The women stole the show on the opening night of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cambridge yesterday, with the New Zealand team winning both the women’s team pursuit and team sprint gold medals.
The women’s team pursuit combination of Rushlee Buchanan, Holly Edmondston, Bryony Botha and Kirstie James were on fire in their final against world champion Australia.
The New Zealand team produced a best time to claim the gold medal in the 4000m team pursuit in 4min 10.705sec, which was only half a second outside the world record set by Great Britain at the Rio Olympics.
Their time was more than 5sec inside their own New Zealand record set on the Avantidrome track at the UCI Track World Cup in January this year.
Both teams were locked together through 1000m, with New Zealand edging half a second ahead at the midway point. They made a big move to open a 1.5sec buffer at 3000m and with both teams down to three riders, the Kiwis roared home with Australia also bagging a personal best 4min 12.460sec for second.
“To be honest that time has not sunk in. I looked at the board when we crossed the finish line and it was bittersweet — like holy cow did we just do that time? But, oh man, it was so close to the world record,” said Buchanan.
Canada (4min 18.169sec) claimed the bronze medal over the New Zealand trade team, comprising New Zealand’s young development combination, who clocked 4min 20.066sec.
The pursuiters’ achievements were matched by the new Kiwi women’s team sprint combination of Olivia Podmore and Natasha Hansen, who broke new ground in Cambridge.
They became the first Kiwi duo to go under 33sec, setting a new national record of 32.794sec in the first round before clocking 32.877sec in the gold medal ride to pip Poland by just 0.02sec
Podmore and Hansen were also fastest in qualifying, all the more remarkable given their lack of time together.
“We’ve actually never ridden this combination before in a World Cup and I haven’t ridden the team sprint since January, just with injuries and things like that,” Hansen said.
Russian trade team Gazprom-Rusvelo denied Australia the bronze medal.
An upset result in the men’s team sprint had Japan standing atop the podium, for what is believed to be the first time.
It happened in the most dramatic fashion, with world keirin silver medallist Yudai Nitta powering home with a 12.635sec final lap to overcome a 0.2sec deficit to win in 42.790sec ahead of Poland (43.236sec).
The New Zealand team claimed the bronze medal in 43.367sec ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (43.552sec) after coach Rene Wolff went with an unorthodox combination in the final, starting Eddie Dawkins, with Ethan Mitchell pushed out to wheel two and Sam Webster at wheel three.
There was also an upset in the final of the men’s team pursuit when the world champion Australian team, which was narrowly ahead with three laps remaining, sent one rider high on the banking, leaving Alex Porter distanced off the back of the leading pair. Try as he might, he was unable to bridge the gap and the Swiss stormed home to win in an upset 3min 50.359sec, with Australia 2sec adrift.
The second day of competition sees a shift to individual events, with Hansen and Podmore in the women’s sprint, Michaela Drummond and Jessie Hodges in the madison, Dawkins in the keirin and Campbell Stewart in the omnium.
The World Cup finishes tomorrow.
