Great Britain back on top in team pursuit at World Championships

Cycling Track 13 Oct 22

Great Britain reasserted their authority on team pursuiting with men’s gold and women’s silver on a stunning night in Paris.

Ethan Hayter, Dan Bigham, Ethan Vernon and Oliver Wood roared past world record holders Italy to bring the rainbows back to Britain.

The Italians were too strong in the women’s final but Katie Archibald, Neah Evans, Josie Knight and Anna Morris took silver against the odds.

It took Britain’s medal tally to three after two nights of racing at the Olympic velodrome at Saint Quentin en Yvelines.

The men outgunned the reigning Olympic and world champions in a pulsating final ride. Hayter, Bigham, Vernon and Wood qualified fastest with 3:48.092 and then saw off New Zealand to set up a meeting with the Italians.

They opened up a near half-second lead and thanks to strong turns from Bigham and Hayter, held off the charging Filippo Ganna to win in 3:45.829 by a margin of 0.204 seconds.

Bigham said: “It’s unbelievable. We stepped forward in every single round and really improved and (the final), that was the best we had, full stop.

“We’re all absolutely on cloud nine.”

The return of the men’s team pursuit rainbows to British soil for the first time since 2018, courtesy of a quartet who only trained once together ahead of the event.

“We didn’t have much team prep to be honest, just one session,” said Wood. “Prep could’ve been better so I don’t see why we can’t go any faster.”

Britain have historically dominated the 4000m blue-riband discipline at Olympic level, a run of three successive gold medals coming to an end in Tokyo.

Bigham said: ““It means less pressure on all of us. I think all of the guys here would say the Olympics didn’t go as well as they’d hoped.

“I think we’ve all got unfinished business with the Olympics and to be sat here, less than two years out from the Olympics in the very same velodrome, I think the pressure’s off performance wise.

“We can now really just focus on the process and basically just nail it as a team for the next twenty-something months.“

Archibald, Evans and Knight were joined by Megan Barker in posting a strong qualifying effort that was enough for second, two seconds behind Italy.

Barker was replaced by Morris for finals night and after beating France in 4:10.109, found the Italians too strong.

Sportsbeat 2022 / Lead image courtesy of @UCITrack

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