World Cup Gold for WAIS Cyclists

WAIS cyclists helped Australia to three gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the final round of the UCI Track World Cup series in Beijing.

The team claimed gold in both the men’s and women’s team pursuit and teenage elite debutant Megan Dunn won the points race.

WAIS featured two riders in both pursuit squads – with Luke Durbridge and Travis Meyer representing the men, whilst Sarah Kent and Josie Tomic claimed gold in the women’s.

Australia’s silverware came through junior world record holder Michael Hepburn who scored a medal in his first international 4km individual pursuit. Jason Niblett was second in the kern, Anna Meares the sprint and Team Jayco’s Dan Ellis, Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland finished with silver in the team sprint.

Ellis also claimed a bronze with third place in the keirin and Meares was third in both the 500m time trial and the team sprint in which she paired with Emily Rosemond.

The men’s pursuit line-up of Michael Hepburn, Travis Meyer, Luke Durbridge and Leigh Howard had a rough ride in qualifying but regrouped to overtake the Dutch with a kilometre left in the gold medal ride.

“We were about fourth from the end in qualifying and fastest so far was New Zealand in 4min10 so we knew we had leeway to do a good time,” said Durbridge. “We posted 4min05 because we had a few technique issues but we sorted that for the final.

“In the last kilometre on the analysis (split times for each lap) we blow out a bit because we go around the Dutchies and because we played it safe and went wider and high it hurt our legs a fair bit,” he explained. “We were a bit messy towards the end.”

The team rode on to post a time of 4min01.226sec but there was confusion in the final laps.

“The officials showed us four to go twice and then on the bell the lap board still said two to go so ‘Heppy” (Michael Hepburn) kept riding with us yelling at him to stop because we’d finished the four kilometres,” laughed Durbridge. “We were probably on a four minute ride except for the time we lost in passing the Dutch but we’re all pretty happy.”

The women’s pursuit line up of Ashlee Ankudinoff and Western Australian Institute of Sport duo; Sarah Kent and Josie Tomic was half a second slower than New Zealand in the qualifying round but posted a cracking first kilometre in the final to establish a lead that their Kiwi rivals couldn’t match.

Their winning time of 3min22.879sec set a new Australian record. The victory also gave Australia the World Cup Series crown for the women’s team pursuit.

WAIS cyclist Scott Sunderland also competed in the men’s kilo, but was relegated to eighth having led the World Cup standings prior.

WAIS Head cycling coach Darryl Benson was pleased with efforts of his squad members, believing the World Cup results would put them in good stead for February’s national track championships in Adelaide.

“It was a great effort from the girls (Kent and Tomic) and this result will give them a lot of confidence,” he said. “It was a three second pb and was only a second off the world record.”

There was confusion for Megan Dunn in her points race victory. She finished on 13 points, tied with Russian Evgeniya Romanyuta.

“Initially on points the Russian won but she was disqualified in the final sprint when officials judged she had colluded with a team mate,” explains Cycling Australia National Technical Manager, Kevin Tabotta. “First Megan was told she had won and then that she hadn’t and then finally they she had.

“It took an hour for that to be decided but as we told her whether she won or not she had put in a fantastic ride and should be proud of herself,” he said. “In the scratch race the day before she was just finding her way in her first major international senior competition but she learned a heap in that first race and in the points race came back to her natural style.

“She was really aggressive, rode good position and had real power in the sprints,” Tabotta said. “She put up a real fight and demonstrated all the qualities you need for success at the international level in the points race.”

– With Cycling Australia