New Zealand has ridden away with eight medals, five of them gold, at the track cycling world cup meet in Cambridge.
New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate combined for the best New Zealand result on the final day to win the 50km Madison race.
"We really wanted to push the boat out and see what we could do over the 50km race. The World Cup here back in January was 30km but the Olympic distance is 50km so we wanted to get stuck in," Gate said.
"After we got ahead we were able to follow and cover them and make sure we were picking up enough points to open the gap and then we were able to pick up another lap at the end which gave us the buffer," Stewart said.
"The feeling in the crowd helped push us get around. We managed to push a few more laps - last time we got two laps and this time we got four. It was unreal out there and hopefully the world cup will come back can come back again and we can get six laps up."
The undoubted highlight of the weekend was the women's team pursuit Rushlee Buchanan, Holly Edmondston, Bryony Botha and Kirstie James who beat world champions, Australia in the gold medal race.
They won in a time only half a second outside the world record set by Great Britain at the Rio Olympics.
Their time was more than five seconds inside their own New Zealand record set in January this year.
In other racing for New Zealand on the final day, Ellesse Andrews, won the consolation final for seventh overall in the keirin, with teammate Olivia Podmore ninth.
Fellow Kiwi sprinters Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell fell short of the medal rounds in the men's sprint.
Rushlee Buchanan had to settle for 15th place in the women's omnium, her chances spoiled in the opening scratch race when a rider came down in front of her and the resulting crash left her with just the final placing of two points. She placed eighth in the tempo, 14th in the elimination and ninth in the points race.
The penultimate round of the Tissot UCI Track World Cup is in Brisbane starting on Friday.
