Van Velthooven claims World Cup sprint cycling

New Zealand's sprint cyclists continued their rise on the world stage on the first full day of competition at the UCI World Cup meeting in London today. Both the men's and women's team's sprint combinations missed out on the medal round, but they both established new best times at the Olympic Velodrome test event, and Manawatu's Simon van Velthooven has also taken out the overall World Cup title in the kilo time trial. The 22-year-old finished third in the time trial, clocking 1:02.048 in the event won by German Stefan Nimke in 1:01.211. It was sufficient to give van Velthooven the overall World Cup honours ahead of Nimke following a second placing in Cali, victory at Beijing and third in the London test event. He was only 16th fastest in the opening lap but was the fastest in the field over the middle 500m and came home solidly. "The aim was to get out on the track and get a feel for it," van Velthooven said. "Every track is different and for sprinters especially the feel is really important. "I would have liked to have gone faster. I felt I had a 1:01 in me but, then again, no one was really able to smoke it out there. "It's great to have the World Cup title but my focus now is on the hard work ahead for the world championships and earn a place on the team for the Olympics." The men's sprint trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins were fifth fastest in qualifying in 44.002s, which broke the best time set at November's Oceania championships and was only 0.4sec from top qualifiers and world record holders France and 0.15sec off the medal ride. Mitchell produced a superb first lap of 17.601, which was faster than rivals Australia, and puts them in good shape ahead of April's world championships. "Ethan took some time out of the Australians and both Sam and Eddie road strongly," BikeNZ coach Mark Elliott said. "They came very close to that medal ride and are improving every time they go out on the track. If they can continue this progression, it will be exciting for them at April's world championships in Melbourne." The fledgling women's combination of Katie Schofield and Natasha Hansen took a significant 0.3sec off their best time at the Oceania championships to be eighth fastest in the women's team's sprint. The pair clocked 33.861, their first time under the rarefied air of the 34 second barrier. Australia were fastest in a new world record of 32.828 but, importantly, the Kiwi combination were significantly faster than key countries including Venezuela and Colombia as they chase Olympic qualification. "It was another big step forward for the girls," Elliott said. "They are doing everything asked of them. That ride should give them sufficient points to qualify for the world championships. If so, they will need to improve again and finish ahead of their main rivals to earn qualifying points for the Olympics." Meanwhile, Timaru's Shane Archbold was 10th after the first day of the men's omnium. He finished a promising sixth in the flying lap in 13.464, was 16th in the points race and eighth in the elimination race.