Teamwork earns points race silver medal

Oct 7th, 10.  Lauren Ellis, with fantastic support from Jo Kiesanowski and Rushlee Buchanan, lit up the track at the Commonwealth Games and won the silver medal for New Zealand last night.

Ellis, pictured winning the NZ Champs, won silver in Delhi last night ©RoadCycling.co.nz

The 21 year old Ashburton rider had great support from her teammates who positioned her well and controlled the field in the 25km race.  

The World Championships silver medallist , and NZ Champion in this discipline, won three of the interim sprints, but it was her clever riding to join the five rider break which lapped the field that put her in medal contention.

Coming into the final sprint, Ellis was once again superbly shepherded by the NZ team before she gave it everything in the dying metres.

Her 3rd place across the line earned her the silver medal.  Australia's Megan Dunn won the final sprint and the gold medal with World Champion Tara Whitten from Canada taking Bronze.

"I'm so proud to get the silver medal but you always go out wanting to win the race," Ellis said. "I had Megan's wheel [in the final sprint] but I lost it. I had put in so much energy just to get myself in that position."

Kiesanowski and Buchanan, who rode so well for Ellis,  finished 6th and 7th respectively. They each won a sprint during the 100 lap race with 10 sprints.   The average pace was 46.391 km/h.

In the men's points race, the Kiwi trio of Aaron Gate, Peter Latham and Shane Archbold, along with the rest of the field, were subjected to the total domination of Australian Cameron Meyer.  While Gate, the best of the Kiwis, missed the important break which lapped the field the first time, Meyer went on to lap everyone two more times.

While Meyer well and truly sewed up the gold medal, the race was still on for the minor placings with Gate trying again and again to break free from the field and gain a lap to get him in bronze medal contention.  He won three interim sprints and placed in the Top 3 in five others, but without the lap he was kept out of the medals in 5th place after 160 laps.  The average speed was 51.707 km/h.