Anna Morris rode her way to a first world title in the women’s individual pursuit, knocking out cycling legend Chloe Dygert on the way, on the penultimate day of the 2024 UCI Tissot Track World Championships.
Elsewhere in the team, both Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant took to the women’s 500m time-trial podium with silver and bronze respectively. Katie Archibald and Neah Evans also took the bronze in the Madison, meaning Great Britain sits at the top of the medal table heading into the final day of competition in Copenhagen
Women’s individual pursuit
Anna Morris lit up the evening for Great Britain, taking her first individual world championship medal; a world title no less, in a ferocious head-to-head against defending world champion Chloé Dygert.
In qualifying, Anna Morris rode with her trademark calculation and control, leading from the off and setting a ferocious pace for her competitor, Maria Escalera (Spain), to follow. Morris went ahead early, gaining on Escalera before eventually catching her with 625m to go and setting the fastest time at that point of qualifying (3:17.656) in the process.
Reigning world champion Chloé Dygert later delivered a blistering ride, breaking her own world record in a time of 3:15.663, securing her place in the gold medal race against Morris.
In the final, things were neck and neck for the first kilometre with just 0.2 seconds separating the pair. As the race developed, Morris stayed composed while slowly chipping away at the gap between her and the American, with Dygert only 0.4 seconds ahead at the halfway point. With three laps to go, Morris overturned her deficit to lead Dygert, with the margin only growing in the final two laps. In an incredible finish, Morris bested the American by 0.447 seconds to take Great Britain’s first female individual pursuit title in a decade – having to check the scoreboard to confirm her feat.
On her win, Morris said: “I’m in shock, I was just trying to ride for a PB really and see what I could do. To be world champion, I’m speechless.”
On how the race went, Morris said: “I tried to settle into a slightly faster pace and I was getting good feedback from Cam Meyer, my coach on the trackside. He was giving me lap splits and as we were getting into the final kilo he was giving me positive feedback to tell me I was getting close to Chloé and I had all my GB teammates down the back straight and I could hear them screaming so I thought maybe, you’ve just got to dig deep here and give it all you’ve got and see where you end up.”
Meg Barker delivered a good ride time of 3:24.066 over the 3km, which kept her in contention for a medal race until the penultimate qualifying heat, meaning she finished in sixth position overall.
Women’s 500m time-trial
The women’s sprint squad showed their prowess once again with Sophie Capewell taking the silver medal in the women’s 500m time-trial, while Katy Marchant won the bronze.
Qualifying started well for the Brits, with all riders setting new PBs; Katy Marchant qualified third in 33.157, while Emma Finucane qualified fourth in 33.189.
Capewell qualified second in a time of 33.013, breaking her own national record of 33.42.
Heading into the final, Finucane put down an impressive ride, covering the two laps of the track in 33.178 seconds. Marchant raced a time of 33.119, with both Brits bettering their qualifying times.
Capewell stuck to her qualifying gear, and after being down on Marchant for the first lap and a half, gave it everything on the final straight to produce a time of 33.010. This broke her national record for the second time and saw her go away with the silver medal, her first individual podium at a world championships.
Marchant’s time saw her take the bronze medal while Finucane’s time saw her narrowly miss out on the podium with a fourth-place finish.
On her medal, Capewell said: “It’s my first individual medal, I’m just really proud of it. After yesterday I felt so disappointed and I had a choice of whether to be sad today or to turn it into anger, so I decided to try and turn it into anger and get it all out on the bike and I think it paid off!”
On her recovery after the race: “I’m doing it for the big, strong girls, carrying more muscle means you quickly switch on the lactic build up and it’s really hard to get rid of it so I can’t imagine what a kilo is going to feel like [when the event changes] after what a 500m TT feels like.
Women’s Madison
Scottish Duo Katie Archibald and Neah Evans were key players in a punchy, action-packed race, winning points regularly and working hard to take the bronze medal overall.
Starting strong with a clear sprint tactic, the pair comfortably racked up points in almost every sprint to sit firmly at the top of the leaderboard for the first part of the race. Archibald looked confident and back to form, while Evans delivered impressive sprints, putting her head down to get the job done in a busy field.
With 75 laps to go, Archibald attacked, followed by Denmark and Ireland at the front of the chase, delivering smooth changes with Evans to keep their lead as the rest of the race splintered behind them.
