Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Sergei Ka.akov (right) and Anatoly Tarabenko ran a run-off for fir.t. which Ka..kov took when Tarabenko bobbled here. 'l7orld ChalD~ioilshi~lee Raee Russian's 1-2 in Holland By Henny Ray Abrams EINDHOVEN, HOLLAND , MAR. 5~6 Russia 's Sergei Kasakov successfully defended his World Championship title by beating tea mmate Anatoly Bondarenko in a run-off, w hich was causedby the two So viets tying after th e two-day 40-race program with 28 points eac h . . f Bon daren ko, a t.wo-ume o rmer World Champion , ca me back 16 fro m be h ind in th eir head-to-head baili e in th e 18th h eat o n Su nda y 10 beat Kasakov a nd force th e run-o ff o n th e ice ova l a t Eindhoven . BU! o n th ~ second la p of th e fo ur la p ru n-off Bondarenko 's rea r wheel slid o ut a nd. a lt hough he sa ved it, Ka sakov 's ti tle wa s sec u re. T h ird pl ace was a lso d ecided by a run-off a nd it , too, was a lso a bit a nti clim acti c as Soviet Alexander Srnyslai ev devel oped m om entary engi ne troubl e whi ch slowed him j us t enoug h to let 19-yea r-ol d Sw ede Erik Stenlund ra ce to th e p odi um in third pl ace a nd th e o n ly non -Soviet in th e top six pl aces. In a sport so en ti rely d om inated by o ne n at ionality , it's not a questi on o f who will win, but whi ch Russian . Having won th e last eigh t World Championship titles, a nd thi s year' s team title in Berlin recen tl y, pi cking the winner involved choosing which o f the six Soviet rider's 'entered yo u lik ed best: . . Smys laiev a nd ." I a~lmlr S ucho v star ted Sa turday ni gh t s program by ta ki ng th e h ammer. and si ckl e 10 the to p tw o spots in t he first of th e 20 heats. But in th e seco nd heal . Stenlund showed no respect for Wor ld Champion Kasa ko v. beating h im in a close race a nd d enying h im a perfect n igh t o f fiv e wins . Ana tol y G ladych ev and Bo nda . renko co n tin ued th e East bl oc d omi nat ion by taking the next two heat s. Kasakov a nd G ladyc hev eas i ly too k th ei r next two hea ts. but Ste n lu nd ran into probl ems a nd fini sh ed fo urt h in hi s next o u ting. In a p ractice crash o n Frida y, he'd been spi ked o n the upp er a r m by an oth er hik e a n d required 30 stit ch es. Alth ou gh he cla im ed that it didn't a ffec t him. hi s co nc entra tio n cer ta in ly a p pea red 10 be d own. The program was draggin g o n a nd sl owed further by th e Iir st cras h o f th e night when Sweden's Per-Olof Seren ius, the Swedish champion, went into the ha yba les as Smyslaiev sped to his seco nd win ofthe night. • " In Sweden the fans wouldn't p u t up with this, a member o f th e Swedish team ' said. "Up there, it's much co lder than here and th e people won' t sit still in the co ld for seve ral hours." Stenlund got back on track with a w in in heat II and Bondarenko fin ished out the third set o f heats with a win tying him with teammates Smyslai ev a nd Kas akov w ith eig h t p o ints eac h . T he N etherlands' R oel of Thij s brought home th e home co lors in first wi t h a pop u la r w in for th e 22.000 fans in th e 15th heat , sa nd wiched be tween Ka sakov 's a n d Bondaren ko 's vic tories. Sten l u nd e leva te d h im se lf into fou rth in the n igh t's st a ndi ngs wi th a win in h is fi nal race, hea t I i. Srnysla iev took th e next hea t a n d Kasako v beat Bonda renko in 19. Al so in th e 19th hea t. Seren ius h ook ed h is cl ut ch lever o n th e ice co m in g o ut o f the fo urt h turn a n d effec rivelv to ok himse lf o u t o f th e co mpetition'. Th e ni g ht ended w it h Ka sak o v leadin g Bondarenko 14 10 13 w ith Smys la iev o ne a hea d o f St enlund 1210 II. S u nda y afte rnoon was typicall y Dutch gray w ith the mercury hov ering in th e low 40's a nd th e track appeari ng to be in good sh ape a fte r the previ ous night 's racing. "The tri ck to m aking th e tra ck perfect for racing is to freeze the ice a ll th e wa y 10 th e top. Fr eeze a ll six inches. Then, about three or four hours . befo re the race, sh ut off the co o lin g system and let it melt just a little. Thai su rface .will"pr'o"videitie ' " '" best traction ," a veteran racewatcher said. T he 400·meter track was perfect for the first heat; Gladychev's win would tu rn out to be the fastest at 1:0 1.09 sees, but it started brea king u p a nd the final heat was over three seconds slo wer. The cro wd didn't have to wait long for th e fir st mishap to o ccur on Sunda y afternoon. Czech Stanislav Dyk sca ttered h a yb al es a n d photographer s when h e sla m me d into the fo u r th turn in the seco nd heat. H e wouldn 't rest art, but if he had h e cou ld n't h av e tou ch ed Sm ysl ai ev. Bondarenko won th e third h eat and Kasako v beat Sten lu n d in th eir o n ly head- to-head m eet in g o f the da y in th e fourth. It wasn 't'until th e seve nth he at that a non-Sov iet won a nd it to ok Ste n lund 10 d o it. Kasakov ca me back q uickly to tak e th e eig h th . Kasak ov , o f Vladivostok. a nd Bo n darenko , from Tog lia tigrad , both kept perfect nights a live through the next se t of h eat s, but St enlund pick ed up a point in Sm ysl ai ev with a win to the Russian 's seco n d . It had become a four -man race with Kasakov leading T ara Bondarenko 23 10 22 and Smyslai ev o ne better than Sten lu nd 20 to 19. Ka sa ko v's cha nces were almost ruin ed in the 15th h eat by a mechani ca l prob lem on th e sta rt in g line. A Soviet mechani c rolled out a fresh machine and Kasakov went on to win. "I had a sma ll ignition fail ure at the stan of th e heat," he sai d. . ' Iii ~tbe~ t51h'· hl!:i1·; · Dy li. · ma Ke 'th e '

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