Three more world titles were awarded on Friday at the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. The host nation took their third gold medal to lead the rankings, while Australia, Germany and Russia each have two world titles.
The first title of the day went to French star Francois Pervis in the men's 1000 metre time trial. It was Pervis' second title in as many days, after winning the Keirin title on Thursday. Pervis is the world record holder in the event and the two-time defending champion. With the French crowd roaring, Pervis had the fastest opening lap, and held on to win with a time of 1:00.207. Joachim Eilers (Germany) repeated as the silver medalist, while Matthew Archibald (New Zealand) took bronze.
"Yes, it is amazing," Pervis agreed. "For me it is a beautiful day. I won yesterday, I win today. Three weeks ago I say it is difficult for me to know which objective [was most important], but a win in France ... it is amazing."
"The Kilometre is very difficult, the most difficult sprint in track cycling. I finished and my legs are full of burning, a lot of lactic [acid]. I had a big pain in my head, and I couldn't walk. It was very difficult, but it is the Kilometre and I like it."
The men's Points Race was extremely close, with only two points separating first from third. In the end, it was Russia's Artur Ershov who took the title with 31 points. Ershov was one of five riders who gained 20 points after lapping the field and, combined with scoring points in five intermediate sprints, it was enough to beat Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spain) by one point and Maximilian Beyer (Germany) by two points.
The final gold medal of the day went to Australia's Rebecca Wiasak in the women's Individual Pursuit. Wiasak is attending her first world championships, and her career is certainly off to a good start. Wiasak beat another first time world championships attendee, Jennifer Valente (USA) by three and a half seconds to take the title. Amy Cure (Australia) took bronze.
"This is my first World Championships," stated Wiasak, "I have never even won a national championship, so it is fantastic to get a World title. I missed out on a ride in the Team Pursuit yesterday, so it was very emotional watching my teammates win gold. I was very happy for them and they inspired me tonight."
"Jennifer [Valente] started strong, and I was riding to a schedule initially and I was a little up on my time. I thought 'it is probably a tactic ... she will try to unnerve me a little bit'. But I knew at the end if I just stayed strong and watched my coach; he knows me very well, we've been together two years, so just stuck to the race plan . I'm just so happy to get the win."
The first half of the women's Sprint and the men's Omnium were also contested, with Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Colombia) leading the Omnium with 110 points to Elia Viviani's (Italy) 102 after three events.
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