MELBOURNE, 27 May 2004 — France made a perfect start to the track cycling world championships yesterday with a golden double on the first night of competition.
Franck Perque won the men’s 40-kilometer points race before Mickael Bourgain, Laurent Gane and Arnaud Tournant combined to win the men’s team sprint.
Spain finished second in the team sprint and Britain beat Germany in the bronze medal race while Uruguay’s Milton Wynants and Juan Esteban Curuchet of Argentina filled the minor placings in the points race. Perque had teamed up with Jerome Neuville to win the Madison at the 2002 world championships in Manchester but this was his first individual world title.
The 29-year-old collected 35 points during the 160-lap event, finishing four points clear of Wynants and seven in front of Curuchet.
Perque failed to earn any points on the first five of the 16 sprint laps but made his move in the middle stages of the race.
He grabbed maximum points by winning two sprint laps and also picked up points on three other laps plus a 20-point bonus as one of eight riders who lapped the main field.
France won the men’s team sprint for the sixth time in eight years to confirm their place as favorites to retain their Olympic crown in Athens. They clocked a winning time of 44.394 seconds to finish almost half a second ahead of the Spanish and regain the world title they won five times in a row from 1997.
Tournant, 26, was involved in each of the five previous victories. He has now clinched 11 world championship gold medals, having also won the kilometer time trial four times between 1998 and 2001 and the sprint in 2001.
