Can Anybody Stop Simona Krupeckaite? With three gold medals (for the individual sprint, 500 metres time trial and keirin) and a silver medal (team sprint) at the fourth and penultimate leg of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Beijing, Simona Krupeckaite succeeded in doing even better than last December in Cali. The Lithuanian – who has already announced her absence for the races in Copenhagen in February – finishes her World Cup campaign with a second excellent performance. At the UCI Track Cycling World Championships Pruszkow in March, the confrontation with the British Victoria Pendleton, absent from the competitions since Manchester, should prove to be extremely interesting. If Krupeckaite was undisputedly the star of the competitions at the Laoshan velodrome, which reopened its doors after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is China which received the most prestigious trophy. Without taking any victories – but thanks to the remarkable regularity of its athletes – the local team topped the nations classification. This result confirms the universality of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics and its importance in developing cycling on a world scale. Indeed, each of the four legs that have taken place so far has been won by a country from a different continent.  Krupeckaite Leads the Keirin World Cup Standings Behind the Chinese, New Zealand confirmed the quality of its endurance riders. The New Zealanders tallied up four gold medals and one silver medal in the individual and team pursuit events, as well as in the Men’s scratch event. Of note was the presence of young riders with huge potential such as Alison Shanks and Jesse Sergent alongside a well-known specialist such as Hayden Godfrey. The third place went to the Netherlands, despite their only victory coming from Willy Kanis and Yvonne Hijgenaar in the team sprint. Already victorious in Melbourne, the Malaysian Azizulhasni Awang obtained the second success of his career in the keirin, this time on the Beijing track. His compatriot Mohd Rizal Tisin created somewhat of a surprise by winning the kilometer time trial in a very good time in front of the French rider François Pervis.  Men's Keirin World Bauge (Silver, Left), Awang (Gold, Centre), Mulder (Bronze, Right) Florian Rousseau’s French team had to wait for the final of the sprint competitions to see one of its riders climb onto the highest step of the podium: In his first World Cup appearance, Grégory Baugé beat the Australian Shane Perkins, who leads the classification in this discipline. France did however take out a second gold medal, with the Cofidis team composed of Kévin Sireau, Mickaël Bourgain and François Pervis, in the team sprint. Victory in the points race for the British rider Chris Newton could not entirely erase the partial disappointment of his third place at the Olympic Games: contrary to the success in the Madison of the young Australians Glenn O’Shea and Leigh Howard – also victorious in the team pursuit with Mark Jamieson and Rohan Dennis – which represents a very significant confirmation of their ambitions for the future. With Germany still in the lead of the general classification in front of Great Britain and Spain, the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics will finish in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 13th to 15th February. 
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