Nebraska Cycling News

Ballerup, Denmark - The final round of the 2007-08 UCI Track World Cup Classics got underway Friday as the U.S. contingent collected a pair of bronze medals on opening night of the three-day competition. Sarah Hammer (Temecula, Calif.) placed third in the women's 3-kilometer individual pursuit while countrywoman Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Cedar Springs, Mich.) claimed her first career World Cup medal with a third-place effort in the women's 10-kilometer scratch race.

Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo.) placed 10th in the men's 4-kilometer individual pursuit and narrowly missed an automatic bid to the 2008 Olympic Games by finishing second overall in the World Cup standings behind Ukraine's Volodymyr Dudya.  After four rounds, both athletes finished with 22 points, but the tiebreaker ultimately went to Dudya, who did not compete in the final round. 

On Friday, Phinney clocked a time of 4 minutes, 31.218 seconds in his qualifying heat and failed to advance to the medal rounds.  Under the UCI's tiebreaking procedures, the athlete with the most number of victories throughout the World Cup season is declared the overall winner, but both Phinney and Dudya each had one win to their credit this season - Phinney last month in Los Angeles and Dudya in Sydney last November.  Since Dudya finished second at the World Cup in Beijing and Phinney's next-best result was a fourth-place effort, Dudya earned the overall World Cup title.

Like Phinney, Hammer also finished second overall in the final World Cup standings.  On Friday, she recorded a 3:38.108 and advanced to the bronze-medal match as the fourth-fastest qualifier.  In her medal round, Hammer rode a 3:37.086 to best Eleonora van Dijk (NED) by just over five seconds. 

Hammer's third-place finish gave her three consecutive World Cup bronze medals.

Top-seeded Rebecca Romero (GBR) rode a 3:35.425 to take the gold medal over Vilija Sereikaite (LTU). 

Hammer finished the season with 31 points, just one off the pace of overall champion Sereikaite.

In a rare tie in the women's scratch race, Cliff-Ryan shared the bronze medal with Anastasiay Chulkova (RUS) after a photo finish.  The former national criterium champion was one of five Americans to qualify for the final, joining Becky Quinn (Quakertown, Pa.), Shelley Olds (Saratoga, Calif.), Kele Murdin (Kenmore, Wash.) and Christen King (Huntington Beach, Calif.) in the 24-woman final. 

With a sixth-place finish on Friday, Quinn finished the World Cup series third overall.

Olds finished 14th on Friday, while King and Murdin placed 18th and 21st respectively.

Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) continued her strong 2008 campaign by riding herself into medal contention in the women's sprint.  After qualifying sixth in her 200-meter heat, Reed defeated Miriam Welte (GER) in the 1/8 finals and Simona Krupeckaite (LTU) in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. 

In the semis Reed fell to Willy Kanis (NED) in two straight rides to set up a bronze-medal match against Guo Shuang (CHN).  In the finals, Reed lost to Guo in two consecutive rides to finish fourth. 

Reed's performance throughout the season also earned her a fourth-place finish in the overall series. 

In the final Kanis went on to beat Victoria Pendleton (GBR) for the gold medal.

In the only other event that featured Americans on Friday, Colby Pearce (Boulder, Colo.) finished fifth in the men's 30-kilometer points race. 

As one of 12 riders to lap the field, Pearce finished with 30 points. Pim Ligthart (GER) lapped the field twice and scored 49 points to take the victory over Rafal Ratajczyk (POL) and Chris Newton (GBR) who finished with 37 and 33 points respectively.

Pearce was the only American to advance to the finals after Kenny Williams (Kenmore, Wash.) and Mike Friedman (Pittsburgh, Pa.) did not.

On Saturday, Americans Giddeon Massie (Zionhill, Pa.) and Adam Duvendeck (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will compete in the men's keirin, Bobby Lea (Mertztown, Pa.) will race the men's scratch race and Murdin, Olds, King, Quinn, Cliff-Ryan and Neva Day (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) will compete in the women's points race.

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