Hoy raced to victory in the Keirin final leading from start to finish in his first international competition since returning from injury. The Scotsman had been ruled out since February when he crashed out of the World Cup in Copenhagen but performed as if he had never been away to win for Team Sky+HD.
Unfortunately fellow Brit and Kierin competitor Jason Kenny, who won silver at the individual pursuit in Beijing, was unable to qualify alongside Hoy in the final but won the B Final to finish seventh overall.
The performance of the day however went to Geraint Thomas in the individual pursuit who in his heat recorded the second fastest time ever with four minutes 15.05 seconds. The Welshman produced the quickest ride since Chris Boardman’s world record in August 1996.
The 23-year-old then went on to beat Belgium’s Dominique Cornu in the final with two laps remaining and could have carried on to attempt to beat Boardman’s record but was content with the win and began celebrating before the end of the race.
In the longest ride of the day Chris Newton continued where he left off in the qualifying earlier in the day to win the Points race. Newton had the bonus score of 20 points for gaining a lap restored after they were taken away from him mid way through the race.
The 36-year-old multi world champion and Olympian finished with 37 points, four ahead of rivals Ho Ting Kwok [Hong Kong] and Roger Kluge [Germany]. The German narrowed the gap to five points in the later stages of the 30km, that sees the athletes ride 120 times around the track, but left himself with too much to do.
David Daniel was denied gold in the 1km time trail by world champion Stefan Nimke who clocked one minute 01.293 compared to Daniel’s one minute 01.698.
Elsewhere in the women’s events Victoria Pendleton entertained the Manchester crowd in a tight Sprint final against China’s Shuang Guo. Pendleton was pushed all the way by the Chinese athlete and had to come from a race down to claim victory for Team Sky+HD.
The Bedfordshire cyclist was the only rider to go under 11 seconds with a time of 10.988 seconds for the 200 metre flying start.
Younger riders Jess Varnish and Rebecca James could only manage eleventh and thirteenth place respectively while in the Scratch Race Lizzie Armitstead of Great Britain slipped to tenth.
Elsewhere in the women’s events Victoria Pendleton entertained the Manchester crowd in a tight Sprint final against China’s Shuang Guo. Pendleton was pushed all the way by the Chinese athlete and had to come from a race down to claim victory for Team Sky+HD.
The Bedfordshire cyclist was the only rider to go under 11 seconds with a time of 10.988 seconds for the 200 metre flying start.
Younger riders Jess Varnish and Rebecca James could only manage eleventh and thirteenth place respectively while in the Scratch Race Lizzie Armitstead of Great Britain slipped to tenth.
