The 25-year-old Frenchman took two confident wins over Perkins in the final, and said afterwards that he was both elated and relieved.

“I’m very happy. This year, all the main riders were here. I was nervous, but I didn’t think that it was finished when I won the first sprint [against Perkins]. I had a taste for the jersey from last year, I had to get it again,” he told cyclingnews.com.

In both of their sprints, Perkins and Bauge followed essentially the same pattern.

It was a gut wrenching finish for the Australian.

They have been around a bit longer, they have been racing a bit longer and they handle the nerves better,” he said. “They know what to expect, whereas I am just starting to learn that now. Hopefully everything keeps going forward and I keep progressing,” he told cyclingnews.com

The 37-year-old took out the Trofeo Palma, race one of the Challenge Majorca series in Spain.

McEwen launched his sprint with 300m left and beat Spaniards Koldo Fernandez and former world champion Oscar Freire.

The Australian suffered serious leg injuries last May in a collision during the Tour of Belgium.

“I’m really happy for this victory, it’s my second career after the injury I had last season … (it) is a very important victory for me,” he said on the cyclingnews website.

“For me, the most important thing is that I have no discomfort in my leg, I feel fine and I can compete again with the best”

He was impressive at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under, steadily regaining some form.

He was the best-placed Australian at fourth overall in the Tour.

McEwen has said he wants to keep racing next year, but he will wait until after the Tour de France before deciding on his future.

McEwen is one of Australia’s most talented cyclists, many regard him as one of the most consistent.

- with AAP

The 27-year-old German crushed the competition in the opening two stages before using his prowess along with his team to defend that lead. 

Australian Allan Peiper was there to enjoy the victory.

“We came here and knew André was on a mission after winning two years ago and crashing out last year,” Peiper told cyclingnews.com

“Grabschy [Bert Grabsch] wasn’t in the original selection for the Tour Down Under so he sent me a dirty email asking why he wasn’t riding and that he wanted to be in the team… So when you get guys at you to ride the race that’s really good as well.”

“André never would have won without them and the efforts they’ve made during the last few days. Even the stage to Goolwa was epic – an epic battle. Yesterday it was the same again but we had a tickle of luck and got some help from Katusha and Saxo Bank to lead their guys out for the sprint. That turned the tide.

“You’ve always got to have luck with you anyway, so it couldn’t have been more successful.”

