New Zealand’s leading track cyclists scored some important ranking points, and produced some high-quality super-competitive racing at the three-day UCI Cambridge Grand Prix.
Triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Ellesse Andrews dominated the sprint competition, winning her heat of the keirin and going on to beat Japan’s best, Riyu Ohta in the final with teammate Shaane Fulton third.
Andrews went on to win the sprint tournament, beating Australian Selina Ho in the quarterfinals, teammate Rebecca Petch in two rides in the semifinal and accounting for Ohta in two rides in the final to complete a clean sweep over the weekend.
Petch showed her developing sprint form to take the bronze in two straight rides over Fulton.
Sam Dakin and Japan’s Kaiya Ota won their respective heats in the keirin, with Ota prevailing in the final over kiwi Callum Saunders and Australian Byron Davies.
Ota was fastest in sprint qualifying in 9.539 from Dakin in 9.954, the only two riders under the 10-second barrier.
The Japanese rider went through unbeaten, taking Dakin in two straight rides in the final while Australian Ryan Elliott won the bronze.
The endurance riders, led by the outstanding Cycling New Zealand group, again produced some stunning and super-competitive competition.
Commonwealth Games gold medallists Campbell Stewart and Tom Sexton, riding for Southern Spars, took out the 30km madison, winning seven of the 12 sprints to finish with 47 points ahead of Scotland’s Mark Stewart and George Jackson for Black Spoke who took out the final sprint to claim second on countback from Israel Premier Tec pairing of Corbin Strong and Hornblow.
The four-discipline omnium again produced some world-class racing with Hornblow winning the scratch race from Campbell Stewart and Daniel Bridgwater, before Strong claimed the Tempo race Strong and Sexton.
The elimination race was won by Campbell Stewart ahead of Strong and Sexton, leaving Stewart ahead on 108 points from Strong on 106 and Sexton on 102 going into the final Points race.
Mark Stewart set the marker, lapping the field twice for 40 bonus points to push into contention, with Sexton, Strong and Jackson also earning 20 bonus points each.
Strong got the better of the final double points sprint to finish on 148 points, but Sexton edged home in fourth place to pick up two points to give him the overall honours on 150 points with Mark Stewart third in an outstanding competition.
New Zealand’s leading Para-cyclists, led by world champion Nicole Murray, competed in the 3000m individual pursuit with Murray fastest in qualifying in 3:48.930 ahead of Sarah Ellington in 3:53.396 in the C1-5 category. Murray lowered this to 3:45.355 in the final from Ellington’s 3:47.370.
Cameron Davies headed the C1-3 category, clocked at 4:31.131 in qualifying and just a fraction slower in the final, while Ben Westenberg was timed at 4:45.638 in the C4-5 category in qualifying, and lowered this to 4:43.444 in the final.
The Cycling New Zealand high performance squad now go back into hard training load in preparation for the upcoming Nations Cup starting in Cairo in March.