Katie Archibald admits winning in her own back-yard was particularly sweet as she and Neah Evans triumphed in the elite women's classification at Six Day London to head a British clean sweep of the podium.
Team pursuit Olympic champion Archibald and European champion Evans led from start to finish in the three-day women’s event, winning three of the five races, and finished a remarkable 59 points clear of their nearest rivals on 257.
The British brilliance was added to as team pursuit gold medal-winning teammates Laura Kenny and Elinor Barker finished second on 198 while Emily Nelson and Manon Lloyd completed the top three places.
The victory adds to the overall Six Day crown last season and Six Day London wins in 2016 and 2017 for Archibald.
“I’m very happy. I was glad for that score, we’re not used to the big numbers,” Archibald said.
“In the omnium a big score is a hundred so my eyes are looking, thinking ‘wow’, although I guess we had the gap.
“The first time I rode Six Day London was in 2016 and me and Neah were head-to-head for the win in the women’s omnium, we ended up on two points!
“It’s interesting coming back as teammates and having that same sense of competition to it but combining the two and working together.
“It’s a big race and one you want to hit hard because it’s in your back garden and at one of the Britain’s finest tracks so I think all the Brits are pretty proud.”
Meanwhile, Rio ominium silver medallist Mark Cavendish agonisingly missed out on the elite men’s classification title alongside teammate Owain Doull.
The duo, who had been in constant battle with Olympic omnium champion Elia Viviani and his partner Simone Consonni across the six days of competition, lost out to the Italians by just 12 points to finish second after a thrilling hour-long final chase.
Jonathan Dibben and Chris Latham finished in tenth in the overall standings while, in the sprinters competition, British duo Alex Spratt and James Bunting finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Sportsbeat 2019