September 19/00 10:04 am - Olympic Track Day 4, Hokkaido (Reports & Results)

Posted by Editor on 09/19/00
 

Olympic Track Results - Day 4

Men's 4000M Team Pursuit

Semi Finals

Heat 1
Ukraine (Oleksandr Symonenko, Sergiy Chernyavskyy, Oleksandr Fedenko, Sergiy Matveyev) 4:00.834 (World Record)
defeated
Great Britain (Paul Manning, Bryan Steel, Chris Newton, Bradley Wiggins) 4:02.387

Heat 2
Germany (Robert Bartko, Daniel Becke, Jens Lehmann, Guido Fulst) 4:05.930
defeated
France (Cyril Bos, Phillippe Ermenault, Francis Moreau, Jerome Neuville) 4:11.549

Finals

Bronze Medal Ride Off

Great Britain (4:01.979) defeated France (4:05.991)

Gold Ride Off

Germany (3:59.781 - World Record) defeated Ukraine (4:04.520)

Men's Sprint

Quarter Finals

Heat 1
Marty Nothstein (USA) defeated Craig Maclean (GBR), 2-0

Heat 2
Laurent Gane (Fra) defeated Sean Eadie (Aus), 2-0

Heat 3
Florian Rousseau (Fra) defeated Jose Villanueva (Esp), 2-0

Heat 4
Jens Fiedler (Ger) defeated Jan Van Eijden (Ger), 2-0

9-12th Place Ride Off
Pavel Buran (Cze)
Viesturs Berzins (Lat)
Christian Marcelo Arrue (USA)
DNS Darryn Hill (Aus)

Women's Sprint

Quarter Finals

Heat 1
Felicia Ballanger (Fra) defeated Tanya Lindenmuth (USA), 2-0

Heat 2
Oxana Grichina (Rus) defeated Szilvia Noemi Szabolcsi (Hun), 2-0

Heat 3
Iryna Yanovych (Ukr) defeated Tanya Dubnicoff (Can), 2-0

Heat 4
Michelle Ferris (Aus) defeated Daniela Larreal (Ven), 2-1


Tour de Hokkaido, Japan

We have stage reports from team manager Luc Arseneau - stages 2 and 5 in French and stages 3, 4 and 6 in English. We also have incomplete results for stages 5 and 6 (our Japanese being much worse than our French...). Suffice it to say that Eric Wohlberg is still leading, with one 60 kilometre stage left. Unfortunately, the Canadian team is down to 3 riders as they go into the final stage - Wohlberg, Lukaszewicz and Erker.


Stage 2 report

La journée fut un peu plus difficile que prévue... et en plus, les choses n'ont pas vraiment bien débutées. A peine 40km de complété qu'un de nos coureurs tombent au combat. Jesse Keffer s'est senti terriblement mal dans la monté du Shibetsu. Un mal de dos soudain l'incommodant énormément le força donc à poser pied quelques kilométres plus loin.

En plus, nous devions faire un travail énorme pour ramener un échappé de douze hommes parties dans les première coups de pédales de la journée.

Fort heureusement, les choses se déroulaient très bien un peu plus loin sur les route Hokkaïdo. Une fois l'échappé rammenée et quelques minutes de repos; nous passons à l'ataque avec nos gros canons. C'est alors que Wohlberg partie en échappé avec un coureur de l'équipe Bridgstone, et ce, pour ne jamais revoir le peloton.

Le sprint a finalement donné raison au coureur japonnais juste devant Wohlberg qui prend par la même occasion la deuxième place au général à seulement 6 secondes de la tête du classement général (nous attendons toujours les résultats final).

Stages 3 and 4 - Canada day in Hokkaido!

We simply could not ask for a lot more from the two stages we went through today. In the first event, the 3 km time trial, it was firstly Andrew Pinfold who showed everyone what he could do. His time held for most of the day, until the top guys started to come in. Eric Wohlberg did not failed to his reputation by finally winning the stage by more than 6 seconds. Pinfold was finally 7th and Erker and Lukaszewicz had a good 20th and 21st place respectively.

At the conclusion of this stage, Wohlberg took the leader's jersey with a 5 seconds lead over Ken Hashikawa of the Bridgestone cycling team.

Later in the afternoon, it was time for the 4th stage. A 60km criterium over a really sketchy 3km course (same as time trial). The Canadian boys did not waste any time getting to work joining a 9 men break on the second lap. After a few laps, 6 riders were dropped from this break, including Pinfold, leaving only three guys at the front of the race: one Irish, one Kinan Maruishi, and Jacob Erker.

