Best of the Cali Track World Cup - Gallery

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The track season has revved up another gear with the first round of the World Cup in Cali, Colombia, this weekend.

It is the first time this season that all the major nations have had a chance to see how they match up against their rivals in the final season ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio next August.

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Germany and China lead the way after two days of competition with two gold medals a piece. While Canada has enjoyed a strong weekend and sits in third in the medal standings, after taking a convincing gold in the women’s team pursuit.

Flick through the gallery above and look back on Day 1 and Day 2 of competition in the first round of the World Cup.

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Serry recovering from head trauma after mountain bike accident

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Etixx-QuickStep’s Pieter Serry is recovering from a basal skull fracture sustained during a crash while mountain biking near his home in Belgium, according to a team press release.

Serry hit a hole while mountain biking and his face was the primary point of contact when he hit the ground. He was transported to Hospital of Tielt where doctors confirmed a basal skull fracture, one broken tooth and other superficial wounds. Doctors also confirmed that his injuries will not require surgery.

Serry will require cervical immobilization for at least six weeks.

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"Today was just really bad luck," Serry said. "I was riding on the gravel, in a straight road. I lost control in a hole and I crashed. I'm really sad as it's another crash during my season, but the first one that is really the result of anything I did.”

Serry has been involved in multiple serious crashes this year. He was in a crash at the Giro d’Italia in May, during stage 2, which took down multiple riders. It was reported that Serry hit his head and thought he had fractured his collarbone, and was forced to quit the Giro d’Italia. He also fractured his collarbone at the Volta a Catalunya in March.

He most recently crashed at the Grand Prix de Wallonie in September and was forced to abandon the race and go to the hospital of Cliniques Universitaires UCL Mont-Godinne, where he was diagnosed with a luxation of the left elbow.

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News shorts: Pozzato nears deal with Southeast, Gadret still without team

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Pozzato close to deal with Southeast

Filippo Pozzato has reached a verbal agreement with the Pro Continental team Southeast. Pozzato is currently without a team after he failed to renew his contract with Lampre-Merida for 2016.

"There is a gentleman's agreement," his manager Andelo Citracca told Gazzetta dello Sport. “The announcement of the transfer will come when there is a signature."

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Pozzato has had interest from a number of different teams, including Tinkoff-Saxo and Androni Giocattoli. The Italian turned professional in 2000 and has ridden for teams such as Mapei, Fassa Bortolo, Liquigas and most recently Lampre-Merida. He has won stages in all three Grand Tours and is a former Italian national champion.

Gadret still without a team

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Froome refused to apply for TUE at Tour de France despite illness

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After the furore that surrounded him at this year’s Tour de France, Chris Froome says that he refused to apply for a TUE for an infection he picked up in the latter part of the race. Froome and his teammates endured an often hostile reaction from some members of the public during this year’s Tour. Several of them were spat at, while Froome also claimed that one fan even threw urine at him.

Froome fell ill after stage 17 of this year’s Tour but, despite the insistence of the team, he decided to not to look for stronger medication to alleviate the symptoms.

“After everything we had been through in this year’s Tour, especially the hostility from different people along the way, it just felt that if we go down this route, we are opening the door for a whole new wave of criticism and aggression. It would have been within the rules, but I didn’t want it to be the Tour de France that was won because he took this medication in the last week,” Froome told the Sunday Times.

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In June 2014, French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported that Froome had a TUE application for corticosteroid prednisolone fast-tracked during his race winning performance at the Tour de Romandie. The UCI responded that there was nothing untoward with the application process, but the issue dominated the press in the run-up to the 2014 Tour de France.

Froome was well his way to winning his second Tour de France title when he fell ill. The Team Sky rider went into the final week with a 3:10 lead over second place Nairo Quintana (Movistar). That would be reduced to just over a minute by the time they reached Paris at the end of the week. He lost most time on the final mountain stage to Alpe d’Huez and said afterwards that he was close to cracking.

Unwilling to show any signs of weakness, Froome resorted to holding his breath so as not to cough in front of his rivals. It wasn’t until one keen-eared journalist noticed a change in Froome’s voice following the penultimate stage that he admitted he had been ill throughout closing stages.

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Rodriguez motivated by tough Olympic and Tour de France courses

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Next season could be the last one for Joaquim Rodríguez, but it looks primed to send him out with a bang. The Spaniard has won a lot but there are still a few things that he needs to tick off on his palmarès before he hangs up his wheels. Rodríguez hopes that he will be able to do just that in 2016 as he puts his focus on the Tour de France and the Olympic Games in Rio, two courses he believes are strongly suited to him.

“2016 is a very attractive year that motivates me a lot because we have the Olympic Games in Brazil, and they will be a very hard Olympics for the climbers. Then there is Tour de France that, considering the route that I saw recently, is also very tough. I think that 2016 has a lot for climbers like me, and it motivates me a lot,” Rodríguez said while out in Japan for the Saitama Criterium, after taking a brief break out of his off-season.

“The Tour de France and the Olympics will be my main objectives. I won’t do the Giro and we will have to see about the Vuelta, it will be complicated because after the Tour I want to prepare for the Olympics and it will be really hard to then continue to the Vuelta a Espana. I am 100 per cent focused on the Tour de France.”

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Rodriguez hinted last winter that after the 2016 Olympics he would call an end to his career. With a new one-year contract in his pocket, however, his options are open should he want to continue. He may just want to do that if he can carry on the form that he showed this season. After a very challenging 2014 that saw him crash twice during the Ardennes Classics and abandon the Giro d’Italia in the first week, he found himself battling for the WorldTour title with his compatriot Alejandro Valverde.

It ended with a slight whimper after he injured his knee during training two days before Il Lombardia, which subsequently handed the WorldTour victory to Valverde. However, with two Grand Tour stage wins in his pocket and a podium at the Vuelta a Espana, Rodríguez can look back on his season with a much more positive light than he could this time last year.

“It was a perfect year until the end of the season when I couldn’t go to Lombardia and Abu Dhabi, two races that I could have done well at considering how I finished at the Vuelta,” said Rodríguez. “At País Vasco, I began a good streak. The Tour was brilliant, without contesting the general classification I won two stages and I wore the mountains jersey. But, above all, the end of the season, with the Vuelta, I did really well. To return to the podium in a Grand Tour is very important.

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Tennant wins World Cup silver for GB

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Great Britain's Andy Tennant wins silver in the men's individual pursuit at the Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia.

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​Valente medals at Track World Cup

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Jennifer Valente(San Diego, Calif./TWENTY16 p/b SHO-AIR) won her second medal at the2015-16 UCI World Cup #1Saturday in Cali, Colombia, earning bronze in the womenandrsquo;s scratch race.

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