Switzerland's Franco Marvulli overcame being teamed with reserve cyclist Bruno Risi to pick up a surprising win in the Madison event Sunday, at the world track cycling championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
The Swiss tandem collected 13 points, eight points better than silver medalist New Zealand and bronze winner Argentina. Marvulli, who also won the scratch event on Wednesday, called it "unbelievable." Risi replaced Marvulli's regular partner Alexander Aeschbach Tuesday, just one day before the championships opened, after Aeschbach was hit by a bus and broke two ribs.
Germany took the gold medal the men's team sprint event with a time of 49.957 seconds. France won the silver while the bronze went to Britain. The women's sprint gold went to Svetlana Grankovskaya, while Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus claimed silver. Nancy Contreras Reyes of Mexico settled for the bronze.
Meanwhile, Italian cyclist Paolo Bettini was the fastest rider in a sprint finish Sunday, to captured the HEW Classics World Cup event in Hamburg, Germany.
Bettini beat four opponents including German Jan Ullrich to the finish line, as he completed the 253-kilometer course in 5 hours, 58 minutes 20 seconds. Italy's Davide Rebellin was second, while Ullrich took third place in the first important cycling event since the Tour de France. Police estimated one million fanswatched the event despite a heat wave in Germany. Many came to see Ullrich, after he finished as the runner-up to American Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France. Signs saying "Thank you, Jan," were posted in numerous places along the route.