Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald took the silver medal in the women’s Madison on the final day of the UEC European Track Championships 2019 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
The GB pair were beaten by just two points by defending champions Denmark, who also took the men’s Madison event, thanks to the efforts of Michael Mørkøv and Lasse Norman Hansen. Meanwhile, Britain’s Matt Walls and Ollie woods finished in eighth.
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Archibald and Kenny took maximum points on each of the first two sprints, but missed a changeover when well-placed coming up to sprint 4, subsequently failing to score. This lost them their momentum, then going on to win a couple of sprints later as they fought bravely to hang on to second place, edging out the Netherlands’ pair of Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters.
Speaking after her race, Archibald said: “I’m exhausted – we put everything into that. I’ve got stuff to work on personally and we’ve got ways we can improve as a team, so while I wish we had scored those two more points for gold, I still feel optimistic about future races.”
Earlier in the week, the GB women’s team pursuit took gold, the British quartet of Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald, Neah Evans and Ellie Dickinson dominating the final, putting almost three seconds into their German rivals with a time of 4-13.828.
Emily Nelson had taken the first gold medal for GB in the women’s scratch race, while Italian sprinter Elia Viviani returned to the track after a successful road season to win the men’s elimination race.
Great Britain have therefore amassed a total of nine medals at the end of the European Championships, taking two golds, four silvers and three bronze.
The next big date on the track cycling calendar will be the second round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup series, taking place in Glasgow from November 8-10.
