Even a broken wrist didn’t stand in Olympic champion Katie Archibald’s way as she added yet another gold medal to her glittering CV – contributing to Great Britain’s standing at the top of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup medal table in Glasgow.
Archibald, who won team pursuit gold in Rio alongside Laura Kenny, Jo Rowsell Shand and Elinor Barker, clinched the Madison title alongside Manon Lloyd on Saturday night in a dramatic final at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
In what was the inaugural women’s Madison at the event, Archibald and Lloyd – celebrating her 20th birthday - were both involved in an early crash, but fought back in style to win three successive sprints to set up an exciting climax.
Needing to win the final sprint to clinch the victory, Archibald crossed the line first to leapfrog leaders France in the points tally in front of a euphoric home crowd.
"It was fast, it was the biggest ask for us trying to get that lap," said Archibald.
"But we managed to bring it round and be competitive in the sprints. So yeah a pretty fast and furious race."
Lloyd, who later revealed she had suffered a concussion in the crash, added: “I think we’re OK, the crowd got behind us and got us back on our bikes.
"We knew we had a good chance so we wanted to get back up and see what we could do."
It was Lloyd’s second title of the weekend after she won team pursuit gold on Friday, alongside Emily Kay – who won omnium gold on Sunday - Emily Nelson and Ellie Dickinson.
The quartet, with an average age of 19, crossed the line in 4:25.809, almost two seconds clear of their Italian opponents, to add to the European bronze medal they won last month.
And it was a double celebration for the British Cycling team later that night as the men’s team pursuit team followed in the women’s footsteps with a gold medal themselves, putting the race to bed from the very first lap.
The foursome of Andy Tennant, Kian Emadi, Mark Stewart and Ollie Wood clocked a time of 3:58.891, crossing the line over a second clear of recently crowned European champions France.
And on Sunday, the men’s team sprint trio of Joe Truman, Ryan Owens and Jack Carlin won Great Britain’s fifth and final gold of the weekend.
They set a time of 43.479 to defeat the French team – their fastest ride of the competition – to wrap up a stunning three days of action for the British squad.
Sportsbeat 2016