2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Women's scratch
| 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships | |||
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| Podium: Ellen van Dijk (1), Yumari González (2) and Belinda Goss (3) | |||
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 30 March 2008 | ||
| Distance | 10 km (6.214 mi) | ||
| Medalists | |||
 Gold |
 Ellen van Dijk (the Netherlands) |
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 Silver |
 Yumari González (Cuba) |
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 Bronze |
 Belinda Goss (Australia) |
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← 2007
2009 →
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The 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Women's scratch was one one of the 8 women's events at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, United Kingdom. It took place at the Manchester Velodrome on 30 March 2008, featuring 21 women from 21 countries. It was the seventh women's scatch race appearance at UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
After several attacks that didn't come to anything Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands struck out alone with less than eight laps to go. No one else reacted and she rode solo to the finish. The sprint of the peloton behind Van Dijk was won by Yumari González of Cuba who took the silver medal ahead of Belinda Goss of Australia who took bronze.
Competition format
A scratch race is a race in which all riders start together and the object is to be first over the finish line. The competition consisted on 40 laps, making a total of 10 km without intermediate points or sprints. There were no qualification rounds for this discipline so the event was run direct to the final.[1]
Pre-race favourites
She won the scratch race at the 2007 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and won in the 2007-2008 track cycling season the World Cup race in Sydney and finished third in the World Cup race in Beijing.
She finished second in the scratch race at the 2007 UCI track cycling World Championships.
- Belinda Goss
, Jarmila Machačová 
and Annalisa Cucinotta 
They won all three a silver medal during a 2007-2008 World Cup race.
Race
The race started at 16:30 British Summer Time (UTC+1) and was scheduled to last until 16:50.[1] 21 women form 21 countries took part in the race.[2]
The race was peppered with attacks, the first meaningful one coming in only lap five from Aksana Papko of Belarus in an early bid to match her countryman Aliaksandr Lisouski's victory in the men's race on day one. She was hunted down by a small group that included Svetlanan Paulikaite of Lithuania, Svitlana Galyuk of Ukraine and Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands. The rest of the bunch was very attentive at this early stage though and they were soon hunted down. Paulikaite struck out alone, but her effort didn't come to anything. A crash in the middle period of the race took down Catherine Cheatley of New Zealand and Spain's Gema Pascual Torrecilla after a touch of wheels near the back. Cheatley remounted after a few minutes, but Pascual Torrecilla pulled out having fallen more heavily. More attacks continued, but all were reeled. With less than eight laps to go, Van Dijk struck out alone and no one else reacted. She overtook the Danish rider Trine Schmidt from an earlier escape and had soon almost half lap lead, as the rest of the riders hesitated and looked to one another to chase down the 'flying Dutchwoman'. Despite having almost half a lap on the rest of the pack, Van Dijk refused to start getting complacent, but just put her head down and kept going. When finally a chase did materialise, it was all far too late and Van Dijk finished alone with a considerable gap to take the gold medal and the rainbow jersey. Behind Van Dijk the sprint was won by the 2007 champion Yumari Gonzalez Valdivieso of Cuba, ahead of Belinda Goss from Australia. Annalisa Cucinotta of Italy was fourth and Rebecca Quinn from the United States of America fifth.[3][4][5][6]
Personal reactions after the race
"I was never World champion so it is my biggest victory so far! I was focused on the individual pursuit, everything for me was on that. My individual pursuit was good, but I was fifth and just missed the finals. I was very disappointed because I also missed the Olympic Games, because I only started riding [world cups] on the track four months ago. I didn't have enough points to ride in the individual pursuit in the Olympics." About the scratch race she continued: "My plan was to attack about 10 laps from the finish, I wanted to go when the speed was a bit lower. I did it about eight laps before the finish. I was surprised, but every country has just one rider so they don't work together. That was better for me to ride away. I didn't look behind, just once," she added. "I knew I had to give it everything and if there was no gap, then there was no gap. But it worked out well." Despite having quite a considerable gap coming into the final lap, Van Dijk refused to believe that the race was won until the very end. She detailed the point at which she realised that she was definitely going to triumph. "Just 100 metres before the finish," she said. "I didn't know how big the gap was [before then], I didn't look back, I was just focused on riding hard and getting everything out." A few days on from the frustration of non-qualification, her new rainbow jersey and gold medal provide her with a great deal of compensation. "I was really, really disappointed with that," she confirmed. "But this makes up for it."[4][7]
"The race was very fast." She told the assembled media. "I didn't feel very good but at the end I was able to get the silver medal so I am happy about that."[5]
"I'm certainly stoked by the result. It is such a great improvement on last year. It would have been great to have got gold, the top prize, but I am really happy. It has been a long wait. I had to put it in my head that I'd get in some training this week, get a bit fitter. But I am really happy with myself; things have been going well for me. I rode well in Europe last year."[5]
Final classifications
The victory ceremony was held at 17:15 British Summer Time (UTC+1).[1] The winner was awarded the rainbow jersey and the top three riders got flowers and respectively a gold, silver and bronze medal.[8]
| Rank | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
  |
Ellen van Dijk | Netherlands |
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Yumari González | Cuba |
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Belinda Goss | Australia |
| 4 | Annalisa Cucinotta |  Italy |
| 5 | Rebecca Quinn |  United States |
| 6 | Pascale Jeuland |  France |
| 7 | Elizabeth Armitstead |  United Kingdom |
| 8 | María Luisa Calle |  Colombia |
| 9 | Elke Gebhardt |  Germany |
| 10 | Catherine Cheatley |  New Zealand |
| 11 | Olga Slyusareva |  Russia |
| 12 | Svitlana Galyuk |  Ukraine |
| 13 | Jarmila Machacova |  Czech Republic |
| 14 | Gina Grain |  Canada |
| 15 | Aksana Papko |  Belgium |
| 16 | Wan Yiu Wong |  Hong Kong |
| 17 | Jessica Jurado |  Mexico |
| 18 | Svetlana Paulikaite |  Lithuania |
| 19 | Trine Schmidt |  Denmark |
| DNF | Gema Pascual Torrecilla |  Spain |
| DNF | Wathinee Luekajorh |  Thailand |
DNF = did not finish
References
- ^ a b c "Competition Schedule". Tissot timing. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ^ "Start list". Tissot timing. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ^ "Goud voor Mulder en Van Dijk". NOS. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ a b Atkins B. and S. Stokes (31 March 2008). "No Olympics for Van Dijk, but happy with worlds". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ a b c "UCI 2008 Track World Championships - Day 5, March 30". cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on 24 June 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
- ^ "Goud voor Ellen van Dijk op scratch". WielerRevue.nl. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ "WK baanwielrennen: Ellen van Dijk". NOS. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ "Image of the podium". Tissot timing. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ^ "Women's Scratch Final Results". Tissot timing. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
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