Track World Cup Round 3 - Beijing 13-15 January. Warning Contains unmasked Spoilers

Beasty

Penultimate round underway in Beijing tomorrow (although the team pursuit qualification took place today). Martyn Irvine is the only Irish representative, looking to gain at least one place in the European Olympic omnium qualification rankings. Ireland are currently 25 points behind Poland (who currently occupy the final qualification place), and 78 behind Belgium, with the Netherland 67 points behind Ireland

The Poles are fielding a 19 year old who does not seem to have any WC omnium experience so this may be a great chance for Martyn to move into a qualifying place

It starts with a qualification points race – 15 in each heat with 12 qualifying for the competition proper, followed by the flying lap, points race and elimination race tomorrow, with the pursuit, scratch race and time trial on Saturday

GB are sending a relatively large, but inexperienced, team with the big stars staying in the UK to prepare fpr the final round of the World Cup (and Olympic Test event) iin London next month

I can't find any details of TV coverage, but that doesn't mean there won't be any, so I guess we need to apply normal spoiler rules (although I'll try to remember to remove the previous day's spoiler tags each morning)

Edit - as there appears to be no TV coverage, I'm going to remove the spoiler tags and just put a warning in the thread title - if anyone has a concern, please PM me

morana

Beasty wrote: »

Penultimate round underway in Beijing tomorrow (although the team pursuit qualification took place today). Martyn Irvine is the only Irish representative, looking to gain at least one place in the European Olympic omnium qualification rankings. Ireland are currently 25 points behind Poland (who currently occupy the final qualification place), and 78 behind Belgium, with the Netherland 67 points behind Ireland

The Poles are fielding a 19 year old who does not seem to have any WC omnium experience so this may be a great chance for Martyn to move into a qualifying place

It starts with a qualification points race – 15 in each heat with 12 qualifying for the competition proper, followed by the flying lap, points race and elimination race tomorrow, with the pursuit, scratch race and time trial on Saturday

GB are sending a relatively large, but inexperienced, team with the big stars staying in the UK to prepare fpr the final round of the World Cup (and Olympic Test event) iin London next month

I can't find any details of TV coverage, but that doesn't mean there won't be any, so I guess we need to apply normal spoiler rules (although I'll try to remember to remove the previous day's spoiler tags each morning)

The most important race of his career I would say! Come on Martyn...

Beasty

morana wrote: »

The most important race of his career

... so far - three even more important ones to come;)

His confidence is growing in the omnium, and assuming no disaster (like Astana, or crashing out), he is imo clearly good enough to qualify - he's getting better with every event. He does really well in the TT and pursuit and now seems to be getting to grips with the other events.

Beasty

Well guys - don't know how to break this ....

... but the Polish and Dutch riders didn't qualify:D:D:D

Martyn now just needs to score some points to almost certainly move into a qualifying spot (unless someone comes from behind - the Russian team are 115 points behind, then it's the Czech Republic and Turkey)

Beasty

11th in the flying lap - no damage done though - the Turk was only one place ahead, and the Belgian, Russian and Czech were all behind him

Miklos

WAHEY!

Beasty

... and 3rd in the points race, behind the Aussie and Belgian, moving him up to 5th overall after 2 events. He took a lap with 3 others and won the final sprint

Beasty

Still awaiting the official result, but it looks like 14th in the Elimination race, with the Russian disqualified

morana

Beasty wrote: »

Still awaiting the official result, but it looks like 14th in the Elimination race, with the Russian disqualified

good stuff. thats a big bonus.

Beasty

They seem to have forgotten to update the overall standings before heading off to bed in Beijing, but by my reckoning Martyn is now down to 10th. However he's only 7 points behind 4th place and a point ahead of where he was at the corresponding stage in Cali. He has 3 strong events to come tomorrow, and I think he still has a top-5 position in his sights, which could move him up to 7th place in the European Olympic rankings

Beasty

5th in the pursuit - about 3 or 4 places ahead of wher he normally finishes, so an excellent result

Spreadsheet says that moves him up to 6th place, 2 points behind the Spaniard, with the Scratch race and TT to go

Harrybelafonte

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this Beasty. Glad to see he's doing so well, hopefully he'll get a boost from it and keep improving.

morana

Beasty wrote: »

5th in the pursuit - about 3 or 4 places ahead of wher he normally finishes, so an excellent result

Spreadsheet says that moves him up to 6th place, 2 points behind the Spaniard, with the Scratch race and TT to go

he will be 2nd or 3rd in the TT and if he gets a good result in the scratch I expect top 5.....

morana

2nd in the scratch. 5th overall...a medal is on:D

Beasty

He's 8 points behind 3rd place, with Australia, France and Germany occupying the medal positions, so a podium position looks a bit of a challenge. However he's only only a point behind the Spaniard, with the Belgian on the same number of points (but behind on "countback").

