Fifty Plus (50+) - 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships (Spoiler)

Taylor Phinney from the USA took the gold medal in the men's 4k pursuit beating Australia by 2 seconds and a silver medal in the Kilo.

Colby Pearce USA was 6th in the points race.

Two of our local riders, Shelly Olds got 12th and Daniel Holloway placed 18th (and was lapped) in the scratch races. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) got 7th (and was lapped) in the scratch race. We thought Cavendish was fast. Well, even the really good guys get lapped.:D

Last week at Hellyer in San Jose, there was a series of races Thursday night where locals competed against Olds and Holloway as part of a party / racing practice and send off to the world championships.

It is great to see the USA doing well in track cycling.:)

You are aware that this is an international forum. Maybe a less parochial post might have been more appropriate.

Richard

You are aware that this is an international forum. Maybe a less parochial post might have been more appropriate.

Richard

Come off it- Last year I was gloating over the fact that the UK had won 9 golds- and just a few years ago Australia had a team that unbeatable. So Bear up and grin. Theres only one place you can go from such a high:innocent:

Well done to the US. But the worlds haven't finished yet- Still time for the UK and Australia to win another couple of bits of plastic.

Way to go Taylor! I think we'll be hearing a lot of big things out of this guy before he's done.

Good job by your local friends, Hermes.

As for Cavendish, I read somewhere that he was doing some track races to improve his leg speed for sprints in the road races. You can bet that if he stays with it for long, he will start to improve greatly.

Europa, has the funk in your shoes made you suddenly PC? We all like to pull for our own guys. Nothing wrong with that. Those are the ones we know more about. Something tells me there will be plenty of opportunities to brag on Aussie accomplishments on the track and the roads.

Come off it- Last year I was gloating over the fact that the UK had won 9 golds- and just a few years ago Australia had a team that unbeatable. So Bear up and grin. Theres only one place you can go from such a high:innocent:

Well done to the US. But the worlds haven't finished yet- Still time for the UK and Australia to win another couple of bits of plastic.

I do not know if you are aware that Chris Hoy was not at Worlds. He has an injured hip. The UK did have great success last year as I so noted. And you are correct...the competition is not over yet. Good luck and safe racing to all.


Way to go Taylor! I think we'll be hearing a lot of big things out of this guy before he's done.

Good job by your local friends, Hermes.

As for Cavendish, I read somewhere that he was doing some track races to improve his leg speed for sprints in the road races. You can bet that if he stays with it for long, he will start to improve greatly.

Europa, has the funk in your shoes made you suddenly PC? We all like to pull for our own guys. Nothing wrong with that. Those are the ones we know more about. Something tells me there will be plenty of opportunities to brag on Aussie accomplishments on the track and the roads.

Cavendish is a track guy with two gold medals at Worlds. Here is some info from the Wiki.......
Mark Cavendish (born Douglas, Isle of Man 21 May 1985[1]) is a Manx and British racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam Team Columbia-High Road. Originally a track cyclist in the madison, points race, and scratch race, he has also competed on the road since 2006. He is a double Madison World Champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist on the track. As a road cyclist, he has risen to prominence as a sprinter. He achieved eleven wins in his first professional season, equalling the record held by Alessandro Petacchi. In the 2008 Tour de France he won four stages, unprecedented in British cycling, and has since been described as the fastest sprinter in the world. He continued his winning ways in 2009 by taking the prestigious spring classic, Milan-Sanremo. Cavendish started racing informally at 12, as a mountain-bike rider.[2] He lives in Manchester and Tuscany, Italy.[3]

Thanks for the education. Maybe all that road racing has messed up his track form. Or maybe doing what he would need to do to win on the track would mess up his form for the road races which is undoubtedly where his brightest future lies. They are expecting big things from Cavendish, not just sprint wins, but GC wins.

Thanks for the education. Maybe all that road racing has messed up his track form. Or maybe doing what he would need to do to win on the track would mess up his form for the road races which is undoubtedly where his brightest future lies. They are expecting big things from Cavendish, not just sprint wins, but GC wins.

IMHO, you are correct. I work out with sprinters once a week at the track. They worry about doing too much endurance work because it makes them slower. I think it has to do with some muscle fibers being able to be either fast twitch or slow twitch. If you practice sprinting then what muscle composition you have genetically will bias toward acceleration and speed. If you work on long hard efforts on the road then it biases towards endurance at the expense of acceleration.

If Cavendish can become a GC contender, IMHO, he will lose his lighting speed to win stages that favor sprinters.