Racing in the Scratch Race yesterday, Felix English finished in fourth place in the fourth and final round of the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Los Angeles, USA last night.
English was leading the charge for silver with 10m to go, before being pipped at the post by France and New Zealand. Gold went to Yauheni Karaliok from Belarus, with Thomas Denis (France) and Thomas Sexton (NZ) taking silver and bronze.
Having consistently finished in the top five in this event English finished the World Cup series in second place in the overall standings. Also in action yesterday was Eoin Mullen who finished 25th in the Sprint with a time of 10.310. The LA round of the Track World Cup runs over the weekend of the 25th and 26th February 2017.
Speaking after his fourth place English was frustrated to finish within reach of the medal, but is confident with his form: “I felt really comfortable all through the race. I rode across to the French and New Zealand guys and we took a lap. The last 15 laps were cagey, though, with the Belarussian getting away; he was the eventual winner.”
“There were lots of small groups getting on the back of us in the closing laps and I made the mistake of thinking the group had got on, which they hadn’t. We were given the notice for 3 laps to go, but also 2 to go when we were on the home straight, so I ended up leading the sprint out from there and got passed by the second and third placed riders with 10m to go. That was super frustrating as I felt I was good enough to do a lot better. The Scratch Race is such a lottery!”
Today English lines out with Mark Downey in the Madison, an event in which they won silver last weekend in the third round of the World Cup Series in Cali: “It’s positive going in to the Madison, which will hopefully be a harder race.”
Also in action tonight is Anna Turvey who will compete in the Individual Pursuit, an event that netted her a bronze medal at the European Championships last October. This will be Turvey’s first World Cup outing on the track. Eoin Mullen will be racing in the Keirin tonight.
This is the final round of the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup series, with the points from these events counting towards qualification for the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong on Easter Weekend from the 12th – 16th April.
So close, hard luck Felix English