Sadly we haven't been very good in the ladies since Vicky P left, desperately in need to a fit Becky James again.

And only fifth for the men as well, another problem area. Two of these guys rode with Chris Hoy for the gold in London, so no excuses.

Britain's men can't finish in the top 4 either so they're out of the medal races

bit of a poor show by the sprinters

No Aussies, No NZ, no Chinese........still can't finish in the top 4........

Kirby seemed to think the team sprints have final ranking races for positions 5-8 (they don't), and that the 5th-8th qualifiers in the team pursuit are out of the running for a medal (they're aren't, in theory anyway).

Varnish was too slow as woman 1, and Oliva (as man 3) cost the team a place in the medal races (over half a second slower that his French equivalent!)

how is the team pursuit working then ?

I'm going off what Carlton said and am assuming these '5-8' races that are on now are for qualifying position for points for Olympic qualification

Ireland have just beaten Germany.......well done the boys in Green !

Good to see so many women teams going for the team pursuit now, it's an expensive business compared to other track events.

Crikey, just noticed they have the full 6 and a half hours' worth tomorrow morning and afternoon as well as the finals.

No, Carlton, you don't get the gun in the qualifying, cause it's the time that counts. Looks like they will get the catch very early in the final, so saving up the WR attempt for the Worlds.

GB catch their opponents in the team pursuit 'semi' and go into the gold-silver race tonight against Russia

Despite taking 2 laps to get around Poland they still clock the fastest time

Now I'm confused.......

I'm sure Carlton has misled us along the line.......it appears that GB are not yet in the Final.........

Aah........part of my confusion has become apparent in that I was watching the women and thought I was watching the men.......

men still to race in their 'semi'

Top 8 from the qualifying round face off in the '1st' round in this order:
6th v 7th
5th v 8th
2nd v 3rd
1st v 4th

To access the gold medal race, you must be a top 4 qualifier AND win your '1st' round race. If you don't satisfy both criteria, you must be in the top 2 of the other 6 teams (in terms of time) to access the bronze medal race (or you're sent to the final ranking races for positions 5 to 8).


I think you still earn points that count towards the Olympic qualification rankings in those positions, though of course the best performers will earn more points.

The Swiss beat France and are in the gold-silver ride tonight

GB v Russia now to see who meets them......

GB win easily........

I think that's it now for the morning session

don't see this very often......

in the women's bronze medal race Poland were 3 seconds up on Bealrus coming to the finish line but the 3rd rider touched wheels and fell off 5 metres shy of the line....slid into the infield and took out a commissar

They were down to 3 riders so rider 4 who had eased off a couple of laps out had to ride round to get a time.......

GB going now for gold.......

GB 3 seconds up after 1K......

they're going to catch them within 2k.......

Gold for GB !

Yet another change has been implemented - now it looks like the winning team in a final ranking race still ride for a time if they overlap their opponents.

4:17.010 at this point in the season (including said overlap) is impressive.

After the 3rd rider crash posted above we've now had a couple of men's races where one team went down to 3 men then the 3rd man got dropped off the back of the other two

In neither case did the front two riders seem to realise because they were pressing on and the 3rd man was getting further behind

If they realised the 3rd man had been dropped surely they should slow down and wait for him..........

........and in the next race france lose the third man and one of the two in front slows down but the other one doesn't......

geez........never seen a pursuit competition with so many schoolboy errors

Here we go for Gold.........GB v Swiss

Yeah !..........gold for GB

both pursuit golds in the bag

take a break now while the sprints are on........

3:55.243 - not bad at all. They were quicker in Derby, though.

Did anyone catch what the girls were saying on the live mike that Carlton apologised for ?

I'm only half listening to the telly so not sure I'm catching everything but I think Carlton just said that Cav will miss the London 6 Day which follows these championships on Eurosport (next week)

I think he's been injured for some time so this probably isn't news

here's the riders expected to show up in London.......the meeting will also feature women's events

http://sixday.com/riders/#

Just reading up on this and the last 6 Day held in London was in 1980. The Lea valley velodrome have a contract to hold an event for the next 3 years

The sprints are underway, and the fastest qualifiers (Elis Ligtlee and Jeffrey Hoogland) are both Dutch. Their track records of 10.742 and 9.698 respectively are impressive.

Marchant was the fourth fastest woman in 10.941, which is pretty good.

I know people who don't follow the sport think that these match sprints are pretty weird.........who do they go so slow !



But I like it.........probably my favourite track event combining as it does tactics and speed

Both British girls qualify for the next round after the 'round of 16'........appears to be 9 qualifiers from the head to head races plus there's a repechage for the 9 losers.

At a guess another 7 will come in via the repechage to make 16 ?........or is that far too logical ?............it would mean we've had about 11 races to eliminate 2 riders

On the men's side the two Brits ended up against each other in the first race off round. Kenny won and Oliver goes into the repechage

Apparently there are 3 repechages with the winner going through.......so there'll be 12 qualified........6 heats, 6 winners and another lot of 2 repechage for the 6 losers to get 2 more to make up 8 for the quarter finals.

phew........I hope that's it