Apeldoorn track cycling World Championship a resounding success

The Dutch track cycling team and the track cycling World Championship organisation can look back on the five-day world title races at the Omnisport Complex in Apeldoorn with a great deal of satisfaction. The Dutch achieved an excellent standing among the top countries and ended up with a total of five medals: one gold (Marianne Vos in the scratch race), one silver (Teun Mulder in the time trial) and three bronze (Kirsten Wild in the Omnium event, Teun Mulder in the Keirin and the duo Peter Schep/Theo Bos in the Madison race).

The championships were a great success from an organisational perspective as well. Over 17,000 spectators attended the World Championship and witnessed the many sportive highlights. “I heard almost no complaints,” says Director Martin de Kok. “The conclusion you can draw from this is that the performance of everyone involved in this World Championship was first class. You’d almost be tempted to say let’s do it again.

”The event’s ambassador, former cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, had the highest praise for the City of Apeldoorn, which in her view made a ‘phenomenal effort’. “Wonderful how the city took up the challenge. And I am therefore more than pleased to see the city rewarded with five days of such top sporting events, topped off with five medals for the Dutch team. Hats off to everyone!

”Australia on the final day once again made off with the largest number of medals. Thanks to the gold won by the pair Cameron Meyer/Leigh Howard in the Madison race and the triumphant sprint by Anne Meares in the finals of the Keirin event, the Aussies left for Down Under with eight rainbow jerseys. In total the Australians captured eleven medals, the best result ever achieved at the track cycling World Championship. Anne Meares turned out to be the leading gold digger. She dominated the sprint, repeated that feat with her teammate Kaarle McCulloch in the team sprint and finally triumphed in the nineteenth and last event of the World Championships: the Keirin.

The Dutch team rewarded its enthusiastic fans in the stands - after the gold captured by Vos and the bronze by Mulder on Saturday - with yet another three spots on the podium. For most of the race it looked like Teun Mulder was going to extend his world title for the kilometre time trial, but in the final lap came up just short behind the German Nimke. Kirsten Wild's two-day effort was rewarded with a bronze medal at the podium. The duo Peter Schep and Theo Bos managed to secure third place in the very last sprint of the Madison race via a clever plan of attack. The Netherlands as a result ended up in sixth place in the medal count.