Young cycling pair upset Beijing Olympians

The youthful cycling combination of Tom Scully and Shane Archbold upset their more fancied rivals to take out the RaboPlus New Zealand Madison Championship at the ILT Velodrome in Invercargill tonight.

Scully (Invercargill) and Archbold (Timaru) combined to take out the 40km Madison, a two-man event where one rider must be in-play at all times, handing over to the team-mate with a hand-to-hand slingshot action.

The pair took full advantage of the expert tuition they have received in a special BikeNZ training camp this week run by former World and Olympic Madison champion Brett Aitken from Australia.

They beat off the challenges from the Beijing Olympic medallists Marc Ryan (Timaru) and Wes Gough (Waipukurau) who were second with Jesse Sergent (Feilding) and Sam Bewley (Rotorua) third.

Scully and Archbold started superbly by winning three of the first four sprints and then positioned themselves well to counter the attacks from Ryan and Gough especially over the last 30 laps.

Ryan and Gough attacked at will in an attempt to put a lap on the field, winning the last two sprints but the young combination managed to remain in touch with their more experienced opponents to win with 27 points.

The victory has earned them more than a national title. Following the victory, they have been selected to compete in the prestigious Under 23 UIV Cup in the Netherlands in two weeks. They head to Amsterdam next week to compete in the week-long carnival before heading on to Manchester to take part in the opening UCI World Cup.

In other racing tonight Christchurch rider Jo Kiesanowski was the standout dominating both the sprints and scratch races.

RaboPlus New Zealand Madison Championships, 40km: Tom Scully (Invercargill) and Shane Archbold (Timaru) 27 points, 1; Wes Gough (Waipukurau) and Marc Ryan (Timaru), 27, 2; Sam Bewley (Rotorua) and Jesse Sergent (Feilding) 14, 3; Shem Rodger (Cambridge) and Jason Christie (Ashburton) 14, 4.