Men's Points Race
Courtesy of British Cycling & cyclingnews.com. Photos Greg Chang / PhotoSport International UK USA ASIA. PhotoSport2007@aol.com & AFP Photo

Gold for Newton in Beijing

Chris Newton followed up his Bronze medal in the Olympics with a Gold medal in the Points race at the Olympic track in Beijing today. Newton scored in most of the sprints in the final, getting maxiumum points in no less than six sprints to top the table with 35 points, 15 more than the next rider, Zachary Bell of Canada. Luke Rowe finished 17th after losing a lap.

The race started badly for Chris when Hong Kong rider, Kam-Po Wong (above)gained a lap after no-one was willing to chase him down and for much of the race, Newton was lying in second place. Riding aggressively though, just as he did in Manchester, Chris got himself into a small break which the Hong Kong rider missed.

Also missing that break was Luke Rowe who did not contribute to the chase of Newton's group and thereby losing a lap whilst still riding comfortable at this level. With Kam-Po missing the break, the Newton group continued on to gain the lap and with Newton winning sprints and points on a regular basis, his final points tally made him comfortably the winner of the Gold medal.

1. NEWTON Chris GBR 35
2. BELL Zachary CAN 20
3. RATAJCZYK Rafal POL 19
4. RYBIN Volodymyr ISD 11
5. VOLKOV Stanislav LOK 9
6. MORI Kazuhiro JPN 6
7. WONG KamPo HKG 4
8. LI Wei CHN 3
9. TORRENT TARRES Carlos ESP 1
10. GRAF Andreas AUT

17. ROWE Luke 100% ME

Heats

Olympic Bronze medallist, Chris Newton, got off to a good start in the Beijing round of the UCI World Track Cup today by winning the opening heat of the Points race.

Having won the event at the Manchester World Track Cup, Chris has already booked a place at the World Track Championships for Great Britain and has gone to Beijing to 'race' the event to do the best he can as preparation for the World Track Championships in March. Chris, who rode the first of two heats for the Points race, finished with 13 points, three more than his nearest rival, Volodmyr Rybin. Great Britain Cycling Team Olympic Academy rider Luke Rowe, riding for 100% ME, also qualified for the final after heat 2 of the Points race.