnium World Champion.
– Cycling Australia