Men's Team pursuit: Russia takes surprise win

Dominated by teams from Oceania since 2010 (5 titles out of 6), is the team pursuit poised to become a European specialism again? After Switzerland's Stefan Kueng became individual pursuit World Champion in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, in February, it is now Russia's turn to dominate in the team pursuit in the first round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup. Alexander Serov, Sergey Shilov, Dmitry Sokolov and Kiril Sveshnikov hurtled around the Cali track to win in 4:01.064. The Swiss team took second place in 4:01.972. Australia, with ten world titles in this discipline, salvaged a place on the podium (4:01.060) at the expense of Denmark (4:02.827).

Men's Team Sprint: the power of Germany 
The first surprise of the opening day was the modest 11th place of France (Pervis, D'Almeida, Sireau – who replaced Quentin Lafargue at the last minute), after last year's World Cup and World Championships double. In contrast, the German trio of René Enders, Max Niederlag and Joachim Eilers got the international season off to a perfect start with a first win in 43.095. Poland was second in 43.748. 
The Netherlands, recently crowned European champions on the Grenchen track, overwhelmed Australia to claim the third step of the podium.

Men's Points Race: King Lok in charge 
Hong Kong rider King Lok Cheung is the first leader of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in the points race. Winning the 3rd and 5th sprints and managing to snatch a few points in the 9th, 10th and 11th, he secured a narrow victory with a total of 58 points. Spain's Eloy Teruel Rovira, the reigning World Cup champion, took three sprints to finish on 55 points while Colombian Edwin Avila Vanegas completed the podium with 52 points. "It's always a pleasure to raise my country's colours high," said the Colombian, after the appreciative crowd had raised the roof of the Cali velodrome during the race.

Women's Team Pursuit: Canada top of the pile 
Jasmine Glaesser, Allison Beveridge, Kirsta Lay and Stephanie Roorda produced a fantastic performance to win on the Cali track in 4:20.139. Canada crushed the USA (4:25.826) in the final. Great Britain overwhelmed China to take third place on the podium. Third in the World Championships at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and winner of the team pursuit World Cup title two seasons ago, the Canadian team is clearly one to watch this track season.

Women's Team Sprint: China honour their rainbow jerseys 
World Champions and world record holders (32.034) in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in February, China made a perfect start to the season by winning in Cali. The Asian duo Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong, coached by former sprinter Benoît Vêtu, showed off their rainbow jerseys to best effect on the Colombian track with an impressive 32.311. They beat Team Jayco Ais (32.588) into second. Rusvelo (32.605) got the better of Germany (32.906) for the final place on the podium.

The competitions continue in Cali today with the first events of the Omnium (Men and Women), Individual Pursuit (Men and Women), Women's Scratch, Men's Keirin and Women's Sprint.