Cycling: Both pursuit teams reach semifinals

The New Zealand men's pursuit team in action during qualifying at the Avantidrome. Photo / Alan Gibson

Spurred on by a Waikato mooloo bell symphony, the New Zealand men's and women's team pursuiters qualified for their respective semi-finals at the track cycling World Cup.

The men's quartet of Nick Kergozou, Piet Bulling, Alex Frame and Regan Gough finished second fastest in a time of 3m 58.716s over the 4000m distance, 2.313s behind Australia.

They will ride off against third-placed Denmark, who suffered a crash but mustered the confidence to post a respectable time in their re-ride. Australia will race Switzerland in the other semi-final.

New Zealand were faster than Australia over the first 2000m before the visitors hauled back the deficit using the minimum three riders over the final half of the race.

The women's foursome of Rushlee Buchanan, Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Georgia Williams qualified third fastest in a time of 4m 23.382s. They will race off against world champions Australia (4m 20.157s) for a place in the final. Top qualifiers Canada (4m 19.359s) will race the United States in the other top four match-up.

"That [mooloo bell] created double home advantage for me," said Waikato-based Buchanan. "Any noise is good. I want it to be really loud tomorrow."

"It was awesome - gave us goosebumps," men's lead out rider Bulling said. "That's what drives us to keep going. You can hear it for sure."

The women settled into a smooth cadence early and cut into Italy's previous best time by 0.759s after the first kilometre. That extended to 5.057s by 3000m and 6.766s by the finish.

"We wanted to stay calm and see what we could do," Buchanan said.

In contrast, Bulling said the men had a shock on the start line.

"We're happy with the race but three of us slipped our wheel and lost about 0.5s. It was heavy out there [on the boards] but we were pleased to go sub-four [minutes]. Good on the Danish too for coming back and putting together such a good time."

Denmark's crash gouged out of a chunk of track. The riders walked away safely despite the crumpled mass of carbon fibre and lycra. A posse carrying repair kits, including former pro rider Jack Swart, soon fixed the damage. Mops and brushes tidied the rest and the meet resumed in haste.

There was an element of disappointment the women had gone a second outside their personal best.

"You train so well, come here on race day and the [velodrome] boards felt heavy so you have to stay on top of your gear. There are still two more rides and we can get better."

Boards generally heat up and produce quicker times with more activity over the course of a competition day.

Buchanan said they had a realistic chance of challenging Australia because their rivals' line-up would change due to others' involvement in the omnium.

Racing starts at nine o'clock tomorrow with omnium, sprint and keirin events. The team pursuit semi-finals will run in the late afternoon.