UCI Track Cycling Championships - Day 2 Qualifying

New Zealand has been assured of their first medal on day two of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in The Netherlands today.

Radioshack Pro Tour rider Jesse Sergent (Feilding) will ride for the gold medal later this morning (NZ time) against Australian Jack Bobridge in a repeat of their final at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

With riders still struggling on the heavy track at Apeldoorn, Bobridge was the dominant rider in 4:17.465 with Sergent second in 4:21.481 and will need a major jump in the final if he is to upset the Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

They have a chance of a second medal when the women’s team pursuit combination will ride for the bronze against Australia.

It was a close fought thing in qualifying with only 7/10ths of a second between the kiwis and top qualifiers Great Britain who take on world champions USA in the final.

The New Zealanders may have paid for a hot pace, fading a little in the final kilometre after they were fastest through the 1000m mark.

Both Eddie Dawkins and Sam Webster qualified in the men’s sprint. Webster, the triple junior world champion in 2009, was 12th fastest in 10.344 and Dawkins 17th fastest in 10.391.

Both lost in their first round races with Dawkins edged by half a wheel by Australia’s Scott Sunderland, the eighth fastest qualifier. Webster lost by the narrowest of margins to Japan’s Tsubasa Kitatsuru.

The evening programme begins at 7.30am NZ time with the women’s team pursuit scheduled for 8.30am and the men’s individual pursuit at approximately 9.45am.