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Connie Carpenter reports on Day 1 at track worlds, where it was the World vs. Britain — and the world won.
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Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling.
Big surprises on the opening night! Yes!
The opening gold medal in these championships was not won by a Brit — but Simona Krupeckaite from the small country of Lithuania in the women’s 500 meter event. She did so by setting a world record — the first ever here at the truly world class velodrome. The Lithuanians are celebrating the fact that they now have an indoor velodrome. The newly crowned and beaming world champion says she had an idea that a world record was possible.
The mens 40 km points race can be characterized by one word: active. The lead at the halfway was Teruel of Spain with 12 points, but American Colby Pearce sat in fifth with 6 points and more than 15 riders have points with 80 laps – or 20 k to go. It was anyone’s game and many riders made the play but it was Cam Meyer who dropped the hammer after the mid-point and only gutsy American Colby Pearce stayed with him — both taking points in the 120th and 130th laps (the 12th and 13th sprints). They picked up precious points but the active pack would not let them get far out of their sights. Roger Kluge bridged up with the outgoing World Champion of Belarus, Kiryienka, but it was the Dane Kreutzfeldt who interloped to take precious late-race points and the silver medal.
Cam Meyer won 4 sprints to win his first world title after finishing fourth in the last two World Championships. And for sure, Meyer is the most deserving and popular winner. Pearce rode strongly, and to his limit (and perhaps beyond), for sixth place.
After winning just about everything in Beijing — it’s more or less the Brits against the world and guess what — so far, World is winning! No more evident was this than in the women’s pursuit, where Ali Shanks won her first-ever world medal en route to earning her rainbow jersey.
Shanks defeated the Olympic silver medalist, Wendy Houvenaghel, whose stoic tear-stained face on the victory stand illustrated the depth of her disappointment.
The team sprint win by the French further contributed to the British woes. While the Brits medaled in each of the events tonight, they failed to win one gold, not one rainbow jersey. Last year it was the rare jersey that went to … anyone else. For the program that boasts perhaps a bigger support budget than the rest of the World (combined) — this was indeed a major surprise. I call it the British crush. No not the schoolgirl kind of a crush but the crush of the pounds — the crush of their opulence and their support. The crush of their superiority in Beijing was suffocating. But the world has responded. The World Championships should provide surprises and judging by tonight, there will be more to come.
The Brits are in a rebuilding year and perhaps the rest of us (ie, the World) will develop a false sense of confidence … only to be crushed under the weight of their fabulous team by the time the Games roll around again. But for now, on this opening night — the weight feels lifted, the door feels wide open and in fact, I’m feeling quite a breeze.
Stay tuned.
-Connie
