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Annalise Murphy and Mikhail Yakovlev took the headlines after some great racing on day one of the Dublin Track Cycling International 2023.
The first of two days in the UCI Class 2 event, Ireland’s best domestic track cyclists rubbed shoulders with a number of international stars at Sundrive Velodrome.
There were perfect conditions as sunshine and light winds made for great racing, with a mix of Irish and international riders picking up medals.
The first final of the day saw Annalise Murphy take victory in the women’s scratch race, breaking away from the main bunch with two laps to go.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist sailor has regularly competed in road cycling events in recent years, but impressed many after her clever attack left the chasers with too much to do before Murphy crossed the line.
Annalise Murphy said, “I’m absolutely delighted. I only started on the track only two months ago, so this is my first-ever race. I was trying not to disturb anyone or anything. I know I’ve good power, but I don’t know exactly when to use it but each lap I was learning what was happening.”
“With two laps to go I just thought I’d go for it and see what happens. I guess I was lucky, I got a gap on the girls and the last lap was so hard – I didn’t know how I was going to hold on.”
Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev proved he was head and shoulders above the rest in the Men’s Keirin, his late burst before the home straight earned him a victory over a bike length ahead of Norbert Szabo in second and Hamish Turnbull in third.
In the Women’s Sprint, Orla Walsh was the one to watch as she breezed through qualification, but she was made work for gold in the final as she took on Lara Gillespie, edging the first heat before a comprehensive sprint sealed victory in heat two. Deirbhle Ivory sealed bronze with victory over Gabriella Homer.
The Men’s Omnium provided some late drama as Aaron Wade led heading into the final points race, but some excellent racing saw Anders Fynbo take the overall win with Facundo Gabriel Lezica in second and Wade finishing in third.
Irish National Team duo Lara Gillespie and Emily Kay proved strongest in an entertaining Women’s Madison Final, taking first place ahead of the pairing of Aoife O’Brien and Erin Creighton in second as Spectra Cannondale’s Lucy Nelson and Gabriella Homer completed the podium.
Oisin Ferrity dominated in the Junior Men’s events, taking comprehensive victories in the scratch and elimination races to take the overall win.
Junior Men’s Overall
Men’s Keirin
Men’s Omnium
Women’s Madison
Women’s Scratch
Women’s Sprint
The day began with a minutes silence for a polite, well known rider who tragically lost her life the day before. Known to many in the bunch, riders wore black armbands in her memory for the day.
Irish rider Aaron Wade took the first win of the day, securing the gold medal in the Men’s Scratch race. The Cortizo Aluminium Team rider was too strong for his competitors, after launching a solo breakaway with 18 laps to go. Wade took a half a lap advantage with his attack and held it to the finish. Wade stated after the race that, “after a couple of laps we were working well together everybody was doing up and overs to keep the speed going for the first couple of laps and then after 10 laps attacks started happening, I put on a big gear to see if I could go big and did my attack and got away and it was a grim 20 laps, solo then to the line.”
Harvey Barnes used all his sprinting expertise, launching an attack in the final lap sprinting clear of the bunch to secure the silver medal while Yacine Chalel of Algeria won the sprint for bronze in the bunch behind.
Stefan Caulfield-Drier took an impressive win in the Men’s Points race to finish with 35 points ahead of Yacine Chalel (29) and Aaron Wade (27) . Cauifield Drier said, “I just tried to race it aggressively and get up the road, decided to run a smaller gear than I normally would knowing that everyone was going to tire out and hopefully I’d have it in the end, and luckily worked out.”
Lara Gillespie led from the beginning of the Women’s Omnium, putting in an impressive finish in all four races to win the Omnium on 154 points. Gillespie spoke after the race, “I had a really goo day out we had really good competitive racing, and it was really good to go for gold.”
Irish rider Emily Kay rode strong for second on 135 points, with UK rider Lucy Nelson a close fought third to round out the podium on 113 points.
Orla Walsh continued her gold rush by taking gold again in the Keirin. The Irish rider used all her experience to take a fine win ahead of a spirited challenge from Bray native Deirbhle Ivory. Lucy Nelson showed her versatility to come in third.
Hungary’s Norbert Szabo was the one to watch in the men’s sprint with the fastest qualifying time of 11.25 in the flying 200m. His form held across the heats to land in the gold medal ride off against Irish based Spanish rider Juan Rodriguez. Alexander Abdul-Wahab took the bronze over Callum O’Toole in the match sprint ride offs.
Women’s Omnium
Women’s Keirin
Men’s Scratch
Men’s Sprint
Men’s Points Race
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