Racing

UCI Track World Cup: Manchester day three – five observations

Team GB's endurance squad in rude health; work to be done by the sprinters but time on their side

Kristina Vogel – queen of the sprint

Kristina Vogel won three gold medals over the weekend (Pic: Alex Broadway/SWPix.com)

Welsh sprint star Becky James may be a double world champion, but the 21-year-old faces a real fight to defend her rainbow jerseys in Cali, Colombia, next year.

German Kristina Vogel – who James vanquished in the world sprint final in Minsk in February – continued her domination of the women’s sprinting by winning the keirin on Sunday.

It was her third gold medal of the event, and James admitted the German just has more speed than any of her rivals.

Vogel and team sprint colleague Miriam Welte may have been surprise winners of the Olympic title at London 2012, but the two German police officers are now the two to beat.

James has spent much of last month in Japan competing on the keirin circuit, and certainly showed the benefits of her training as she led the qualification rounds in Manchester.

But Vogel will take some beating if James, or indeed any of the other sprinters, want to deny the German three world titles in February.

Photo provided with kind permission of http://www.swpixcyclingphotos.com.