November 19/09 14:10 pm - Track World Cup #2: Day 1

Posted by Editoress on 11/19/09
 

Track World Cup #2 - Melbourne, Australia

It was oh so close but no cigar for Canada's Jacob Schwingboth in the qualifying heats for the men's points race. Twenty-seven men were on the start list for the men's points race, so heats to qualify were in order. Normally twenty-four riders can contest the final but, as the heats contained 13 and 14 riders each, the officials dropped it down to 20 in the final to make qualifying meaningful.

Jacob was ready to go and was in the second heat, with the favourite being Argentina's multi-time Olympic and Worlds medalist Fernando Walter Perez . Jake’s heat was now down to 12 riders with a warm up crash taking out another rider, so only two would not go through. Jake got off to a good start scoring a point in the first sprint and raced tactically well, picking up points in two more sprints. At this point, with three sprints, left one rider had lost a lap and another rider from Hong Kong had no points. The Hong Kong rider then attacked from the group and won the second last sprint, putting Jake on the outside looking in. Jake made a last ditch attempt and was looking to get third in the final sprint, but was pipped at the line by an Australian Trade Team rider, giving Jake only a single point where he needed 2 at minimum to secure his trip to the finals.

While this was bitterly disappointing for Jake, lessons were learned that can be carried over for tomorrow's scratch race qualifying and finals. Travis Smith will also be up in the keirin.

Report courtesy CCA

More to come