Cycling: Dominant Archbold blazes a path to gold

Shane Archbold has pressed his world championship medal hopes after winning the omnium title at the final round of the UCI World Cup in Manchester.

The 22-year-old from Timaru dominated the competition in the gruelling six-discipline event which will be added to the London Olympics programme.

Archbold's win left him second overall in the world cup rankings at the conclusion of the four-leg series, a single point behind Canada's Zach Lewis, but he was the only rider to claim two wins in the series.

He was fastest in the individual pursuit in 4min 23.074sec, fifth in the scratch race and third in the time trial yesterday after winning the flying lap and points race on Saturday and fourth in the eliminator.

"He's had a fantastic couple of days. He's been confident and had great performances across all of the events," said BikeNZ head coach Tim Carswell. "He is really looking fantastic heading into the world championships [in Holland] in six weeks' time.

"He has done a lot of good work and came in with very good form off the training camp in Invercargill.

"This is a unique event and you have to be very good at the timed events but also you must be extremely good tactically which are the key attributes and Shane has these qualities."

Southland's Eddie Dawkins was caught in a massive crash in the final of the keirin. While Olympic triple gold medallist Chris Hoy got the gap to win, the other five riders came down in a heavy crash with Australia's Jason Niblett up fastest to finish second.

Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang was third before being carried off on a stretcher with a splinter through his leg with Dawkins fifth after literally running across the line.

Experienced Christchurch rider Joanne Kiesanowski made a strong start to the women's omnium, finishing fifth after the first day.

The 31-year-old showed significant improvement from her two previous World Cup outings as she develops in this new Olympic event.

She was ninth in the flying lap, sixth in the points race and seventh in the eliminator to be fifth after the first day with American Sarah Hammer in a class of her own at the top of the competition.

The final day's racing includes the men's team pursuit.

- NZPA