An agonising 4th place
Courtesy of cyclingnews.com
A
field of 22 riders lined up for the points race, always a crowd pleaser.
The depth of the field would be revealed by how close the race remained.
In fact, down to the last lap, there were several riders who still had
a shot at earning the world champion stripes and many more who were still
in medal contention.
As soon as the gun fired to start the 160-lap race, current scratch race world champion Greg Henderson (New Zealand) bolted off the front with Wouter Van Mechelen (Belgium) and Sean Finning (Australia). They quickly established a half lap lead but the pack kept the reigns tight. They did take the first three sprints spots but were reabsorbed shortly thereafter.
A
mish-mash of attacks followed, with the first really serious move coming
from Olympic champion Ignatiev (Russia), Pearce (USA), Newton (Great Britain)
and Schep (Netherlands). The field was not going to allow a break with
this much horsepower to gain much ground, thogh and the riders realized
this and sat up after scooping up most of the points in the second sprint.
Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine), Kei Uchida (Japan), Guido Fulst (German) and Sean Finning (Great Britain) attacked heading into the bell lap for the third sprint, scooped up the points, and then rapidly establish a half-lap lead over the field. They were firing on all cylinders and quickly turned the half lap into three-quarters of a lap. Finning fell off the pace, allowing Rybin, Uchida and Fulst to take the first lap of the race. Finning eventually got his lap, too.
By
the mid-point of the 160-lap race, Finning led with just a three-point
advantage over Rybin.
Henderson, Newton, Ratajczyk (Kazakastan), Aeschbach (Switzerland), and Sobal (Belarus) stormed off the front and quickly made it clear they were going to get a lap. They made a tactical misstep by taking the lap at 71 to go instead of waiting first for the sprint at 70-to-go before joining the field. This missed opportunity could have very well cost Newton and Henderson medals as they both would finish within three points of a podium spot.
Colby
Pearce put in a solo attack at 63-to-go to try to scoop up the 60-to-go
points, and then sat up after collecting his 5 points. At this point,
only three points separated the top 5 riders.
Heading into 20 laps to go, it was still a close race between a number of riders. Rybin led by 4 points over Finning. Newton and Henderson were tied with 30 laps and several others were close as well.
With
12 laps to go, 2000 Olympic champion and 2004 Worlds silver medalist Llaneras
(Spain) and Tamouridis (Greece) attack, snap up points on at the 10-to-go
sprint and keep rolling to lap the field, moving Tamouridis into a one
point lead over Rybin with just only the final sprint remaining.
Rybin sprinted to second place on the final sprint to re-take the lead and earn the title of 2005 points race world champion.
"I'm very happy, but very tired. To be honest I did not expect it. There was very strong competition and I'm very surprised," said the new world champion.
1 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 38 pts
2 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 36
3 Juan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 34
4 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 32
5 Guido Fulst (Germany) 31
6 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 31
7 Sean Finning (Australia) 31
8 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 25
9
Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 23
10 Yauheni Sobal (Bielorussia) 20
11 Peter Schep (Netherlands) 17
12 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 12
13 Colby Pearce (USA) 8
14 Wouter Van Mechelen (Belgium) 8
15 Petr Lazar (Czech Republic) 5
16 Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 5
17 Kam-Po Wong (Hong-Kong) 5
18 Mikhail Ignatiev (Russia) 5
19 Ilya Chernyshov (Kazakhstan) 3
20 Jozef Zabka (Slovakia)
DNF Kei Uchida (Japan)
DBF Martin Gilbert (Canada)
Sprints
150 laps to go
1 Wouter Van Mechelen (Belgium) 5 pts
2 Sean Finning (Australia) 3
3 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 2
4 Petr Lazar (Czech Republic) 1
140 laps to go
1 Peter Schep (Netherlands) 5 pts
2 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 3
3 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 2
4 Colby Pearce (USA) 1
130 laps to go
1 Guido Fulst (Germany) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Kei Uchida (Japan) 2
4 Sean Finning (Australia) 1
120 laps to go
1 Angelo Ciccone (Italy) 5 pts
2 Wouter Van Mechelen (Belgium) 3
3 Martin Gilbert (Canada) 2
4 Kei Uchida (Japan) 1
110 laps to go
1 Peter Schep (Netherlands) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Petr Lazar (Czech Republic) 2
4 Juan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 1
100 laps to go
1 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 5 pts
2 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 3
3 Ilya Chernyshov (Kazakhstan) 2
4 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 1
90 laps to go
1 Sean Finning (Australia) 5 pts
2 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 3
3 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 2
4 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 1
80 laps to go
1 Kam-Po Wong (Hong-Kong) 5 pts
2 Juan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 3
3 Colby Pearce (USA) 2
4 Kei Uchida (Japan) 1
70 laps to go
1 Mikhail Ignatiev (Russia) 5 pts
2 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 3
3 Petr Lazar (Czech Republic) 2
4 Kei Uchida (Japan) 1
60 laps to go
1 Colby Pearce (USA) 5 pts
2 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 3
3 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 2
4 Guido Fulst (Germany) 1
50 laps to go
1 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 2
4 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 1
40 laps to go
1 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 2
4 Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland) 1
30 laps to go
1 Peter Schep (Netherlands) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 2
4 Juan Esteban Curuchet (Argentina) 1
20 laps to go
1 Juan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 5 pts
2 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 3
3 Sean Finning (Australia) 2
4 Ilya Chernyshov (Kazakhstan) 1
10 laps to go
1 Juan Llaneras Rossello (Spain) 5 pts
2 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece) 3
3 Christopher Newton (Great Britain) 2
4 Alexander Aeschbach (Switzerland) 1
0 laps to go
1 Guido Fulst (Germany) 5 pts
2 Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) 3
3 Peter Schep (Netherlands) 2
4 Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) 1