It was smiles all round for Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit squad as they successfully beat Germany to defend their world title. The men also saw success in a closely-fought final against the home nation, coming out with a silver medal.
Elsewhere, Harry Ledingham-Horn took an impressive fourth place in the men’s keirin, while Noah Hobbs finished sixth in the men’s scratch; both in their world championship debuts.
Women’s team pursuit
The women’s team pursuit topped off the evening’s racing with an impressive win in the team pursuit, catching the German team to take back-to-back world titles.
Having qualified fastest yesterday, the women’s team pursuit squad of Katie Archibald, Jess Roberts, Josie Knight and Anna Morris entered the track on fine form. They wasted no time in delivering an impressively dominant first round performance which saw them catch the Chinese team at just over the halfway mark to put them through to the gold medal final against Germany.
The final saw Meg Barker join the line up in place of Jess Roberts as Great Britain delivered a fast start, picking up the pace lap by lap until they had a 2.115 second lead on Germany at the first kilometre.
Staying composed and tight to formation, by the halfway split the quartet were closing down on their opponents with a 4.027 lead. Their lead on Germany only extended in the second half, with the gap closing pedal stroke by pedal stroke before Barker bailed to leave the final three riders.
With six laps to go, the team were on track to make the catch, and completed their goal with 625m to go, delivering an impressive defense of their world title to take the gold.
On whether there was any pressure as defending champions, Josie Knight said: “I don’t think it does [add any pressure], people kept saying we were the defending, but no one can take away that title from last year, so this was another opportunity to win again. We had nothing to earn, it was just another opportunity.”
Meg Barker added: “When you win it, it feels easy! Those that go the fastest generally feel the best. I think we did exactly what we wanted to do, but we maybe didn’t expect the catch so early.”
Men’s team pursuit
The men’s team pursuit put in an incredible performance against home nation Denmark in an explosive final that saw them take the silver medal.
Having qualified fastest yesterday in a time of 4:11.868 before comfortably beating the USA in round one, Great Britain came head-to-head with the home nation in a nail biting final. Leading from the off, the British line up of Ollie Wood, Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield and Josh Charlton were riding smoothly and with pace.
The halfway mark saw the Danes creep ahead by 0.437 seconds, with the Brits still on their tail trying to hold pace. With the crowd behind them, Denmark continued to widen the gap and managed to cross the finish line just 0.321 seconds ahead to take the win, while the Great Britain team took the silver medal.
On the result, Ollie Wood said: “We came here having never ridden this track before, the track is quite good... and to go that quick there I think we can be happy, especially with two new people in the team.”
On their rides, Charlie Tanfield said: “We saved a bit in the first two rides because we knew we had to bring everything for the final, we knew it would be really close to we reserved ourselves a bit for that. We have it everything in that final and we just lost out a little bit at the finish but I think we got the most out of ourselves and that’s just how it is!”
Men’s scratch
Noah Hobbs took on the men’s scratch race with gusto in his first elite world championships. In a steady first half, Hobbs kept the pace and stayed strong, never losing position. The second half was another story, as attacks came thick and fast with groups broken up around the track in lap-gain attempts.
Hobbs found himself alongside Naciso (Portugal) and Petit (France) as the trio worked together to take a lap with 30 laps to go. Over the next 10 laps, another seven riders would take a lap, leaving the race all to play for with Hobbs consistently up in the mix.
In the final few laps, following Jules Hesters’ (Belgium) lead, riders made individual attacks, leaving seven riders split across the track, with the bunch chasing them down. With Kazushige Kuboki (Japan), Tobias Hansen (Denmark), Petit and Hoppezak heading into the home straight ahead of the bunch, a medal was out of sight for Hobbs. He finished sixth overall with a strong finish, a positive result for a debutant rider.
Men’s keirin
Beginning his epic run to the final and a top four spot, Harry Ledingham-Horn stayed well-positioned throughout his first race of the competition, managing to move into second behind Jeffrey Hoogland for the final lap, before getting boxed in on the black line and finishing sixth.
Heading into the repechage in third position, Ledingham-Horn put down the pace to take the lead with two laps to go, holding his pace and outsprinting the field to qualify first and make it through to the quarter finals.
In fifth position this time, the 20-year-old bided his time before attempting to move around Thomas Cornish (Australia). Blocked in by him, Ledingham-Horn made his break over the top of the group with two laps to go and qualified fourth, taking him through to the semi-final.
Taking the sixth position draw, in a field that included Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen (both Netherlands), the world championship debutant was going to have to pull out something special, and that he did.
Pushing forward early on to get positioned, Ledingham-Horn made his way into the front four as the group split. Putting the power down one more time on the final straight, the newcomer managed to pip 14-time world champion Lavreysen into third place to earn his place in his first elite world championship final where he would take an impressive fourth position
Teammate Hayden Norris started his first race strong, making a big move over the top from the start of the sprint, however as the sprint picked up he couldn’t hold on to the pace and finished sixth to head into the first repechage.
With a fourth position draw in the repechage, Norris pushed over the top again and with one lap to go was holding second position but dropped back slightly to cross the line fourth to end his event.
Women’s elimination
Sophie Lewis had a disappointing elimination race, after starting well and being in good positions in a stacked field. An unfortunate mistake cost Lewis and she was eliminated from the race early on, finishing 15th overall.
Qualifying - women's sprint
Qualification got off to an incredibly strong start for the women’s sprinters, as the leaderboard showed a British 1-2-3 after the flying 200ms. Reigning world champion Emma Finucane qualified fastest in a time of 10.377, with Sophie Capewell 0.005 seconds behind in second place and Katy Marchant 0.054 seconds behind in third place.
Having qualified straight into the 1/8 finals, Finucane, Capewell and Marchant showed their power and skill to comfortably beat their opponents before moving into the to the quarter finals.
The quarter finals saw Finucane against Liying Yuan (China), comfortably winning two of her three heats, as did Capewell who beat Martha Bayona Pineda (Colombia) with ease to see them both head into tomorrow’s semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Katy Marchant lined up against Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands), with their first race going down to the wire as Marchant managed to just pip van de Wouw to the line. The second race saw roles reversed with van de Wouw taking the win by a small margin, making it one a piece. The final of an incredibly close round saw Marchant hit the sprint with one lap to go, with van de Wouw on her tail every step of the way, pushing her full gas to the finish. A neck and neck photo finish gave the win to van de Wouw, ending Marchant’s competition.
Tomorrow will see the women’s omnium and individual sprint and men’s 1km time-trial, points and individual pursuit rainbow jerseys up for grabs.
You can watch the event live on BBC and Discovery+ as well as follow updates on the British Cycling social media channels.
