Cycling: Two medals for NZ at Beijing World Cup

Westley Gough. Photo / NZPA

The New Zealand men's pursuit and sprint teams picked up bronze medals on the second day of the UCI World Cup in Beijing overnight.

BikeNZ has rested a number of riders to develop new combinations before finalising the team for next month's key World Cup event in London and the world championships in Melbourne.

The combination of Westley Gough, Cameron Karwowski, Peter Latham and Myron Simpson beat off the challenge from Great Britain for the bronze medal in the men's 4000m team pursuit. They clocked 4:03.758 to comfortably win bronze, finishing three seconds clear of the British combination.

The New Zealand team's sprint trio also won a bronze medal with the new combination of Matt Archibald, Eddie Dawkins and Simon van Velthooven.

They qualified third fastest in 44.748, 3/10ths behind top qualifier Russia. They were slightly slower in the bronze medal ride against Venezuela but van Velthooven, the big Manawatu sprinter, unleashed a powerful final lap of 14.432s to edge the Kiwis into the bronze medal.

The trio of Kaytee Boyd, Rushlee Buchanan and Gemma Dudley were fourth in the 3000m team's pursuit, clocking 3.28.603 to be beaten for the bronze medal by hosts China.

World Cup debutantes Katie Schofield and Natasha Hansen finished eighth in the women's team's sprint in 34.236s, just over a second behind winners China who produced a blistering time of 32.958, just outside the world record.

Hansen followed by finishing fifth in the 500m time trial in 35.278s.

The individual sprint events are schedule for tomorrow's final day of racing.