A top 6 place is pretty much guaranteed, with the American 9 points behind. 4th is a realistic target, and that would probably get him within touching disatnce of 6th place in the rankings

Cali was his best ever WC result with 5th, so let's hope he can continue the improvement

EDIT - he's up next in the TT

Beasty

He's dropped a place to the Belgian (who beat him in their head tp head), but has overtaken the Spaniard. He's 7th in the TT and I'm pretty sure he's 5th in the overall competition, worth 160 Olympic qualification points

Beasty

Another great performance from Martyn - I reckon he's now in 7th in the rankings on 705 points, with Denmark 45 points behind in the final qualification position. Poland are in 9th with 580 points

In 6th place are Belgium with 803 then Italy with 810. Competiton in the final 2 events is going to be a bit tougher with most teams expected to send their best riders to London to try out the Olympic track and the final event being the World Championships in Melbourne. If he can keep up this form though he should qualify with a bit to spare

Dan man

Beasty wrote: »

Another great performance from Martyn - I reckon he's now in 7th in the rankings on 705 points, with Denmark 45 points behind in the final qualification position. Poland are in 9th with 580 points

In 6th place are Belgium with 803 then Italy with 810. Competiton in the final 2 events is going to be a bit tougher with most teams expected to send their best riders to London to try out the Olympic track and the final event being the World Championships in Melbourne. If he can keep up this form though he should qualify with a bit to spare

Yep, I have a similar tally to yours (see my post in the Olympics forum).

morana

Poland arent listed in the results for any points so should they stay on 570?
Martyn also didnt get any points for Astana.

Dan man

morana wrote: »

Poland arent listed in the results for any points so should they stay on 570?
Martyn also didnt get any points for Astana.

Martyn was disqualified in Astana, hence the zero points. But as far as I gather, all cyclists who compete in the event get 10 points. So Poland I think are awarded 10 points as they took part in the heats. Can't be sure of this however, will need to wait until the rankings update.

Beasty

You get your 10 points if knocked out in the qualification race or fail to complete the event due to crash or injury, but not if DSQ'd (the Cali results bear this out)

Hence Ireland will be guaranteed another 40 points just by sending someone to London and Melbourne, assuming no disqualification

I would volunteer for the Melbourne trip if Martyn wants a rest, but my CI licence has the wrong country code on it ....

Beasty

Eurosport 2 are due to be showing highlights on Wednesday the 18th at 3.30pm, repeated Monday the 23rd at 8.45pm and Thursday the 26th at 2pm

Not sure how much coverage the Omnium will get, and bear in mind this is Eurosport and the Aussie Open Tennis starts tomorrow:rolleyes:

Beasty

Olympic Rankings now confirmed:
(European places in brackets, first 8 European nations to qualify)

Aus 1,680
NZ 1,550
GBR 1,470(1)
Can 2,200
Ger 1,170 (2)
Fra 1,083 (3)
Col 1,030
Esp 973 (4)
Ita 810 (5)
Kor 810
Bel 803 (6)
IRL 705 (7)
Den 660 (8)
Pol 580 (9)

shaungil

Here's Marty's upddated log, Doesn't seemed too happy amazingly.
http://martynirvine.blogspot.com/

Beasty

shaungil wrote: »

Here's Marty's upddated log, Doesn't seemed too happy amazingly.

Yeah it almost looks like you could have written it for him shaungil...

What I read into it though is he recognises there is room for improvement. It's the sort of attitude needed, and I think he is turning himself into a real medal contender for the Olympics

Looking forward to seeing him banish those elimination race demons in the London WC event next month

shaungil

He is certainly becoming a real contender if he continues the upward trend he's on. Fair play to him we don't have that many contenders even for a top ten so the way he is going is amazing.