UCI World Cup
The UCI World Cup (formerly the Nations Cup) is the first round of the Olympic qualifying process in which Great Britain were in attendance, with four Scots making the journey to the East Asian city state. Logan Maclean with partner Will Perrett were on fine form as they claimed a fantastic madison bronze.
The pair would sit in the bunch through the opening fifty laps of Sunday’s final, not scoring any points but still well within range of the leaders – with 10 points separating the entire field through the first five sprints.
Maclean produced a blistering attack with 137 laps to go, moving from the top of the banking on the back straight and taking advantage of the deténte that broke out in the bunch. The Stirling rider would quickly open up a third of a lap advantage over the peloton before handing over to Perrett. The duo would play their advantage smartly, holding off completing their lap gain until after the sprint with 130 to go – gaining five from their sprint in addition to 20 from the gained lap – to send them into the lead of the race.
Lap gains for Netherlands and New Zealand would vault the Oranje ahead of the British pair at the halfway mark of the race, with the Kiwi duo also a point ahead.
Maclean would launch his second major move with 85 laps remaining, this time the Dutch would be more attentive.
The pair of Havik and Heijen caught and passed the British pair to take the maximum points at the sprint and take the lap gain, while it would be a lengthy period out from for Perrett and Maclean, the former Scottish road champion making the contact with the peloton alongside France 20 laps after he launched the initial move.
Following the flurry of lap gains heading into the final 40 laps of racing the Netherlands would lead on 58 points, with Maclean and Perrett in second on 50, Japan leading the charge from behind on 42 points.
Attacks from Italy and Japan were well marked to protect the Scot’s podium position. A late move from the Netherlands would sew up the gold medal, but France would be the spanner in the works, following suit to take another lap gain and depose the British pair from silver, with New Zealand also drawing level in joint third.
Sensing the medals falling out of grasp, Logan Maclean launched another move with 14 laps remaining to protect bronze medal position from Japan.
The pair would take five points in the penultimate sprint and move five clear heading into the final sprint. Despite Japan taking the final sprint, second place across the line would be enough for the pair to take a brilliant bronze on their Great Britain debut.
While no stranger to major Championships at junior level, Erin Boothman was also making her on her international elite track debut in the team pursuit on Friday morning.
A silver would be just rewards on Friday. Boothman alongside Meg Barker, Maddie Leech and Jess Roberts qualified fourth before a big ride to beat Italy and reach the final. They led in the early stages of the final against New Zealand, but faltered late to take an excellent silver medal.
The Glaswegian would pair up with Handsling-Alba’s Leech for Saturday’s madison. After biding their time in early stages, the pair would make their move with 51 laps to go. gaining a lap alongside France, and taking five points in the eighth of twelve sprints to move into second.
With the French out in front and secure, sprint victory in the penultimate sprint would ease any fears of the British pair being usurped from silver medal position. An excellent performance from the duo, who we’re sure we’ll see a lot more from in the coming seasons.
Lauren Bell, with teammates Emma Finucane and Rhianna Parris-Smith were the fastest qualifiers and backed it up to make the final of the team sprint on Friday.
In the gold medal final, the trio pushed China all the way in a close-run gold medal ride, but narrowly missing out to claim silver. Bell would ride in position three throughout the competition, producing excellent times across the three rounds.
Michael Gill alongside Matt Bostock, Rhys Britton and Charlie Tanfield battled through adversity after a crash in qualifying for the men’s team pursuit, regrouping to beat France and reach the bronze final – where China narrowly edged them off the podium.
Gent
In Flanders, the Gent Velodrome was the venue for the Belgium Open C1 event.
Iona Moir was in fine form, with two visits to the podium. The sprinter finished second in the match sprint and third in the keirin, in a meet that was dominated by the depth of British women’s sprinting – the Great Britain squad finishing in the top six spots in the match sprint, and occupying six of the top eight in the keirin.
Ayrshire’s Lyall Craig was the runner up in the men’s sprint, showcasing his own ability in a field full of depth. The Scot would however bow out of the final of the keirin due to a crash.
On the road
We’ve been running out of superlatives over the past 18 months to describe the rise of Lauren Dickson from amateur racing to the Women’s WorldTour with FDJ United – Suez, the Edinburgh rider continues to add to our challenge with another fantastic display at the GP Chambéry 1.1.
The Scot set a blistering tempo in the final 30km to deliver teammate Celia Gery in prime position over the final climb. A group of ten would contest the win with Dickson marshalling the the pace and ensuring nothing could escape. Gery made her move in the final 400m with Dickson following the counters. FDJ would win with Gery, Dickson claiming another excellent result in fourth – and showcasing her ability as a key mountain lieutenant for the French squad.
In the Netherlands, Morven Yeoman rode her first WorldTour race of the year at the Amstel Gold Race, the Lanarkshire rider made it to the finish of the climbers classic in Maastricht, setting the DAS-Hutchinson rider up well for a busy May for the Continental outfit.
Pic: Chris Anderson
Scotia Series
Back at home it was round two of the Scotia Series, supported by Santini, with the Lake of Menteith APR.
Despite setting off in the last group, Lydia Louw (Solas Cycling) overhauled nearly seven minutes on the front group to take the race win in Killearn, an excellent ride from the Stirling Uni student. Hannah Supple, held on from the second group to take second, with Kasey Park from Solas finishing in an excellent third.
We’ll have full standings tomorrow but Louw goes into the lead of the series and takes the Santini leaders’ jersey. Liam Scott Douglas (Edinburgh Bike Fitting) won the afternoon’s open race.
Round three of the Scotia Series is the Dyke APR on Sunday 3rd May – you can enter here.
Enduro
The opening round of the Scottish Enduro Series was held in the Tweed Valley on Saturday and Sunday with William Brodie (Specialized) taking the win in the open and Chloe Taylor (Gowaan) racing claimed the female elite victory.
You can see the full results here.
It was a busy weekend abroad for our cross country riders. In Slovakia, Isla Short scored victory at the UCI Continental Series in Drozdovo – winning in an international field by just six seconds. Over in France, at the UCI Junior Series in Les Monts de Guéret Freya Mowbray (Scotia Offroad RT) picked up another podium with third in France.