Record breaking Geraint Thomas stars in cycling World Cup.
November 2, 2009
PSG clients Geraint Thomas and Jason Kenny were in action at the first World Cup of the season in Manchester (30 Oct -1 Nov 09).
In the Individual Pursuit Geraint set the 2nd fastest time in history, 4.15.015sec. Geraint can consider himself the fastest rider in the World over the 4km distance under the current rules, a fantastic achievement at just 23 years old. The only person to go quicker is Chris Boardman, who set a time of 4.11.114sec at the World Championships in 1996, using an aerodynamic stretched out position that is now banned. Geraint went on to dominate the final to win Gold in only his third race in the event and commented “Since Beijing I have just wanted to focus on this event and have a crack at it for the Worlds - even though it won’t be at the 2012 Games. The time was irrelevant - it was all about winning.”
Geraint later featured in the Team Pursuit squad with Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Andrew Tennant who took an emphatic Gold medal recording the 2nd best time ever. GB’s rivals Spain were overhauled within 3kms but the GB boys pressed on, eager to show their World class form. They crossed the line and stopped the clock at 3.54.395sec, just a fraction outside of their own world record.
Jason won the B final of the Keirin after failing to qualify for the main final. In the Individual Sprint he dominated his heats and semi finals to finish 3rd fastest qualifier. Missing out to an on form Matt Crampton in the finals, Jason faced the seasoned rider Australian Shane Perkins in a race for the Bronze. Race 1 was taken with confidence by Jason, who led it from the front. Perkins gave Race 2 his best shot, with the two neck-and-neck for the entire final lap. Right at the death, Jason found those extra few watts to seal a memorable victory and the Bronze medal, with Silver going to Crampton, and Gold to Hoy.
On the final day of racing Jason added a Silver medal in the Team Sprint, in a trio with Matt Crampton and Dave Daniell. The trio came close to causing upset but they were edged on the line by the Sky HD GB team of Chris Hoy, Ross Edgar and Jamie Staff.
“I think I rode every session so it was a long weekend” smiled a weary Jason. “There were a few ups and downs and I made a few mistakes. But hopefully I’ll learn from that and I’m generally pretty pleased with how it’s gone. I still felt in fairly good shape in the last session. This is the first event of the season really, so it’s good to see how we’re going. I’m a little bit quicker than I was last year so it’s always good to see some improvement.”
Overall the World Cup was a huge success for GB with the team winning 10 gold medals in total.
