Sport
1News

NZ finish Cycling World Cup with five golds after absolute domination of men's Madison

December 9, 2019
CAMBRIDGE, NEW ZEALAND - JANUARY 19: Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate of New Zealand compete in the Men's Madison final during the 2018 UCI Track World Cup on January 19, 2019 in Cambridge, New Zealand. (Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

New Zealand have finished the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cambridge with an impressive eight-medal haul, including an event-leading five golds after Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate won their 50km Madison last night.

Stewart and Gate were locked in a fierce battle with Aussie rivals Kelland O'Brien and Cameron Meyer, with the duos trading laps on the rest of the field throughout the race.

However, the Kiwi pair managed to handle the pressure and lapped the field for a fourth and final time to cement their title, finishing the race on an impressive 129 points - 42 points ahead of the Australians while Italy's Michele Scartezzini and Francesco Lamon took third on 57.

Stewart and Gate finished with six sprint wins along with points in eight of the other 14 sprints.

"We really wanted to push the boat out and see what we could do over the 50km race," Gate said.

"The World Cup here back in January was 30km but the Olympic distance is 50km so we wanted to get stuck in."

Stewart added once they got ahead early, the home crowd advantage helped them to keep composed.

"After we got ahead we were able to follow and cover them and make sure we were picking up enough points to open the gap and then we were able to pick up another lap at the end which gave us the buffer.

"The feeling in the crowd helped  us get around. We managed to push a few more laps - last time we got two laps and this time we got four. It was unreal out there and hopefully the World Cup will come back again and we can get six laps up."

SHARE ME

More Stories