Southland professional Corbin Strong was rewarded for his bunch riding nous with a silver medal in the elimination race on the final day of the Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
Corbin Strong in Paris Photo: PHOTOSPORT
It left New Zealand with two silver medals and a bronze from the world championships and encouragement that there is a silver lining to their preparations towards the 2024 Paris Olympics in the same St Quentin En Yvelines Velodrome.
While the elimination race is not on the Olympic schedule, Strong showed, with this performance and his fourth placing in the Points race, that he is a world-class bunch racer.
This year he has also developed into an emerging international road rider, picking up several podiums for his World Tour team, Israel Premier Tech.
He rode close to the front throughout the race, where the last rider is eliminated every two laps, with a desperate finish to eliminate the British rider Ethan Vernon in the penultimate sprint. Strong went early in the last sprint against defending champion Elia Viviani (ITA), the Olympic omnium champion, who managed to claw back the lead on the kiwi.
"From start to finish you could not fault his decisions," said coach Adrian Hegyvary. "He knew exactly what he wanted to do. It was the first time he has been beaten riding the elimination final like he did. He gave himself the best chance and he got beat by one of the best riders in the world.
"With more track prep it is exciting for Corbin. His track prep for this was six or seven Italian races and he missed out on the team build-up with his road commitments, so to see his track legs coming out from not much is impressive.
"He was super-close in the points race and could have been on the podium there as well. With Aaron Gate and Campbell Stewart, then New Zealand has three world-class bunch racers."
Earlier Olympic medallist Ellesse Andrews qualified through to the final of the women's keirin, finishing fifth from a tough draw in the final of the keirin competition.
In other racing, Bryony Botha finished ninth in the 100-lap points race, winning a sprint and putting a lap on the field, with the leading five teams managing a second lap to fight for the medals, won by Neah Evans (GBR).
Gate and Stewart combined to finish ninth in the gruelling 200-lap madison, where they won three sprints but could not get into a break to put a lap on the field to take them into medal contention in the event won by France.
-RNZ