Crash mars qualifying effort for BikeNZ sprint team

The New Zealand cycling sprint team crashed out during qualifying at the UCI World Cup in Cali today.

Former triple world junior champion Sam Webster crashed during the second lap of the team sprint after he rolled a tyre off the rim during the qualifying for the team sprint. Teammate Eddie Dawkins was left with no room to manoeuvre and crashed also. Webster received some grazing but was otherwise unhurt.

Unfortunately the team were not awarded a restart and are out of the competition with two teams from Germany recording the fastest times. The leading German team broke the world record in a time of 42.914, which was 35/100th of a second inside the old mark set by Great Britain at the Beijing Olympics.

New Zealand’s starter Ethan Mitchell had the BikeNZ trio on a fast pace with the third quickest time for the first lap of 17.463s.

It has also been a mixed start for Shane Archbold in the men’s omnium. He was third fastest in the flying lap in 13.173, which was another personal best after his 13.192 at last week’s Oceania Championships.

He then suffered in the points race, losing two laps to finish 22nd. He is currently 10th after two events.

The evening sessions is set to start at 1pm (NZ time).