NZ cyclists score medals in World Cup

New Zealand cyclists scored two further medals on the second night of finals at the UCI World Cup in Melbourne.

While the Olympic medal winning men's team pursuit were expected to earn their medal in the bronze ride-off, their effort was over-shadowed by Tom Scully who surprised the field to win the men's scratch race.

After narrowly missing out on the final, the New Zealand quartet of Sam Bewley, Peter Latham, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent beat the Olympic silver medallists Denmark in the bronze medal ride at the Hisense Arena.

They were denied a sub-four minute ride when they caught the Danes on the last corner with a Danish rider lapping out coming between two of the New Zealand riders.

During the scratch race 10 riders put a lap on the field with Scully making the decisive break a lap from the finish, winning by five lengths to beat experienced riders including world champion Chris Newton.

Earlier Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch) finished sixth in the women's points race, scoring in three sprints in her first major track event in several years after concentrating solely on the road.

Palmerston North's Simon Van Velthooven finished fifth in the final of the keirin won by Germany's Carsten Bergemann.

Ethan Mitchell (G-Race, Auckland) finished 11th in the kilo time trial.

Rotorua's Bewley finished by securing qualification for next year's world championship.

"It was a good effort. Naturally we would have rather been riding for the gold but we've got the second fastest time of the meet and we would have gone under four minutes if we hadn't got caught up with the Danes," Bewley said.

"I'm not making excuses but we are hardly fresh right now. Three of us have been racing for 11 months and we are absolutely shattered. So we can take a lot of positives out of this.

"We've showed we can come off a hard Tour of Southland and get a New Zealand record last week and come on to here and find some good form."

Bewley said he has learned a lot this year after mixing his first season on the professional road circuit in USA with Trek Livestrong as well as two major track campaigns.

Today's final day features New Zealand riders in the men's Madison and sprints and womenbs team pursuit.

Day 2 Finals Results:

Kilo Time Trial: Scott Sunderland (AUS) 1:02.171, 1; Chongyang Wang (CHN) 1:02.204, 2; Teun Mulder (COF) 1:02.404, 3. Ethan Mitchell (G-Race, NZL) 1:05.305, 11.

Women's Points, 10km: Giorgia Bronzini (ITA) 16, 1; Shelley Olds (USA) 11, 2; Madeleine Sandig (GER) 11, 3. Joanne Kiesanowski (NZL) 6, 3.

Men's 400m team pursuit, gold medal ride-off: Australia 3:59.59, 1; Great Britain 4:01.935, 2.

Bronze medal ride-off: New Zealand (Sam Bewley, Peter Latham, Marc Ryan, Jesse Sergent) 4:00.237, 3; Denmark dnf, 4.

Men's keirin final: Carsten Bergemann (GER) 1, Azizulhasni Awang (BTA) 2, Josiah Ng (MAS) 3. Simon Van Velthooven (NZL) 5.

Ride-off 7th to 12: Sam Webster (NZL) 3.

Men's 15km scratch race: Tom Scully (NZL) 1, Lukasz (POL) 2, Victor Shmalko (KTA) 3.

- NZPA