The world Masters track Championships 2014
Paul Whatmough had a great week in the championships this year riding for Great Britain, getting the bronze medal in the scratch race, 5th in the team sprint, and 9th in the points race.
The 45-49 year scratch title was a very fierce 40 lap race. There was an incident 10 laps in were several riders clashed, with one rider almost taking the advertising boards out as his pedal scraped along the fence. Amazingly no one came off. Paul kept himself out of trouble, riding most of the race near the front. In the end it was decided by a very fast sprint for the line, which ended up a photo finish. The winner was David Brixton of the USA, German Cassini of Argentina 2nd and Paul Whatmough of GBR 3rd.
Paul was in action again on Thursday in the 20km, 40 lap points race. Elliot Davis GBR took gold with 16pts, Kurt begemann silver with 15pts and Thomas kapuste GER bronze with 12pts, with Paul 12th. In another very fast race, Begemann was off the front more than he was in the peloton and in a late move he had a 4 point lead with one sprint to go. But it wasn’t enough: Davis Came back with the peloton and while Begemann tired from his time off the front, Davis took the final sprint, and with Begemann not scoring points at all, Davis won the title by one point.
Paul got a guest ride on the Brooks Cycles II Sprint team, and a got a well deserved 5th place. The Brooks Cycles I team got gold, USA I got silver and the FRANCE II team bronze.
Gary Lake
Great performances Paul.