Melbourne World Cup Day 1 Scratch Race

Day one was quite an excitin' one down her in Oz. Becky and some fellow USA riders Theresa Clif-Ryan and Shelley Olds all toed the line in the qualifiers. 36 riders, 24 go through. Becky rode a perfect heat- text book so she was through. Both Theresa and Shelly made it through- Theresa with an impressive fight to the line.

In the finals things were kicked off with the Korean attacking from the get-go. Theresa at one point was in the counter move and was off the front for a while but the field stayed motivated- laps would be hard to take with that attitude. About mid-way through after a constant pace of attacks a group of 7 splintered off and had about 40 meters and growing so Becky dove and bridged and passed several riders who did not have the energy to hang on but the field had already organized and had slowly been reeling the break in. Theresa ended out in front again with another rider but the field was rolling so both Shelley and Becky pulled through.

With 4 laps to go things were a tidy mess with speed, legs, bikes, and bodies just rev'd up. Becky was in good position but was being tailed by Armisted (sp? sorry) and Cuccinata from GB and Italy (two of the best scratch riders)- somewhere between 3 and 1 to go Armisted with an Ozzie in tow bumped Quinny from below just as some other riders pinched her from above- it was going down to the wire- bumping and shoving landed Quinny in 6th and Armisted in 1st. Quinny came off the track with a big grin despite her lack of podium- it was her style race and she loved it.
USA: Quinny 6th, Olds 11th, Clif-Ryan 19th.