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Day two of the Beijing round of the UCI World Cup Track series took place late Saturday. The temperature nudged above 1° Celsius in the afternoon so I decided to join a bunch of other fixed gear riders making the 21km trek out to the Laoshan Velodrome for the days action.
Riding fixed gear in Beijing is challenging with unpredictable drivers, motorcyclists, pedestrians that dont look before crossing the road, and fellow cyclists on old flying pigeon bikes wobbling all over the road. While we were weaving in and out of this chaos I wondered how the world’s track stars might manage navigating Chinese cities at high speeds without crashing - hmmmm - its never a good idea to think about crashing, too often you jinx yourself or someone else . . .
The mens Keirin start with the gurney. Photo Shannon Bufton
Our toes quickly defrosted once inside the velodrome and our focussed turned to the traffic on the track. The Men’s Keirin event was taking place tonight. The Keirin is mass start event where 6 - 9 sprinters compete - the first rider over the line is the winner. The early laps are paced by a motorcycle, it then peels off and the riders vigorously sprint for line honors, hitting speeds up tp 70km/h.
The sound of 6 powerful sprinters with disc wheels and noisy chains whirring at speeds in the 60km/h zone is a delight to a cyclists ear. Standing trackside you get very close to the action and feel the boards vibrate each time the riders pass. In one of the finals for the Men’s Kieren race the crowd also experienced the sound that every cyclist dreads of hearing, the sound of carbon breaking. The Russian rider Ilya Okunev and French rider Gregory Bauge (Silver medalist Beijing Olympics Team Sprint, 2009 Sprint World Champion) were forced up the track. What resulted was a spectacular crash where Okenev almost went into crowd, did an endo (when the back wheel is lifted off the ground) and tumbled to the lower part of the track still attached to his bike. After a few minutes he was able to get up and walk off the track. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for Bauge, he was lying on the ground for a considerable amount of time and was stretchered off with what looked like a broken collarbone.
Bauge and Okunev are forced up the track crashing spectacularly. (spectacular) Photo Shannon Bufton
Bauge and Okunev are forced up the track crashing spectacularly. Photo Shannon Bufton
Photo Shannon Bufton
The race for the gold medal was a real thrill. The gold medal race was contested amongst the following 6 riders ;
- Azizulhasni Awang (Bike Technologies Australia Team - Malaysian)
- Jason Nibblet (Australian National Team)
- Daniel Ellis (Jayco Team - Australian)
- Maximimillian Levy (Cofidis Team - German)
- Sebastian Doehrer (German National Team)
- Joslah Ng Onn Lam (Malaysian National Team)
Coming into the final bend Daniel Ellis led out but the raw power of Azizulhasni Awang was on displat as he came out of the slipstream and took the gold by a good wheel length. Jason Niblett left his run at the line too late but managed to hold on for Bronze.
Azizulhasni Awang winds up his sprint against Daniel Ellis in Mens Kierin Final. Photo Shannon Bufton
Next time I ride out to the track I think I’ll concentrate my thoughts on more Aussie gold ! Stay tuned for more updates from trackside.
About our writer: Shannon Bufton is an Aussie in Beijing. He has been a competitive road cyclist since his teenage years and has raced on 4 continents - even racing the Champs-Élysées. . . . on a hire bike! Nonetheless he loves cycling and its culture, and is now in the process of developing his own cycling clothing brand in China (look for an upcoming review!), and contributing to building Beijing's cycling community. When he is not on his bike or thinking about cycling he is probably sick. . .
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