Stage 6 – Adelaide City Council Street Circuit 4.5km:   
Christopher Sutton 1h53m20s 1, Greg Henderson st 2, Graeme Brown st 3, Robbie McEwen st 4, Andre Greipel st 5, Allan Davis st 6, Matthew Goss st 7, Yauheni Hutarovich st 8, Gert Steegmans st 9, Jose Rojas st 10.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION:    Andre Greipel 18h47m5s 1, Luis Leon Sanchez at 11s 2, Greg Henderson at 15s 3, Robbie McEwen at 17s 4, Luke Roberts at 17s 5, Cadel Evans at 21s 6, Eduard Vorganov at 25s 7, Jurgen Roelandts at 26s 8, Robbie Hunter at 26s 9, Markus Fothen at 27s 10, Baden Cooke at 29s 11, George Hincapie at 29s 12, Andriy Grivko at 29s 13, Jurgen Van De Walle at 30s 14, Julian Dean at 30s 15, Martin Elmiger at 30s 16, Rene Mandri at 30s 17, Ivan Velasco at 30s 18, Alejandro Valverde at 32s 19, Aitor Perez Arrieta at 39s 20, Wesley Sulzberger at 39s 21, Jose Alberto Benitez Roman at 39s 22, Jose Rojas at 46s 23, Michael Rogers at 58s 24, Lance Armstrong at 1m3s 25, Fabio Sabatini at 1m24s 26, Serguei Klimov at 1m27s 27, Gorka Izagirre at 1m35s 28, Peter Sagan at 1m38s 29, Peter McDonald at 1m47s 30, Daryl Impey at 1m49s 31, Cameron Meyer at 2m10s 32, Hayden Roulston at 2m11s 33, Matthew Lloyd at 2m29s 34, Graeme Brown at 2m34s 35, Gert Steegmans at 2m36s 36, Ivan Gutierrez at 2m36s 37, Stijn Vandenbergh at 2m42s 38, Christopher Sutton at 2m48s 39, Josep Jufre Pou at 2m57s 40, Jesus Hernandez Blazquez at 3m5s 41, Sebastien Rosseler at 3m7s 42, Tomas Vaitkus at 3m11s 43, Bernhard Eisel at 3m14s 44, Gorazd Stangelj at 3m18s 45, Thibaut Pinot at 3m26s 46, Mikel Nieve at 3m33s 47, Arthur Vichot at 3m36s 48, Yaroslav Popovych at 3m38s 49, Thomas Rohregger at 3m48s 50, Romain Sicard at 3m59s 51, Thomas Frei at 4m50s 52, Koos Moerenhout at 4m53s 53, Christian Meier at 4m58s 54, Cyril Dessel at 5m15s 55, Juan Ripoll Horrach at 5m24s 56, Mathieu Perget at 5m30s 57, Timothy Roe at 5m53s 58, Yuriy Krivtsov at 6m23s 59, Valeriy Dmitriyev at 7m3s 60, Mathew Hayman at 7m16s 61, Ludovic Turpin at 7m16s 62, Mauro Santambrogio at 7m32s 63, Frank Hoj at 7m36s 64, Jos Van Emden at 8m4s 65, Mauro Finetto at 8m8s 66, Rohan Dennis at 8m11s 67, Biel Kadri at 8m47s 68, Stuart O’Grady at 9m24s 69, Anthony Roux at 9m31s 70, Davide Vigano at 9m48s 71, Oscar Pereiro at 10m2s 72, Danilo Wyss at 10m16s 73, Matthew Goss at 10m53s 74, Matthew Wilson at 10m55s 75, Christopher Froome at 10m55s 76, Stef Clement at 11m8s 77, Trent Lowe at 11m33s 78, Jonathan Cantwell at 11m41s 79, David Vitoria at 11m54s 80, Jurgen Van Goolen at 12m9s 81, Michael Matthews at 13m6s 82, Marcel Sieberg at 13m21s 83, Jens Voigt at 13m29s 84, Jonas Ljungblad at 13m38s 85, Anders Lund at 13m57s 86, Addy Engels at 14m3s 87, Allan Davis at 14m42s 88, Martin Kohler at 14m50s 89, Manuel Cardoso at 15m4s 90, Nikolas Maes at 16m13s 91, Thomas Leezer at 17m34s 92, Mikael Cherel at 18m12s 93, Mickael Delage at 18m13s 94, Alexandr Pliuschin at 18m24s 95, Russell Downing at 18m41s 96, Gerben Lowik at 18m45s 97, Jack Bobridge at 19m 98, Mathieu Drujon at 19m9s 99, Ben Swift at 19m28s 100, MacIej Paterski at 20m2s 101, Pierre Cazaux at 20m5s 102, Martin Pedersen at 20m11s 103, Rick Flens at 20m16s 104, Olivier Kaisen at 21m42s 105, Yauheni Hutarovich at 22m36s 106, Denis Galimzyanov at 23m28s 107, Kasper Klostergaard at 23m35s 108, Jacopo Guarnieri at 24m17s 109, Bert Grabsch at 25m26s 110, Juan Jose Haedo at 25m51s 111, Jason McCartney at 25m53s 112, Jonathan Castroviejo at 27m12s 113, Kevin Van Impe at 27m22s 114, Simon Clarke at 27m33s 115, Robert Forster at 28m2s 116, Miguel Minguez at 28m19s 117, Kristijan Koren at 29m5s 118, David Gutierrez at 29m20s 119, Karsten Kroon at 29m26s 120, Michele Merlo at 29m51s 121, Jose Garcia at 30m47s 122, Mauro Facci at 31m20s 123, Bjorn Schroder at 33m 124, David Kemp at 33m10s 125, Dominik Roels at 36m18s 126, Daniel Sesma at 42m47s 127.AAP

Law and Carver were one of the youngest teams to contest the Memorial Noel Fore

Carver, who just turned 18 on November 25, was one half of the junior World Champion team in the Madison this summer with Luke Durbridge. He and Law used the expertise of Six Day legend Matthew Gilmore to secure the overall win in Gent.

