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A day after winning gold in the 4k pursuit, Taylor Phinney is second in the kilo time trial.

by VeloNews.com

• March 27, 2009
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Denmark takes gold in team pursuit

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After winning gold in the 4k individual pursuit, American Taylor Phinney was second in the 1 kilometer time trial at the world track championships in Poland.

Phinney rode a 1 01.611, Connie Carpenter told VeloNews in an email. That’s about the same time as he did at the Copenhagen world cup last month, but a full second slower than the gold medalist, German Stefan Nimke.

Mohd Rizal Tisin made history to hand Malaysia their first ever world championships medal with bronze in a time of 1:01.658.

Nimke, a well-known sprint event specialist, came into the championships stating the kilometer – which is no longer an Olympic discipline – was his number one objective.

He set an impressive time of 1:00.666 to strike a psychological blow to his main rivals. It is the fastest time ever recorded at sea level.

A few came close to challenging him. French pair Francois Pervis and Michael D’Almeida, and Dutch defending champion Teun Mulder, all started fast but faded in the final of the four lap event to finish out of the medals.

“My long term goal is to help Germany win the Olympic team sprint title in 2012, and that’s why I’ve gone back to competing in the kilometer,” said 31 year-old Nimke, who helped Germany to bronze in the team sprint in Beijing behind champions Britain and silver medalists France.

His last world crown was in 2003 when he won the kilometer.

“I wanted to win this crown badly and I did it. But with the kind of time I did, it’s just amazing.”

Germany now has two golds following Maximilian Levy’s victory in the keirin on Thursday.

The 18-year-old Phinney’s time of 1:01.611 proved enough for the silver. His feat is all the more impressive as the pursuit specialist has only raced in a few kilos in official competition.

Having discovered his aptitude for the ‘kilo’ when he started a pursuit race too fast last year, the 6-foot-4 Phinney – who is skinny in comparison to other riders in the event – showed that you don’t need to burst out the blocks like a raging bull to win a medal.

His first lap left him in 25th place, but from there he went to 22nd then 10th then second.

“That’s sort of how I do this (race). I don’t know if it’s the right way to do it, but it’s the pursuiters’ way of riding the kilo I guess,” he said.

“I don’t have that power at the beginning to throttle an 18-second lap, but I do have the endurance to keep the speed up in the last couple of laps.

“I don’t really know – I just decided to do this event on a whim about a month ago!”

Nonetheless, Phinney is the national champion and U.S. record holder in the event and won the UCI World Cup finale in Copenhagen last month.

In her VeloNews.com column Thursday Phinney’s mother, Connie Carpenter, said he would do the kilo “for fun.”

Men’s team pursuit

It took only three of Denmark’s four-man team of Olympic silver medalists beat a young Australian quartet to claim a first ever team pursuit gold at the world track cycling championships on Friday.

New Zealand beat Olympic champions Britain for the bronze.

After trailing for much of the 4km Australia missed out on the world title by six tenths of a second after a thrilling fightback when Denmark lost their starter Jens-Erik Madsen with nearly four laps to race.

Denmark had booked its place in the final with the fastest time in qualifying thanks to the quartet of Casper Joergensen, Michael Morkov, Alex Rasmussen and Jens-Erik Madsen.

But for the final Morkov, who won Olympic team pursuit silver in Beijing, was left off the roster by the team’s young coach Sven Meyer in favor of Michael Faerk Christensen.

In the end the decision to send in a fresh recruit, despite a late scare when Madsen could no longer follow Rasmussen’s pace, worked as the Danes posted a finishing time of 3:58.246. Australia finished in 3:58.863.

It is Denmark’s first world title in the discipline and comes only months after long-time coach Heiko Salzwedel left the team to rejoin Britain as a top performance manager.

Rasmussen said he would have preferred to beat their Olympic conquerors Britain in the final, but after sticking a first gold in the bag he didn’t mind who the opposition was.

“We wanted to defeat the British in the final just to beat them …that didn’t happen this year, but it’s just great to have kept the team together after the Olympics up until here, and winning,” said Rasmussen.

“We’ve had perfect preparation this year and I really felt so much better than the other years, not so nervous and a lot fresher. We know each other and we’re not so nervous coming into the championships, I didn’t feel the pressure as much as in Beijing where I was really nervous before the final.

“I knew we had a big advantage against them.”

In the battle for bronze defending champions Britain, being led by Ed Clancy – the only surviving member of their Olympic gold winning tean – were outclassed by New Zealand.

The Kiwis, composed of Westley Gough, Peter Latham, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent, finished in 4:00.248.

Britain made no changes to the team that had failed to qualify for the final and that arguably cost them a medal as Clancy, Steven Burke, Jonathan Bellis and Peter Kennaugh finished in 4:01.838.

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