Cycling: Key changes power NZ to bronze

New Zealand men's team pursuit. Photo / Getty Images.

The New Zealand men's team pursuit made some key changes to win the bronze medal against Olympic champions Great Britain on the third day of the world track cycling championships at Pruszkow, Poland this morning (NZ time).

It is New Zealand's third medal to make it their most successful campaign at the world championships, with two days still remaining.

This surpasses the two medals won at Maebashi, Japan in 1990, Berlin in 1999 and Melbourne in 2004 and is the first time New Zealand has won a world championship medal in the team pursuit.

Today's result backs up their bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, clocking four minutes 00.248 seconds in the ride-off to beat the British combination by 1.6sec while Olympic silver medallists Denmark won the gold over Australia.

After missing out on the gold medal ride-off by 0.6sec, the team made some key changes to their tactics according to key cyclist Jesse Sergent.

"We really nailed it tonight. We were a bit disappointed in the morning because we didn't start very well and it was so close with only 1.3sec covering the top four," Sergent said.

"We didn't have much time to dwell on that though between sessions and tonight we went out faster and managed to roll on from there."

The combination of Sergent, Wes Gough of Waipukurau, Peter Latham of Te Awamutu and Marc Ryan of Timaru were fourth fastest in the afternoon qualifying in 4min 01.186sec behind Denmark, Australia and Great Britain.

Sergent, 20, said the bronze medal was some compensation after he missed out on the medal round in the individual pursuit yesterday.

"I guess one upside was that I was fresher for the team pursuit today but I am still a bit gutted over that ride," he said.

"It was only my second international ride in the individual pursuit and I just went out too fast and ran out of legs.

"I've learned from that and now I've moved on."

Sergent and teammate Sam Bewley of Rotorua will indeed be moving on, as they fly to Colorado on Monday to link with their new Trek Livestrong professional road team which includes American star Taylor Phinney who won the individual pursuit title and was second in today's time trial.

"It's a big opportunity and we want to make sure we make the most of it," he said.

"We've been in contact with Taylor right through the championships here and I am sure it's going to be a fantastic experience."

New Zealand jumped to an early advantage in the bronze medal ride-off to open a lead of 0.7sec second after the first kilometre. They were always in command from that point, finishing strongly with 59.169sec for the final kilo, the fastest of any of the four fastest teams.

Denmark came from behind to beat Australia by 0.6sec in the final, clocking 3min 58.246sec.

Earlier Invercargill's Eddie Dawkins finished a creditable 10th from 28 starters in the kilometre time trial and Tinwald's Lauren Ellis was 11th in the women's 10km scratch race.

Dawkins made a conservative start but came home strongly over the final two laps to clock 1min 02.685sec on a dead track, 2sec behind Germany's Stefan Nimke who beat out Phinney for the gold medal.

Ellis stepped into the unknown and impressed many with an aggressive performance in the scratch race, featuring in four breakaway attempts although she was unable to make the pure speed in the final lap sprint won by the last year's silver medallist Yumari Gonzalex Valdivieso of Cuba.

Auckland's Kaytee Boyd will compete in the women's omnium tomorrow, while Dawkins and Palmerston North's Simon Van Velthooven will take part in the men's sprint.

- NZPA