Great Britain’s women were dominant as they took gold in the Team Pursuit final on the opening night of the Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow.
The quartet of Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Neah Evans and Ellie Dickinson, who recently became European champions, recorded a time of 4:12.244, taking three seconds off their winning time in October in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
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This time also represented the fastest of this Olympic cycle, with only eight months to go until the Tokyo Games, and the fourth-fastest ever.
GB easily beat the second-placed Germans, whose time was 2.099 seconds slower. The men, with their squad made up of Ed Clancy, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Hayter and Ollie Wood, were unable to follow the women’s victory, losing the bronze medal race to France.
However, the sprint trio of Ryan Owens, Jack Carlin and Joe Truman achieved silver in their discipline, beaten by the Netherlands who took gold.
“We’re very happy,” Archibald said following the victory. “A lot of the conversations leading into an event like this are on whether you want to focus on a result or a process and we’re focusing on a process, so to come away with a result like this, we’re very happy.
“We went in with a plan that scared us a bit. We wanted to front-end it, which is what you see the best nations in the world do, so to challenge ourselves and come off with a win, it feels good.”
Britain also took six medals in the Para-cycling, with Lora Fachie winning gold and Laura Cluxton silver in the Para B individual pursuit, while Crystal Lane-Wright won the women’s Para C5 individual pursuit.
Jody Cundy, Finlay Grahan and Jaco van Gass took gold in the mixed Para C1-C5 team sprint, beating another squad of Brits.
The World Cup continues on day two with the men’s Madison and women’s Omnium expected to provide the highlights.
