The Track Cycling World Championships finally exploded into action last night when Great Britain’s men’s pursuit team, led by Sir Bradley Wiggins, were narrowly beaten by Australia against the backdrop of a wall of noise to rival that produced at the London Olympics. Earlier in the evening Laura Trott had battled against the odds to take gold in the scratch race and Becky James secured bronze against expectations in the keirin.
The Australians were in blistering form and produced a national record of 3:52.727min, the second-fastest time ever. After a deflating start to these championships for the hosts, the final session was a reminder of the heady days of cycling success at the London Games.
The British team won silver at last year’s World Championships without Wiggins. Last night they looked capable of going one better but the Australians were in scintillating form. Wiggins, though, is confident Team GB will win gold at this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“We’re going to have a race on in Rio,” he said. “I think we’ll get over the line first.”
Wiggins, who won six Olympic medals on the track before switching his attention to the road and conquering the Tour de France, was the consistent performer in the pursuit last night. The team had been refreshed for the final with Andy Tennant and Steven Burke replaced by Ed Clancy and Jon Dibben.
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Although it was Clancy who tired at the death, he was the hero of the evening. Just over 12 weeks ago he had an operation to deal with a prolapsed disc and his saddle has had to be lowered to allow him to compete.
“At Christmas, Ed was being driven in from his house in Huddersfield in the back of a van lying down because he couldn’t even sit in a chair,” Wiggins said. “Phenomenal really.”
Against medical advice, Clancy rode at man one, the toughest position in the pursuit. Of all the members of the team he was, perhaps understandably, the one who was least optimistic that the world record of 3:51.659, held by Great Britain, could be broken last night and yet it was Clancy who upped his speed with eight laps to go to move closer to the Australians.
“He’s the strongest man on the team, he’s probably irreplaceable,” Wiggins said.
The first British medal of the Championships was won earlier in the evening in quite spectacular style by Trott in the scratch race. With two laps remaining of the 40-lap race Trott appeared to have left herself with too many in the field to overtake but with her signature willpower and sense of occasion she summoned a surge of speed and almost glided to victory.
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Trott, who sparkled in the London velodrome in 2012, winning two Olympic gold medals, was under pressure to restore some semblance of superiority after a dreadful start to these championships for Britain’s women.
The sprinters had failed to qualify for Rio and in their despair had been highly critical of the tactics and approach of their coaching team. Even more surprising was how poorly the women’s pursuit team, led by Trott, performed. Having won six golds and two silvers at World Championship level since 2008, a strong air of invincibility had clung to the team but that was shattered yesterday when the quartet of riders split apart with 1,000 metres left of the four-kilometre race. It has left Trott, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Joanna Rowsell-Shand with only the bronze left to aim for. It also left the coaching team, led by Shane Sutton, in the firing line for their approach to preparation and their inability to absorb adequately the injury sustained to Katie Archibald in December.
The scratch race is not an Olympic event but a world title — Trott’s sixth — is not to be sniffed at when medals are in relatively short supply.
Trott said she would have wanted to give her all no matter what the result had been in the team pursuit.
“I’m a racer,” she said. “I would’ve gone into that race wanting to win, regardless of what happened in the team pursuit. I just love racing in front of a home crowd.”
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Becky James, the 2013 world champion, finished third in the keirin. That James reached the keirin final at all was a significant boost ahead of Rio given that she has had serious shoulder and knee problems and suffered a cancer scare.
To be third behind Kristina Vogel and Anna Meares, both true cycling greats, offers the very real prospect of James challenging for the Olympic title this summer. James, with her family and her boyfriend, George North, the Wales rugby union player watching in the stands, said this was the best she had felt since her injury set-backs.
Friday highlights
There is pressure on Mark Cavendish to win at least a bronze medal in the omnium for him to be selected for the Rio Games. The first three segments of the multi-discipline event are today and the remainder tomorrow.
Team GB will aim to secure bronze in the women’s team pursuit having squandered the chance of a first or second-place finish yesterday.
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Jason Kenny will probably be his laid-back self in the sprint before powering up for the medal races tomorrow.