Mark Cavendish and Owain Doull narrowly missed out on overall victory at Six Day London in the nail-biting final race.
The women’s competition was utterly dominated by the Brits, as Katie Archibald and Neah Evans took an emphatic victory over Elinor Barker and Laura Kenny.
Heading into the last night of racing on Sunday (October 27), the Cavendish and Doull led the general classification standings with a comfortable margin, but it would come down the very closing moments for the event to be decided.
Italians Elia Viviani and Simone Consonni took the overall victory, having started the evening in third place and slowly moving their way up the rankings.
The race kicked off with a team elimination, won by Dane Oliver Wulff, before a 250m Madison Time Trial which went to French pairing Bryan Coquard and Donavan Grondin.
Then Cavendish won the 60-lap Derney, passing Caleb Ewan on the home straight to take a tense victory, while Viviani finished third to help keep his team in the race.
Heading into the final event, the 60-minute Madison, the podium was poised for a thrilling finish and the lead changed hands multiple times as racing got underway.
But it was Viviani who passed Doull in the final sprint to soar to the top of the leaderboard and take the overall victory.
Viviani and Consonni finished the event on 498 points, Cavendish and Doull in second on 486 while Dutch pair Yoeri Havik and Wim Stroetinga were third with 470.
In the women’s competition, Katie Archibald and Neah Evans dominated proceedings and took 257 points.
Elinor Barker and Laura Kenny finished second on 198, while Emily Nelson and Manon Lloyd rounded out an all-British podium on 158.
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On the final night of racing in the women’s contest, Czech rider Jarmila Machackova won the 10km Scratch Race, while Archibald overpowered Kenny in the final lap to take third. The final Madison Chase went to Archibald and Evans, with Barker and Kenny second then Nelson and Lloyd third.
In the sprint competition, Maximilian Levy continued his utterly controlling performance taking the overall victory on 293 with Japan’s Yuta Obara finishing second on 259. Robert Forstermann took bronze on 220.
