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German Team Sprinters break Team GB world recordUCI TRack Cycling World Cup Cali

German Team Sprinters break Team GB world record

Eight months ahead of the Olympics the Germans make their mark at track World Cup
by Simon_MacMichael
Fri, Dec 02, 2011 09:21
5

With just eight months to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games, Germany’s team sprint squad last night beat the world record that Great Britain had set at Beijing three years ago.

The new world record time of 42.914 was set in Cali, Colombia, which is hosting the second round of this season’s UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series. The average speed for the three laps of the velodrome was 62.916kph.

The time is 36 thousands of a second inside the previous world best time, set by Hoy, Jamie Staff and Jason Kenny in qualification at Beijing on their way to beating France in the final.

Germany, represented by the same trio of riders that set the new benchmark yesterday – René Enders, Maximilian Levy and Stefan Nimke – took bronze at those Games.

Earlier this year, they lost to France in the world championships at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, with Great Britain taking bronze.

Last night’s time was set during qualification, with the trio beating another three German riders, representing Team Erdgas 2012, in the final.

World champions France, missing Grégory Baugé and Kevin Sireau, finished fourth, with Venezuela beating them to take bronze.

Britain’s sole representatives at Cali, the women’s pursuit squad of Wendy Houveaghel, Sarah Storey and Laura Trott, took gold yesterday evening, beating New Zealand in the final in a time of 3:31:835.

London 2012
Team sprint
Team Sprint World Record
UCI Track Cycling World Cup
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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5 comments

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graemeshaw | 13 years ago
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Seems we're both wrong. For the World Cup a velodrome must be between 133 and 500m. For the Olympics and the World Championships the track should be 250m, but the UCI may allow an existing velodrome of a different length to be used.

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graemeshaw | 13 years ago
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I don't know about the World Cup, but Olympic velodromes can be a variety of lengths:

The track is measured along a line 20 cm up from the bottom. Olympic standard velodromes may only measure between 250 m and 400 m, and the length must be such that a whole or half number of laps give a distance of 1 km.

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foolishfour | 13 years ago
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I am not surprised that the Germans can go faster in Cali, given the altitude of around 1,000m versus Beijing (43m) where the previous record was set for the team sprint.

Considering this, I don't see it as a real issue at this stage of the calendar as there is plenty of time to peak for the Olympics and to beat everyone when it matters

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graemeshaw | 13 years ago
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Pedantic I know, but isn't the Team Sprint raced over 3 laps of a velodrome regardless of how long or short it is, as opposed to other events (like the Team Pursuit) which are raced over a set distance? As a result there is no world record, but instead a "world's best" which amounts to the same thing.

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cat1commuter replied to graemeshaw | 13 years ago
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graemeshaw wrote:

Pedantic I know, but isn't the Team Sprint raced over 3 laps of a velodrome regardless of how long or short it is, as opposed to other events (like the Team Pursuit) which are raced over a set distance? As a result there is no world record, but instead a "world's best" which amounts to the same thing.

I don't know. The Cali velodrome is a standard 250 m track, like all the UCI world cup venues.

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