European Championships - Lydia Gurley 5th in Points

In an action packed afternoon at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the Irish jerseys were to the fore with Lydia Gurley coming close to a medal in the Women’s Points Race, where she finished in 5^th place after the lapping the field.

Felix English was also in action, competing in the four-race Omnium, where he lies in 10^th place following a 12^th place finish in the Scratch Race and 8^th place in the Tempo. In the Omnium the winner is the person who accumulates most points after four events. This evening will see him compete in the Elimination Race and the Points Race.

 

Galways’ Gurley raced a tactical race, gaining a lap with 60 laps to go with a four other riders, moving her into the lead at that point. With twenty laps to go she was sitting in bronze medal position, however, slipped to fifth in the fast and aggressive race.

Gold went to Italy’s Maria G. Confalonieri, silver to Ina Savanka from Belarus and bronze to Russia’s Gulnaz Badykova. Gurley finished just behind World Champion Kirsten Wild who was fourth.

“I was really happy with the lap I seemed to get it relatively easily. David (Muntaner – coach) told me to let up and wait for the group so we got it together and saved a bit of energy that way.

“Maybe I could have held back for the sprint, but I really wanted to get the lap. It was five away from the sprint lap so you never know what the group is going to do. I thought get the lap, get the twenty points and then move up the standings. I was able to get up in a few sprints and move up in the rankings a bit and I’m happy. It’s a decent result.”

Gurley is feeling strong this week, and feels good ahead of her focus event, the Madison, next Tuesday – “I just tried to ease in for the first thirty laps, tried to let the sprinters get a bit tired and start to attack, and try to make the attacks work. I felt pretty good so hopefully that means my legs will be good for Tuesday now, it was nice to open up and ready to go.”

 

In the Omnium’s Scratch Race English launched a blistering attack which was reeled in with metres to go – “It was very close – I went with three to go and got caught with 20m to go. It wouldn’t be my normal tactic. In the omnium today, I’m riding it to pick up some points.”

 

 

The Tempo race is a frantic event with a point awarded to the rider first over the line first in each lap – in a trademark move English launched a huge attack in the closing laps picking up points on each lap to move up the standings. While the result sheet initially called him as being 3^rd, this was later amended to 8^th.

“I was starting to think towards the end I wasn’t going to get any points – cos there was constantly a group off the front and I was always staying in contention with that front seven or eight guys, and as soon as they fell back it splits off cos it’s so hard.

“I’m really happy. I didn’t really use any energy until the final five laps and I got away with the other four guys and I was watching the TV and saw that Benjamin had got onto the back of the bunch so the points were up for grabs and lucky I was the first to react to it, and then I was able to get a small gap and get two or three points which was nice.

In the Women’s Sprint Robyn Stewart was knocked out by Urszula Los, the Polish sprinter who will now move to the 1/8 rounds. The Belfast racer was disappointed with her race, but will use it as experience to move forward.

“There are good bits and bad bits there I suppose. Obviously, the bad bit is I lost against a rider that I had actually qualified quicker than this morning so really, I’m pretty gutted. But I’ve come a long way, and I can see how much I’ve improved and I guess I have to take the good bits away and not just focus on the bad bits. It’s hard to improve the tactics of racing without just getting stuck in and racing. You can learn more when you lose – I learnt today, so yeah.

“You draw a position at the start and I drew man one. In hindsight maybe on this track man two is a better position because the straights are so long and she just popped over me at the end. It’s good to lead from the front because you can be in control but you can equally be in control from the back. I’m pleased with some of the moves I made in the race.”

This evening English competes in the Elimination Race and the Points Race with the final podium being decided based on points accumulated in each race. Over the six days of track racing the twelve-rider Irish team will compete in fifteen events in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.

History is made this week when Glasgow and Berlin host the inaugural European Championships, an exciting multi-sport event bringing together some of the continent’s leading sports, including the existing UEC cycling championships.

RESULTS

Women’s 25km Points Race

GOLD Maria G. Confalonieri (ITALY) 33 points

SILVER Ina Savanka (BELARUS) 32 points

BRONZE Gulnaz Badykova (RUSSIA) 30 points

5^th Lydia Gurley (IRELAND) 23 points

Men’s Omnium

Scratch – Felix English (IRELAND) 12^th

Tempo – Felix English (IRELAND) 8th 

Overall – Felix English (IRELAND) 10^th