TRACK | Madison gold for Baker & Edmondson

Edmondson & Baker celebrate gold - Photo John Veage

A dominant Australian gold medal in the women’s Madison highlighted the second day of the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane on Saturday night.

​Women’s Madison 

Georgia Baker and Annette Edmondson secured Australia’s only gold medal of the night with a powerful performance in the women’s Madison, beating their French rivals by 12 points. 

The pair won four out of the first six sprints to build an early lead, as the French duo of Clara Copponi and Marie Le Net did their best to catch the Australian pair.

Baker who won silver in the Madison at the world championships earlier this year, as well as gold at last week’s Cambridge World Cup was thrilled with the result. 

“We’re really lucky in the Australian Cycling Team because we have so much depth in our program so we can swap partners and still come away with really good results,” Said Baker. 

“Nettie and I had a successful campaign in Glasgow and that was a very sprint dominant race so we wanted to try something different here, it’s nerve-racking going out there and trying something new but it’s also really exciting and I think we have done the training to back ourselves in and pull off a good result no matter what happens.”

“It was pretty cool out there, we had to dig deep, we tried a couple of different tactics from last Friday and Glasgow and we’re really happy we pulled it off,” said Edmondson after the win. 

“I think in the past we were quite new to this discipline so whenever we got on the front we were like ‘oh my gosh we’re in front let’s go’ and we’d win by too much if we happened to win it or we’d be out the back so we wanted to try and make it a bit more consistent.” She added.

Despite the best efforts of the French team, Baker and Edmondson maintained the lead for almost the entire race. Both Australia and France lapped the field to stay clear of the United States who finished on 32 points to claim the bronze.

Glaetzer - Photo John Veage

Men’s Keirin

An unbelievable finish to the men’s keirin final was one of the highlights of the night with Colombian young gun Kevin Santiago Quintero Chavarro powering past Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer on the home straight to claim the narrowest victory and his maiden World Cup win. 

Chavarro finished third in his first round before winning the repechage round and just scraping into the final with a third-place finish in the second round. 

Glaetzer topped his first-round heat with an exceptional ride and then flew by the competition with a come from behind victory in the second round, unfortunately, he did not have the legs to hold off Chavarro on the final sprint to the line in the final. 

“It was very busy, no one really wanted the front, I got caught up on the wheels and didn’t have a smooth run but I was close enough to home to give it a good shot and put myself in the race,” said Glaetzer.

“I was in a strong position to win and unfortunately just towed the Colombian around and gave him a good sit but I gave it everything I had and I’m happy with how I’m racing this week and today with the keirin so I’ll see how much I have left in the tank for the sprint tomorrow.”

Glaetzer improved on his keirin bronze from last weeks World Cup just a couple of weeks after having surgery for thyroid cancer. 

“Today I was feeling fine, each race felt good, but tomorrow will be a test for me to see how I qualify for the sprint and how much gas I’ve got in the rounds so hopefully I get back up better than I did last week and have a good fight in the sprint.” Said Glaetzer.

Tomas Babek (Czech Republic) rounded out the podium with a third-place finish. 

Morton v Lee - Photo John Veage

Women’s Sprint 

In the women’s sprint, reigning world champion Wai Sze Lee was too strong for South Australia’s Stephanie Morton as she claimed the gold medal in straight rounds. 

Lee was dominant all day after topping qualifying with a time of 10.387 edging close to the world record and achieving a personal best. Lee got through to the quarterfinals with no issues, never dropping around on her way to the gold medal race against Morton. 

“Today I tried my best, I had a personal best on this track as it’s really fast and also I felt really good. I saw Anna Meares today also, and it brought back many memories of races with her. So today was very nice because I won a medal,” said Lee. 

“I don’t really mind where I race, I am really pleased that there were many Hong Kong people here to support me.”

Unfortunately, it was an all too familiar result for Morton, who finished second to Lee at the World Championships earlier this year.
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Morton finished second in qualifying (10.525), before winning her first-round heat to set up a quarter-final against teammate Kaarle McCulloch. She won every heat until the final race against Lee. 

“It was actually really good out there with really good vibes. Going out and doing my 200, every time I went past the fence people were cheering ‘Go Steph, Go Steph’!” said Morton.

“Lee is a fierce competitor, she’s very fast. So I wanted to go out there and see if we could learn something new, and try to execute what I need to try and execute. We don’t have many more dress rehearsals before Tokyo and I am really happy with how I rode today, especially against Wai Sze Lee, it’s money in the bank as we head toward Tokyo.

“The sprint day is a big day, by the time you get to the finals it’s a bit tiring but I was really happy all day with how I executed my races. When you’re executing races well and you don’t have the legs, that’s all you can ask for, because when you have the legs later on you’ll get up for the win.”

Anastasiia Voinova (Russian Federation) defeated Colombia’s Pineda Bayona in straight rounds to take home the bronze medal. 

Men’s Omnium

The men’s omnium was won by New Zealand’s Aaron Gate who finished on 134 points, 18 points clear of Germany’s Roger Kluge. Kluge performed consistently and ended the event with the silver medal.

Gate started off with a second-place finish in the scratch race behind Eiya Hashimoto (Team Bridgestone Cycling) who finished with 113 points to claim the omnium bronze medal. 

Gate went on to win the tempo race while Hashimoto took second as the pair battled it out for the overall lead early on. Gate gave a dominant performance in the points race to claim the omnium gold despite a 12th place finish in the elimination race. 

Cameron Meyer (Australia) had a second-place finish in the elimination race and the points race however he only managed to move up to fifth place in the overall standings.