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London Track World Cup: Chris Hoy wins keirin, Joanna Rowsell takes individual pursuit

Successful dress rehearsal of Olympic title defence for Scot, but Pendleton misses out on sprint

Sir Chris Hoy has picked up Great Britain's third gold medal of London round of the UCI Track World Cup Classics this evening, winning the keirin in the Velodrome where, come August, he hopes to defend his Olympic title. Joanna Rowsell subsequently made it four, adding the individual pursuit to the team version she helped win yesterday.

In the Keirin, Hoy made his move late however, coming from a very long way back to come off the final bend high on the banking with three riders still ahead of him, finishing powerfully to beat Germany's Rene Ender by half a wheel with France's Mickael Bourgain third.

Afterwards, Hoy told the BBC: "I made it very hard for myself there. I sat behind Mickael Bourgain from France and I knew that he was going very well today, he had some very impressive performances earlier on, so I was confident he was going to close the gap on the leaders, and I wass going to try and come around him, but he left it pretty late.

Roared on by another capacity and highly partisan crowd, Hoy added: "With half a lap to go I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but the crowd, the noise they make when they see you making a move is unbelievable.

"That feeling crossing the line, it's the world cup, a big event but not a massive event, but it feels like a World Championships or even Olympic Games with the support we get here, it's unbelievable."

There was disappointment for another Briton who will defend her Olympic title in London this summer, with Victoria Pendleton losing the individual sprint semi-final to Australia's Anna Meares, the current world champion, who won the third and deciding heat.

Pendleton, who yesterday partnered Jess Varnish to team sprint gold in world record time, missed out in bronze in the deciding race to Hong Kong's Wai Sze Lee.

The final itself produced another surprise result ahead of next month's World Championships in Melbourne, China's Shuang Guo beat Meares 2-0 to win the gold medal.

In the women's individual pursuit, Rowsell, who had ridden to victory with Dani King and Laura Trott, went off quickly against New Zealand's Alison Shanks, leading by 1.2 second a third of the way into the 3,000 metre race. Shanks would come back in the second half, narrowing the gap to just under half a second, but Rowsell responded to the threat and with the crowd on its feet crossed the line 1.042 ahead of the New Zealander.

Two other events remain to be decided tonight, and one is guaranteed to end with a British rider taking gold or silver with Joanna Rowsell up against New Zealand's Alison Shanks in the final of the women's individual pursuit.

Meanwhile Ben Swift took the scratch race in the Omnium, having earlier finished fourth in the individual pursuit, making him the form rider of the first two events of the second day of the competition. With just the time trial to come, he lay fourth, on the same points, 32, as third placed Zach Bell of Canada.

However Swift's time for the kilo was only the 11th fastest as his earlier efforts took their toll, and he dropped to sixth in the final standings of the competition, which was won convincingly by Juan Estaban Arango of Colombia.

 

 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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8 comments

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Coleman | 12 years ago
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A fantastic weekend. There was an inclusive approach to the presentation. Short videos explained how the different races work and there was plenty of commentary aimed at those who weren't very familiar with track racing.

The venue itself is amazing. The temperature varied dramatically - I think it was heated up for the time sensitive races.

The change in the position of the finish line perhaps added to some amazingly close finishes.

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captain_slog | 12 years ago
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Here's Laura Trott on the way to winning the omnium elimination. (Not in her sports bra I'm afraid Gkam.)

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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Yeah it was just to see Awang, the guy pictured above, back cycling again almost a year after getting that "splinter" in his leg

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dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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They certainly do make 'em tough in malaysia

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seanieh66 | 12 years ago
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 20 I am soo jealous. I think the nearest track cycling to me is probably somewhere in Malaysia and though the Malays have some good tough riders they're no where the same level as SCH and Les Bleus.

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seabass89 | 12 years ago
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I watched track cycling for the first time in my life today on BBC..

I was impressed - understood the "thing" quite fast and it was quite interesting I have to say!

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alotronic | 12 years ago
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I went along - great night. Hoy lifted the roof with his late win.

One interesting thing was the large numbers of family and women there and a lot of people around me who didn't really know much about cycling. Felt odd for cycling to be so main stream, but positive too, like Europe. Can't wait to watch the inaugural London Six Day here. What do you mean there isn't one? There should be!

Also getting in was much less of a bother than I thought it would be, very smooth and well done considering the numbers of people involved, full security check and shuttle buses.

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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Been loving the coverage tonight, Hoy winning plus others

But my highlights, Dani King on my screen loads and Laura Trott in a sports bra, its not friday, but its close enough to cycling porn  4

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