They admitted being surprised  of how the race went for them.

After the opening day, the pair were leading by two laps on the competition as they dominated from the outset to finish three laps ahead of a French team.

The Australian duo wowed the crowds with record-breaking performances in the flying lap and 500m time trial.

Their 8.94 second lap would have placed them fourth in the elites, and the 28.59 500m time would have also been competitive against the world’s best.

Gilmore, a five-time elite Six Day winner at the Kuipke Velodrome, was the man behind the win.

“His expertise was very important for us,” Law said on cyclingnews.com.

“It was the first time we rode such a steep track, and because it was the first time we have raced a real Six Day.”

“We trained here for the first time only the day before the race … Matthew was patient and gradually taught us how to race without wasting too much energy. It’s really different than a 250m track, and without him it would have been harder, especially when we had our lead and had to consistently maintain it. ”

with cyclingnews.com

Australia’s cycling bosses have condemned the changes and have already informed its aspiring medallists for bad news come the 2012 London Olympics – particularly the male athletes.

National cycling head Shayne Bannan said he expected the individual pursuits, points raes and men’s madision will be scrapped but that women will have three more events to enter.

The sudden changes which would see more sprinting and less endurances races on the track have also been condemned internationally.

”We’ve had our little bit of a whinge and kicked the dog and whatever, but the decision is what it is,” Bannan told The Age newspaper this week.

”The madison, the individual pursuit and the points score won’t be at the Olympic Games in London, it will be replaced by the women’s team sprint, the women’s keirin, the women’s team pursuit and the women’s and men’s omnium. It’s fantastic for sprint cycling and it’s fantastic for women’s cycling, so there are real positives and pluses there. But, I’m not in agreeance with taking events out and replacing them. The individual pursuit and points score, and the individual pursuit in particular, is a traditional Olympic Games event so that will be a sad decision for track endurance cycling.”

It’s a massive blow to young Aussie cyclists such as Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard.

Meares won the keirin and 500m time trial gold medals with her proud country Australia completing the three-day event winning eight of the 17 events at their home leg.

Meares came from behind with two laps left in the six-lap keirin to shade her Chinese rival Guo Shuang and Christin Muche of Germany in the final.

“I was really quite worried about the load this evening and once the 500 (time trial) was out the way, I really didn’t get the chance to celebrate, I was straight into the mindset of the keirin,” Meares told AFP.

 ”I was tired, I was hurting, but I actually felt half decent.”

After two legs, Australia led the overall World Cup standings with 210 points, 11 points ahead of Britain (199) with Germany (189) third.

Meares, who won the 500m time trial in the second-fastest time in history at 33.583 seconds, came away with three gold medals at the event following her earlier victory in the sprint.

Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite holds the 500m time trial world record at 33.296.

Meares suffered a serious neck injury in a race fall in January last year and this was only the second time she has won a World Cup keirin gold medal.

Other Australians to dominate were Shane Perkins, who riding for the Australian Jayco professional team, beat Frenchman Kevin Sireau two heats to nil to take out the men’s sprint.

New Zealand won two gold medals on the final night in the women’s team pursuit and men’s madison.

The Kiwis finished second overall to Australia in the Melbourne leg with Germany third. The third World Cup leg will be staged in Cali, Colombia, from December 10-12.

With AFP

Fellow Australian Michael Matthew won the under-23 time trial and compatriot Alexis Rhodes took out the women’s event.

But from champion rower to cyclist, Ginn, from Victoria, clocked 51 minutes and 40 seconds after only three weeks’ specific training on a time trial bike.