This strategy worked out perfectly for us. Erker being well placed on the GC, it finally forced the Bridgestone guys to work a little bit... and did they ever had to work! For a while, Erker was even the virtual leader on the road and they made it to the finish with Erker taking a second stage in the same day for the Canadian team while Pinfold and Lukaszewicz were doing great work to protect our leader from any danger.

We now stand in good position with two riders in the top three positions (Wohlberg in 1st and Erker in 3rd at 22 sec), Lukaszewicz in 45th and Pinfold in 63rd.

Tomorrow will be a very hard stage, the most mountainous of the Tour. 146km of very tough climbing (nearly 70km of climbing!). It is currently raining very hard in Asahikawa, but the weather report calls for clear and sometimes cloudy for tomorrow.

Stage 5 report

La cinquième étape de ce Tour a fourni ce qu'elle devait. L'étape fut de loin la plus dûre du Tour et pour ne pas aider les choses, il pleuvait de cordes sur la ligne de départ. Fort heureusement, le soleil a pu faire son apparition après 2 heures de course.

Le plan fut respecter à la lettre, mais nous a coûté cher en fin de course. Nous avons donc jouer la carte Erker qui se placait troisième au général au départ de l'étape. Il devait suivre les attaques précosses des coureurs de la Brigestone qui avait toujours quatre coureurs pouvant remporter le Tour (à moins d'une minute de Wohlberg). 9 coureurs, dont Erker, sont donc sortie du peloton aux 25e kilomètre et le tout forca d'autres équipes à travvailler davantage alors de Erker n'avait qu'à surveiller le coureur de la Brigestone qui se trouvait aussi dans l'échappé.

Au 90e km, la jonction est faite entre le groupe Wolberg (27 coureurs) et l'échappé. Dans la dernière monté avant l'arrivée (km 116), Erker et quelques autres coureurs sont laché pour ne laisser que 25 coureurs en tête de course. Les choses se sont alors échauffé quelque peu avec un échappé d'un coureur Brigestone accompagné de 2 autres coureurs. Wohlberg dûe prendre les choses en main pour les derniers 30km afin de limiter les dégâts.

En fin de journée, nous possédons toujours le maillot vert de leader avec 5 secondes d'avance. Wolberg pris la 20e place (à 8 secondes) alors que Erker et Lukaszewicz terminaient à plus de 7 minutes (53e et 58e respectivement). Andrew Pinfold, quant à lui, fut victime des hors délais très court (20 maximum) qui le força à monter dans l'autobus à 15km de l'arrivée avec un groupe de coureurs.

Stage 6 report

We have to be honest and say we were a little bit nervous before this stage. Not from Eric's lack of hability to keep the jersey, but from all the possibilities (20 guys still within a minute) that could happen in this 194km stage.

After less than one hour of racing, a group of 6 riders went away. This proved to be a good move for us, as Czeslaw was able to jump in this group to watch the two contenders that were in this group. He then sat on their wheels for more then 100km to be caught back by the main bunch, after much work from the Bridgestone guys, at km 130.

Czeslaw was then fresh for the rest of the day and, along with Erker and Wohlberg, we were then able to control the peloton. The final bunch sprint was taken by Ireland's Mark Scanlon.

Only one more day left with a 60km criterium tomorow. Four bonus time sprints will take place, plus the final bonus, in this race. The gap with the second place is still at 4 seconds, and yes... 20 guys are still at less then one minute from Eric's leaders jersey!

Luc Arseneau


Stage 5 - Asahikawa to Nakafurano 146 km

1. Valeriy Titov (Kaz) 3:39:16
2. Junichi Shibuyi (Jpn) s.t.
3. Eugene Moriarty (Ire) at 0:03

20. Eric Wohlberg (Can) 0:08
53. Jacob Erker (Can) 7:02
58. Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Can) s.t.
DNF Andrew Pinfold (Can) - outside time limit

Stage 6 - Furano to Shizunai 194 km

1. Mark Scanlon (Ire) 4:37:41
2. Dennis Hammink (Ned)
3. Matthew Yates (NZL)

30. Wohlberg all s.t.

GC after stage 6

1. Wohlberg 18:21:53
2. Ken Hashikawa (Jpn) at 0:04
3. Shibuyi 0:29

25. Erker 7:16
?? Lukaszewicz