Location: Manchester Velodrome, Manchester
Event: 6-12 October 2013
Report: Larry Hickmott
There was a real international flavour to the podiums on day two of the 2013 UCI World Masters Track Cycling Championships at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
Above: Action from the 35-49 women's scratch race.
It was a day of drama with a high speed crash in the 50 plus Women's Scratch race followed by a disqualification, the second of the night.
After the second day, Britain tops the medal table with eight gold to the six from the USA and four from Australia. New Zealand is in fourth place with one gold just ahead of France. So far, thirteen nations have won medals in the Championship.
MEN'S PURSUIT 45-49
With riders from the USA dominating this event and filling all the places in the medal finals, it was a decisive win for Daniel Casper with a winning margin of over four seconds to his compatriot James Tainter. The race for the bronze was a closer contest but still a clear win for David Brinton over Timothy Mulrooney.
MENS PURSUIT 50-54
In the 50-54 Mens Pursuit gold and silver medal final there was a victory for France with Pascal Montier defeating his Canadian rival Stephane Le Beau by two seconds in the race against the clock over 2000 metres. In the race for the Bronze medal, Britain's Ian Greenstreet got close to that elusive medal but narrowly lost out to Italian Roberto Dardi by less than half a second.
MEN'S PURSUIT 55-59
The race for the gold medal was between Simon Lusk of New Zealand taking on Australia's Anthony Mills. There was never a lot in it with Mills taking the lead but his victory was never a sure thing especially as Lusk came back at him over the closing laps. It wasn't enough however for the Kiwi and the gun fired for Mills fractionately ahead of Lusk's and it was the rainbow jersey Australia. Third fastest qualifier Ian Humphreys beat Chris Davis in an all British final for the bronze.
WOMEN'S SCRATCH RACE 35-49
Great Britain's Janet Birkmyre took the race win in an event which saw three world titles decided. After a very aggressive race from one of the Australians, the race was decided in a bunch sprint with Birkmyre on the bottom of the track getting to the line just ahead of Danish rider Janni Bormann with Siobhan Mullan very close behind in third. From the 21 starters, nine were awarded medals with the rainbow jerseys going to Siobhan Mullan (35-39), Cheryl Fuller Muller (40-44) and Janet Birkmyre (45-49).
WOMEN'S 50+ SCRATCH RACE
Lots of drama in this race and all of it in the final three laps. The eleven starters in the race had to first deal with multiple attacks from Ireland's Orla Hendron and one of the key chasers after her was Christine Higgs of Great Britain. The Irish woman's aggression though came to nought and with five or six laps to go, the race came together for a bunch sprint.
That bunch kick was a long time coming though as with only three laps to go, there was a crash on the turn leading into the home straight. Japan's Makiko Hamada came down heavily breaking her collarbone whilst another of the fallers was Susan Smith of Great Britain. The crash also did some serious damage to the track and the riders were called off the boards whilst the boards were repaired before a five lap dash to decide the medals.
With six medals up for grabs from eight starters, the finish saw a late attack by Heather Sanderson (Gbr) chased by the rest all the way to bell lap where she was reeled in. First across the line was Orla Hendron but she was disqualified for having ridden on the blue the lap before and the win went to Tara Unverzagt who stood on the top step of the podium to receive one of the two rainbow jerseys. The other was won by Arja Scarsbrook.
