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© Larry Hickmot |
Andy Tennant wins Gold in Pursuit
Andy Tennant is perhaps the next in a long line of International standard pursuit riders. At the World Junior Championships in Vienna, Austria he won it easily and it lifted the spirits in the GB camp after the disappointment of several riders just missing out on medals the night before.
Talking to British Cycling, Darren Tudor (GB Junior team coach) said:
“I think its fantastic. He has worked hard all year and done everything you can ask. He’s a brilliant pursuiter and I think he proved tonight all the conditioning work he has done has helped him back up his rides really well. He’s almost matched what he did this morning (a new national record) which is fantastic.”
“He was a little bit slower than his schedule on the second and third laps but after that he just held it which was pretty amazing after the state he was in after his ride this morning”.
Speaking to BC Andy, modestly, said that: “I never envisaged going to the worlds or winning it!”
Elsewhere at the championships The talented sprint and Keirin rider Jason Kenny showed a clean pair of heels in the Keirin but was disqualified after riding off the track in a similar incident that ruled Jamie Staff out of the Olympic event. The officials refused to listen to the GB team protest and once again the rules are applied in a bizarre fashion to the event that is (in Japan) a race of contact and pure guts.
The Madison pairing of Matt Rowe and Ben Swift narrowly missed out on a silver in a race that is so often a race of luck – they appeared to suffer from awkward change overs. Ben swift also managed 5th in the points race.
In the Team Pursuit a crash in the final robbed GB of a Gold. A clash of wheels left them two riders down. They were leading their rivals (New Zealand) at the time and after a touch of wheels down went Steven Burke and Ross Sander with the latter breaking his wrist.
In the Women’s events we had a two rider team that performed very well. Anna Blyth showed she has plenty of sprinting talent to perform well in the heats after qualifying in 9th place. She also rode strongly in the Keirin. Elizabeth Armitstead also showed her strength to gain a silver medal in the scratch race.
Women’s 7.5km Scratch Final
1. Skye Lee Armstrong (Australia) 9.25.323 (47.760km/h)
2. Elizabeth Armitstead (Great Britain)
3. Evgenia Romanyuta (Russia)
Keirin
1. Chloe Macpherson (Australia) 12.758 (56.435km/h)
2. Eunmi Park (Korea)
3. Anna Blyth (Great Britain)
For the full story go to the BC website
The World Masters Track Championships
This year scheduled for the 12th to 17th September at Manchester Velodrome, so if you want to ride please note that pre-entry to the event closes on the 18th August and after that date there will be an extra charge to enter the events – more details on www.cyclingmasters.com
Spectators whilst there will be tickets on sale on the day you can order tickets in several ways and gain entry into special free prize draws.(these draws incude – all ticket bookings go into a draw for a Junghans watch, week bookings into a draw for a Bromley Video DVD and pre book your programme and save 50p and go into a draw for a Masters Shirt)
You can book on line at www.cyclingmasters.com or telephone 0161-223-2244 to book tickets or request a booking form.
