PRUSZKOW, POLAND — Boulder’s Taylor Phinney won the individual pursuit set a new U.S. record at the track world championships on Thursday.
Phinney outpaced Jack Bobridge of Australia with a time of 4 minutes, 17.631 seconds to win his first world title. Bobridge finished almost 3 seconds back.
The 18-year-old Phinney, who is the son of 1984 Olympic medalists Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney, set a new U.S. record of 4 minutes, 15.160 seconds in qualifying earlier in the day, breaking the mark he set at the World Cup last month in Copenhagen.
Australia’s Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares upset British defending champions Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade to win the team sprint.
McCulloch and Meares finished the sprint in a blistering 33.149 seconds, just ahead of Pendleton and Reade who crossed the line in 33.380. Lithuania outpaced France for the bronze.
Morgan Kneisky of France captured the scratch title. Kneisky gave France its second gold medal of the competition with his win in the scratch race. Riding most of the 60 laps in a breakaway group of six riders, Kneisky made his move on the final turn to edge past Angel Dario Colla of Argentina and Travis Meyer of Australia at the line. Colla took the silver, while Meyer settled for bronze.
“It’s unimaginable, it’s fantastic, it’s a dream,” Kneisky said.
Britain’s Mark Cavendish, a sprint standout who won the Milan-San Remo cycling classic last week, fell back early and finished seventh.
Elizabeth Armistead, Wendy Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell of Britain clocked the fastest qualifying time in the women’s team pursuit and will look to defend the title against New Zealand’s Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Alison Shank. Australia will race the Netherlands for the bronze.
In the men’s keirin, Olympic silver medalist Ross Edgar, British teammate Matthew Crampton and 2008 world championship bronze medalist Christos Volikakis of Greece were among the qualifiers for the second round later Thursday.
Defending world champion and Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy of Britain injured his hip at the World Cup and did not compete.
