Lauren Dolan revelled in exceeding expectations as Great Britain claimed a surprise bronze medal in the team time trial mixed relay on home soil at the Road Cycling World Championships.
The British team of John Archibald, Dan Bigham, Harry Tanfield, Anna Henderson, Joscelin Lowden and Dolan set a brilliant time of 39 minutes 18.87 seconds in Harrogate to finish third behind the Netherlands and Germany.
Britain, who were not tipped for a medal, were one of the first teams to take to the course and they registered a highly competitive time to put them top of the pile but had to wait and see how the more favoured nations would go before having their bronze confirmed.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Dolan said.
“Just sitting there is probably the hardest part, waiting for each team to pop in the times.
“I’m so happy. It’s really unexpected and I think we’ve exceeded expectations so you can’t really ask for more.”
The event, the first of its kind to be staged at world level, saw two laps of a technical course with the men riding the first lap and the women the second.
It took until the Italian team narrowly missed out on a top three spot for a guaranteed medal for Britain to be confirmed and Bigham could barely stand the tension.
He said: “It was so close and I knew exactly from every corner how long it would take the men and how long it would take the women.
“When they took that last bend it was within a second so you knew it was going to be real close. When we just about took the medal, it was outrageous!
“It’s a great experience. It’s a nice challenge to do something different.
“I was on the podium last year, although not in a riding capacity, so it was nice to repeat that and be on the podium with a load of mates this time.”
Sportsbeat 2019