Barker and Evans win women's madison silver

Cycling Track 09 Aug 24

Elinor Barker and Neah Evans produced an incredible final-lap showdown to take silver in the women's madison.

The Brits came into the event as world champions and were looking to retain Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald's Olympic title from Tokyo but came away with silver in Paris.

With Italy and the Netherlands taking advantage of the 20 points available for lapping the field, something Barker and Evans did not have in their race plan, it ended as a fight for points until the very end.

Italy took gold and the Netherland's bronze after a storming final lap from Barker ensured the maximum of 10 points went to them, stealing silver from the Dutch's clutches at the last moment by just three points.

And with a silver Olympic medal around their necks, both Brits still took away positives from their performances.

“The Dutch and Italians ran an amazing race," said Barker.

"There’s historically only a couple of races that have been won by lap gains alone, so we didn’t really plan for that.

"Our last two years have been, how do we win as many sprints as possible as efficiently as possible. We knew everyone wasn’t going to have the same plan."

“It’s an Olympic silver medal, that is fantastic," added Evans.

"But as world champions, we came in with really high expectations, we wanted to win and we felt we were in a really good position but there was an attack that went that we weren’t 100% ready for and by the time we responded there was a different race dynamic.

"We gave it everything and I think on reflection we’ll be so proud of the ride we did."

Barker and Evans started off strong at the National Velodrome, clocking all five points in the opening sprint and adding a couple more sets of three point before the chaos that is the madison erupted.

With two falls in just one lap and the Netherlands going for the full 20 points from a lap gain, the lead seemed to slip from GB's fingers, with the USA hanging on for a challenge.

Italy then took advantage of an opportune moment and caught the field off-guard by taking the 20 lap points.

With the final sprint to go, the gold was out of reach for Team GB, with Italy sitting on a total of 37 points but Barker and Evans knew that there was the opportunity to steal silver.

And a roaring last lap by Barker made that come true, pushing the pair up to 31 points and onto second place on the podium.

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