The sprinters were again impressive on the penultimate night of racing in front of a raucous crows at the Saint Quentin en Yvelines Velodrome.
Keirin gold medallist Ellesse Andrews moves into the semifinals of the individual sprint against Hetty van de Wouw (NED) in a best-of-three battle, while Lea Friedrich (GER) takes on Emma Finacane (GBR) in the other semi.
Ellesse was her consummate self to ease through all qualifying rounds before dispatching Germany’s Emma Hinze in two straight rides in the quarterfinals.
Shaane Fulton fought hard through the qualifying to match-racing, gaining massive experience to move forward from this competition.
Sam Dakin has had to wait a long time for his favoured contest and after an early loss, he had to dig deep with a brilliant and tenacious ride in the repechage to push into today’s quarterfinals.
The men’s 200 lap madison was all and more – with a series of crashes, including an early one to Aaron Gate – fearsome attacks and high drama.
Desperate for a medal, Gate and Campbell Stewart were again heavily marked and bided their time. With 30 laps to go they made their move with a quite brilliant and courageous continued attack as they sliced through the field. After bucking-off their close-co0mpany, it looked like they would prosper with 20 bonus points for gaining a lap. But the attacks completely obliterated any resemblance of a leading bunch.
That meant the kiwi pair had to catch leaders Portugal, led by Rui Oliveira who trained and raced in the Waikato in the summer. They were just unable to do so, and once the fog had cleared on a confusing situation, Gate and Stewart had to settle for fourth with Portugal winning on 55 points, Italy 47, Denmark 41, and the kiwis 33.
“We came here with high expectations. While I wanted a medal for sure, I am proud with how I have ridden and the rest of the team have performed.,” said Gate.
“I have certainly invested in this campaign like no other and we have been in contention. I have been marked quite closely which I guess is to be expected and we have just come up short of a medal in all our events.
“Who knows, may be Campbell and I need to pair up at the world champs in a few weeks and try for a rainbow jersey instead.”