Britannia ruled the boards on Day Four at Six Day London as Katie Archibald dominated the women’s omnium, while there were four other victories for British pairings.
Archibald won all three mass start events on the first day of the women’s competition, meaning she leads the event by three points from fellow Scot Neah Evans.
In the men’s event Team Belgium’s Kenny de Ketele and Moreno de Pauw extended their lead to one lap as they opened a gap on the rest of the field.
But it was Archibald, fresh from Olympic team pursuit gold in Rio and a hat-trick of medals at last week’s European Championships, who stole the show on her Six Day debut.
“I’m loving this,” said the 22-year-old. “If I’m honest my heart isn’t used to the bass. They don’t have that at the Europeans!
“National anthems I feel at one with, but nightclubs I’m still learning. It’s breathtaking the reception that you get, though, and it’s totally different to any other kind of event - I feel like a superstar.
“I’m really pleased to have Neah up the top with me. We talk in other races because you get a lot of people that sort of look after their teammate, but not us.
“It’s all for the win and trying to push each other as much as possible. It just makes us both better riders and hopefully we’ll keep getting these one-twos.”
Archibald led from the front in the omnium, taking wins in the 10km scratch race before winning the elimination race too - both ahead of Evans.
She capped off her day by winning the 10km points race, but the loudest cheers of the night were reserved for Dutch rider Marit Raaijmakers, who recovered from a nasty scratch race fall to get straight back on the bike and complete the race.
The only other women’s action saw Evans continue a fantastic night to post the fastest flying lap time, with the remaining half of the field left to ride on Day Five.
In the men’s competition Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish laid down a marker to their Belgian rivals in the 500m Madison TT with a time of 27.031s to win their heat and rank them third of all teams, four places up on de Ketele and de Pauw - with the win going to Germany’s Marcel Kalz and Leif Lampater.
And the Manx Missile followed that up with a strong showing in his 40-lap Derny Race, taking second behind Ollie Wood after leading for much of the closing ten circuits.
Switzerland’s Claudio Imhoff took the honours in the Longest Lap, but that was followed by another British win in the 250m Madison TT as Chris Latham and Andy Tennant raced to victory.
A victory they nearly followed up in the night’s closing Madison chase, but after taking an early lap it was France’s Morgan Kneisky and Benjamin Thomas who got themselves back on level terms and won the sprint to the line, with the Belgians in eighth and Wiggins and Cavendish in fifth.
But De Ketele and de Pauw now have a lap lead over Cavendish and Wiggins, although only via points, with the British pair still in second and just 21 points from retaking that lap on the Belgians.
And Cavendish knows they have to play the long game if they are to be victorious at the end of the sixth day.
“Everyone’s good, everyone is racing hard and there’s been a lot of different winners of the individual events,” said the reigning Madison world champion.
“You can see how many points there are and it was nice to ride a chase and the end of the night where we can get a lot of points.
“We have to watch out for the guys at the back. We have to take that into consideration and see how it goes for the six days.”
In the sprinters’ competition, German Joachim Eilers once again showed off his class to extend his lead to eight points ahead of compatriot Max Levy.
Despite having the quickest time in the heats, Eilers was beaten in the sprint final by Trindadian Njisane Philip, while Mathew Rotherham took the second final.
But from there Eilers turned on the style in the keirin, winning at a canter to head into the home straight with arms already aloft as Levy completed the German one-two.
That puts Eilers onto 22 points after four days of competition, with Levy sitting on 30 while Mathew Rotherham – one of the two Rotherham brothers – sits a further nine points adrift.
But Phillip, in fourth, is not letting Eilers’ dominance dampen his spirits.
“I’m really loving it,” he said. “Every day I’m getting better and better. I really enjoy the energy here and the crowd in London.
“Sometimes you only get to race five times a year and being able to go at it every day is really good.
“Just for the experience and focusing on your game. It’s a good competition day in and day out.” Sportsbeat 2016