Seb Kay looks back at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships at Lee Valley, with Great Britain topping the medal table
Great Britain recorded a total of nine medals, five of which were gold, to top the overall medal rankings, as the Lee Valley Velodrome hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships for the first time since it was built for the London 2012 Olympics.
With the event lasting five days, Laura Trott won the the first of team GB’s gold medals on day two with her victory in the Women’s scratch race earning her World Champion status for the sixth time in her career.
In an attempt to replicate the success of Trott, Sir Bradley Wiggins and the British men’s pursuit team were forced to settle for a silver medal after falling just short to Australia who, with the World Championships being the last track event before the Olympics, will now travel to Rio in the summer with a slight psychological edge over their British rivals. Following the men’s pursuit disappointment, Becky James also picked up a bronze medal in the Keirin.
Day three saw Jon Dibben win the men’s points race. Despite finishing on equal points with Andreas Graff, Dibben snatched the World title after crossing the finish line before the Austrian.
“I’m lost for words,” Dibben told BBC Sport. “I came into this to give it my all. I rode it like an omnium points race. For 100 laps I was at my limit and in the last 20 everyone else just died off.”
The Women’s team pursuit claimed bronze as did Andy Tennant after beating fellow Brit Owain Doull by 0.175 seconds in the men’s individual pursuit.
Thrilling
On day four, GB snatched another gold medal with Jason Kenny winning a thrilling men’s sprint against Australian Matthew Glaetzer. Kenny said to BBC Sport, “It was a real slog, the time was slow, it wasn’t the prettiest race of the day. Those last few rides were tough,”
As the omnium races also got under way, Trott returned to dominate the first day of the Women’s event, whilst Mark Cavendish failed to meet British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton’s requirements, stating he must place in the top three in the event in order to keep his hopes of contesting the event at the Rio Olympics alive. However, the sprinter, who has been so prolific over the years, felt he should not be disregarded despite failing to hit his previously set target.
“I’m not actually too disheartened with how it went, I didn’t make many tactical errors across the whole omnium,” the Manxman told Cycling Weekly.
“That was an Olympic field, that was the best riders in the world right there, it’s not going to be any different at the Olympics. We’ll have a talk with Heiko [Salzwedal], the men’s endurance coach] and see what happens.”
The final day saw Great Britain claim a further two golds. Trott carried on her day four omnium performance to finish first before Cavendish was able to rely on team mate Wiggins for some redemption as the pair completed GB’s medal haul by taking gold in the men’s Madison.
Wiggins, speaking to BBC Sport on this victory said, “You couldn’t have written a better script, it’s so nice to be world champion again.”
Places in the British team for Rio are still up for contention.