A back injury prompted the 34-year-old Ginn to spend more time on a bike at the start of the year and he increased his training a couple of months ago.

His next major event will be the time trial at the Australian road championships in January.

Buninyong, near Ballarat will host the nationals.

“I’m pretty realistic – I have a good group of people around me who are helping,” Ginn told AAP from New Zealand.

“The next chance is the Aussie time trial in January and you get a really good chance to see how you compare to the better guys in Australia.

“From me, it’s the motivation of wanting to see how far we can take it.

“I’m open to any opportunity to perform … give me a chance and I will see how I go.”

Olympic cycling gold medallist Scott McGrory and fellow Victorian Institute of Sport coach Jonathon Hall have been key players in the rise of Ginn.

The former Oarsome Foursome rower has tried other sports before, finishing the Ironman Australia triathlon in 2005.

“It’s a positive start to it all and I didn’t come here with any expectations, apart from seeing how I could go,” Ginn said of his Oceania win.

“I walk away from the day with some really good things I’ve learned and to try in the future.

“It’s heading in the right direction, put it that way.”

Asked about his age, Ginn replied: “34 and getting younger by the day – I keep telling myself that, anyway.”

Howard is Geelong’s latest gun cyclist with many predicting his career is ready to soar.

He joins Kaarle McCullock who was a Team Jayco Rider, joining fellow rider Shane Perkins.

Australian rosters for Manchester Track World Cup:
Australian National Team: Tess Downing, Belinda Goss, Leigh Howard, Kaarle McCulloch, Anna Meares, Glenn O’Shea, Shane Perkins and Josephine Tomic.
Team Jayco: Daniel Ellis, Jason Niblett and Scott Sunderland.

But it wasn’t easy pickings for the Belgium rider, having to overcome an awful start, which saw him kilometers of the main group.

The Powerplus rider said he was happy with the events conditions, which suited him to a tee.

“Today’s course, with the rain and the mud, is what I like,” he said.

“The ground was very slippery, but still fast, the best condition for me. I hope to come back in January for Worlds, but hopefully it’s still without snow and ice then,” Albert said.”

Albert finished 19 seconds ahead of compatriot Sven Nys, who finished in seconds place overall.

Despite being pipped for the title, the Landbouwkrediet-Colnago cyclist said he can take many positives out of the loss.

“Now I’m improving my start position for the future races and I can head to the Koppenbergcross with ease of mind. We’ll see some more interesting races in the near future,” he said.

Hometown hero Zdenek Štybar was out sprinted over the finish line and had to settle for third spot.

Kevin Pauwels finished fourth overall, with French champion Francis Mourey rounding out the top five.

Albert now holds a strong lead of 25 point over his nearest rival after two rounds, with Štybar his nearest rival.

The next round of the World Cup round will be in Nommay, France, on November 8.

The 230km race saw over 150 riders tackle the journey, with big names Oscar Freire, Filippo Pozzato, and Arnaud Gerard all on the starting line.

But on a beautiful spring afternoon it was Gilbert who outshone the others. The Belgium rider fought it out in a two way battle with countrymen Tom Boonen for the coveted prize.

It was a case of revenge for Gilbert who was narrowly pipped by Boonen in the Belgian championship title earlier this year. With only 300 meters remaining the duo broke away from the main paleton in an attacking sprint.

Slovakian Borut Bozic, who broke away initially with the two, could not go with the lightning pace and finished two seconds behind in third position.

Katusha’s Filippo Pozzato led the main chasing group home for fourth, a further 14 seconds behind.
Gilbert was overjoyed in the occasion and revealed how he left a bit in the tank, knowing that his main rival would be hot on his heels.

“I saved myself just until the end. When I attacked, I picked my spot perfectly, it was a planned spot,” he said.

“When I am in a position like that, I am confident and so I was not afraid of Tom Boonen.”

Gilbert won the race last year in a similar manner ahead of Belgian Jan Kuyckx and Frenchman Sébastien Turgot.