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McGee takes world pursuit title
Bradley McGee easily beat fellow Aussie Luke Roberts to win the world individual pursuit title at the world track cycling championships at Copenhagen' Ballerup velodrome Wednesday night.
Roberts took silver while German Jens Lehmann won bronze after he beat Ukrainian Volodymyr Dyudya in their final.
American Mike Tillman failed to recover from a slow start to his pursuit qualifying ride and was timed at 4:33.955, 16th in a field of 21.
The all-Australian final promised plenty of drama from Tour de France stage winner McGee, who is also the Commonwealth champion and a three-time Olympic bronze medallist, after he set the day's only times under 4:20.
In the final of the 16-lap event over 4000 metres, where riders start off on opposite sides of the track, McGee clocked a rapid 4:17.875 and almost caught Roberts before the gun went off to signal the end of the race.
A delighted McGee said afterwards that such a successful return to his first love of track cycling was something he did not expect, especially as the 26-year-old came into the competition with little preparation recently.
"I used the anxiety I had through not having much preparation for the competition to my benefit," said McGee, who has been primarily a road rider for the French FDJeux.com team since 1999.
Roberts meanwhile was ecstatic by his second place finish.
Although he won gold in the team pursuit in the Commonwealth Games in a world record time, he admitted he almost passed up on the individual event here as he felt he didn't have the legs.
"I'm delighted, especially as I didn't know if I was going to enter the individual pursuit," the 25-year-old told AFP. "But then I talked to my coach and he told me otherwise.I thought I would be doing well if I finished in the top five. So when I came through second in qualifying I was really surprised. It's great. I knew Bradley was going to be strong but what can you do?"
McGee signaled his form when he set the days's only times under 4:20 prior to the final.
Now despite an improving career as a road racer, following his first stage win on the Tour de France this year, McGee is ready to defend his rainbow jersey with gusto.
"Now I've got the jersey I'll be making it one of my objectives from now on," he said.In the race for the bronze medal 34-year-old Lehmann, the silver medal winner last year and a former world champion, took bronze after outclassing Dyudya.The first ever women's keirin went to Na Li of China after a rough house final which had the commissaires studying the video film before awarding the race to Li ahead of France's Clara Sanchez and Rosealee Hubbard of Australia.The women's keirin is one of three new disciplines in the year's world’s. With the men's 15km scratch and women's 10km scratch races, a record 15 world titles are at stake in the five-day meet.VeloNews correspondent Martin Ayers contributed to this report
