Felix English marginally missed out on the podium finishing fourth in the Men’s Scratch Race at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup today in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
English has been consistently in the top five in this event over the past year, adding this fourth to his fifth place finish at the European Championships and fourth in the Track World Cup in Hong Kong last year.
In the Women’s Omnium Lydia Boylan finished in 9th place with a strong performance in the final Points Race when she lapped the field.
The Scratch Race was very active from the start with English chasing across to the main move, just getting pipped for bronze by Belgium’s Moreno de Pauw. Gold went to Raman Ramanau of Belarus with Great Britain’s Christopher Latham taking silver.
Speaking after the race English was disappointed to miss out on the medal, while being satisfied that his racing is consistent: “The race was really active from the gun, and I was doing my best to cover everything. However, I missed the main move and had to ride across the half lap gap.”
“I managed to recover for the finale, but a moment of hesitation lost me a medal again, similar to the Europeans. I’m happy to be showing some consistency in the major events, but gutted to once again miss out on a medal.”
English will be competing with Mark Downey in the Madison Race on Sunday, and credited Cycling Ireland Coach David Muntaner with his progress, saying: “We train consistently hard with David and it’s really paying off now. Full credit to him for not only bringing me on, but bringing the whole men’s endurance team up to a world class level.”
“There’ll be a lot of success over the next few years with him at the helm. David’s the toughest, but also the best coach that I and all the other lads have ever had.”
Lydia Boylan has also been racing well in the Omnium, a multi-event that this year has been restructured to include four bunch races in one day.
In the opening Scratch Race Boylan was eighth, followed by twelfth and fifteenth in the Tempo and Eliminations Race.
In order to gain places from the twelfth place she held going into the final race, the Dublin rider who races for Team WNT won the opening sprint in the Points Race, lapping the field before gaining a further five points, bringing her to ninth overall.
Tomorrow sees Ireland’s first female track Olympian Shannon McCurley in action in the Keirin, along with Eoin Mullen in the Men’s Sprint.
Also in action will be 20 year old Mark Downey, competing in the Men’s Points Race, an event in which he excels. At the European Track Championships in 2014 Downey won silver in the junior category, followed by another silver medal in the U23 Points Race at the European Track Championships this year.
The Track World Cup in Apeldoorn runs from Friday 11th November to Saturday 13th November in the Omnisport Velodrome in Apeldoorn, in The Netherlands. This is the second Track World Cup on the 2016/2017 calendar, with Glasgow hosting the first World Cup last weekend.
