New Delhi:
Australia's Allan Davis and Rochelle Gilmore on Sunday took the Commonwealth Games road cycling by storm and grabbed the men's and women's gold medals in spectacular fashion.
The men's 168km race turned out to be a nerve-wracking one as world championship bronze medalist Davis sneaked home ahead of the rest which included pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish of Isle of Man who ended up a poor seventh.
Davis crossed the finish line near the Parliament triumphant in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 48 seconds in the race held on Central Delhi streets on 13.7-km circuit.
"I didn't know what to do. Cam (teammate Cameron Meyer) wasn't with me and Cavendish was behind me, so I really had to use my brains to make it work and I did," said Davis after his win.
The race, staged over 12 laps, turned exciting at the last stretch when Davis stormed his way to the front before clinching the gold in the gruelling event.
Till then only four cyclists, Christopher Sutton (Australia), David Millar (Scotland), David McCann (Northern Ireland) IR) and Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) were in the lead.
Davis was with the second group which had Cavendish amongst them. During the last 150 metres, Davis pushed himself to the limit to overtake the first group.
His team mate Sutton helped him get ahead and Davis finished the race ahead of silver medalist Kiwi Hayden Roulston while Scotland's David Millar grabbed the bronze.
Sutton came fourth while Cavendish, who appeared to have given up during the last stretch of the ride, finished well outside the medal bracket.
Only two cyclists from Indian men's team were able to finish the race. Sandeep Kumar and Atul Kumar Singh finished the race in 48 and 49 rank respectively. Their other four team mates were unable to complete the race.
Indian women cyclists fared no better as they too could not complete the race.
The race started with 133 cyclists but only 52 of them could successfully finish the race.
During the morning race too, a case of cat and mouse was played in the 112-km women's race between New Zealand's Kaytee Boyd and Australia's Chloe Hoskings.
But Hosking's managed to get pass the Kiwi cyclist.
However, during the last 200 metre to the home stretch, Hosking and team mate Victoria White law hemmed in their counterparts to give a boost to their Aussie mate Rochelle Gilmore to move ahead.
As a result, Gilmore went ahead to bag the gold in 2 hours, 49 minutes and 30 seconds while England's Elizabeth Armistead snatched the silver with Hosking bagging the bronze.
The Aussie showed they promote team work, even sacrificing an individual aim.
Gilmore said, "In the last 48 hours, the Australian national head coach had decided that the team will support Chloe Hosking, another sprinter, and his reason for that was because all other countries will expect the team to support me but we wanted to confuse them a little bit."
With two races out of the four already over, Australia is leading the tally in this event with two golds and one bronze, with New Zealand, Scotland and England close behind.
The men's 168km race turned out to be a nerve-wracking one as world championship bronze medalist Davis sneaked home ahead of the rest which included pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish of Isle of Man who ended up a poor seventh.
Davis crossed the finish line near the Parliament triumphant in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 48 seconds in the race held on Central Delhi streets on 13.7-km circuit.
"I didn't know what to do. Cam (teammate Cameron Meyer) wasn't with me and Cavendish was behind me, so I really had to use my brains to make it work and I did," said Davis after his win.
The race, staged over 12 laps, turned exciting at the last stretch when Davis stormed his way to the front before clinching the gold in the gruelling event.
Till then only four cyclists, Christopher Sutton (Australia), David Millar (Scotland), David McCann (Northern Ireland) IR) and Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) were in the lead.
Davis was with the second group which had Cavendish amongst them. During the last 150 metres, Davis pushed himself to the limit to overtake the first group.
His team mate Sutton helped him get ahead and Davis finished the race ahead of silver medalist Kiwi Hayden Roulston while Scotland's David Millar grabbed the bronze.
Sutton came fourth while Cavendish, who appeared to have given up during the last stretch of the ride, finished well outside the medal bracket.
Only two cyclists from Indian men's team were able to finish the race. Sandeep Kumar and Atul Kumar Singh finished the race in 48 and 49 rank respectively. Their other four team mates were unable to complete the race.
Indian women cyclists fared no better as they too could not complete the race.
The race started with 133 cyclists but only 52 of them could successfully finish the race.
During the morning race too, a case of cat and mouse was played in the 112-km women's race between New Zealand's Kaytee Boyd and Australia's Chloe Hoskings.
But Hosking's managed to get pass the Kiwi cyclist.
However, during the last 200 metre to the home stretch, Hosking and team mate Victoria White law hemmed in their counterparts to give a boost to their Aussie mate Rochelle Gilmore to move ahead.
As a result, Gilmore went ahead to bag the gold in 2 hours, 49 minutes and 30 seconds while England's Elizabeth Armistead snatched the silver with Hosking bagging the bronze.
The Aussie showed they promote team work, even sacrificing an individual aim.
Gilmore said, "In the last 48 hours, the Australian national head coach had decided that the team will support Chloe Hosking, another sprinter, and his reason for that was because all other countries will expect the team to support me but we wanted to confuse them a little bit."
With two races out of the four already over, Australia is leading the tally in this event with two golds and one bronze, with New Zealand, Scotland and England close behind.
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