By the midway point, the Brits started to be reeled back into the group as Denmark and Belgium powered through on the front heading into the sprint. Archibald dropped in to take another two points, while Denmark moved up the leaderboard seven points behind them.
GB continued to take sprint points, extending their lead before Italy, France and the Netherlands took a lap, knocking GB into fourth place and seven points off the podium. Soon after, Denmark made a solo break with the home crowd roading behind them.
Meanwhile, the British pair continued to do a lot of work on the front as the likes of Japan, Italy and Denmark followed their wheels before making fruitless attacks. As Denmark came through to complete their lap take, GB was pushed into fifth momentarily before overtaking Italy with a sprint point to be just one point away from the podium.
With 10 laps to go, a powerful changeover mid-lap saw the Brits take maximum points in the penultimate sprint but still one point shy of the podium, needing the next sprint win get onto a step.
In the final four laps, the pace ramped up with France and the Netherlands pushing on the front. Evans moved a lap later with a huge effort and the other favourites followed in hot pursuit. Evans got a final handsling in to perfectly position Archibald ahead of the final sprint against France, the Netherlands and Denmark. In a ferocious final push, Archibald took the final sprint win for Great Britain, pipping the Dutch team to get their hands on a bronze medal.
Men’s omnium
Ethan Hayter rode well throughout the men’s omnium, taking an elimination win to boot. However, the podium wasn’t to be today, and he finished in fifth place overall.
Scratch – An animated race with regular attacks over the 40 laps. An initial breakaway group of five formed early on, managing to distance the bunch for a few laps whilst setting the tone of the race.
No sooner was the group pulled back in than Hayter flew off the front for a solo breakaway attempt, managing to get a small margin between him and the bunch before being reeled in.
With 18 laps to go, a seven-man breakaway formed including Japan, Italy, USA, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Poland, with Hayter the solo rider trying to bridge the gap. His chase didn’t stick however and with 10 laps to go the race split up across the track as the front group extended their lead.
As the race came to a close, the breakaway barreled around the track with the bunch in pursuit, but too far behind to make the catch as Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) took the first race win. Hayter crossed the line in 12th position.
Tempo - Hayter rode a skillful tempo race in the second omnium event of the day. Initially reserved in his movements, Hayter eventually decided to follow the wheel of Oscar Nilsson-Julien (France) when he attacked with 24 laps to go. Hayter responded quickly to the Frenchman’s effort, and with the help of Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium) he worked to chase Nilsson-Julien down as the leader’s incremental point accumulation pushed him further up the leaderboard.
Hayter and his Belgian counterpart caught Nilsson-Julien, though the trio had their own chase group of Simone Consonni (Italy) and Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain) on their tail. Hayter took another point with 20 laps to go to sit in third place.
The trio continued to work together, getting enough distance on the bunch to eventually take a lap and boost their points totals. Consonni, Yanne Dorenbos (Netherlands) and Simon Vitzthum (Switzerland) all followed suit with lap gains of their own, with only three points separating the six towards the closing stages.
With 11 laps to go, Tobais Hansen (Denmark) attacked, followed by Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany), Dorenbos, Juan Carvajal (Colombia) and Harshveer Sekhon (India). The group managed to distance the bunch, and it triggered the rest of the race to split as riders scrambled to react.
By the final lap, the front group were well ahead for the sprint, but not quite enough to take the lap, while Hayter rode in the back group to maintain his third-place position and put him in seventh place with two races complete.
Elimination – Hayter’s skillful positioning led to him riding an impressive elimination race. The Brit expertly switched between racing on the front and manoeuvring through the bunch from the back to conserve energy.
A ferocious final few laps saw him push hard to stay in the race, before a tense head-to-head with Rui Filipe Oliveira (Portugal) ended with Hayter accelerating away to take the race win.
Points - Hayter headed into the points race in third place with 94 points behind Consonni and Dorenbos, level on points with Oliveira.
In an incredibly split race, with small groups regularly attacking and solo breaks aplenty, the action kicked off when Oliveira took a lap with 80 laps to go alongside Dorenbos and Consonni, pushing Hayter into fifth on 95 points.
Eight laps later, Hayter, Oliveira, Imamura (Japen), Nilsson-Julien and Vitzthum (Switzerland) went clear with the first four taking the sprint points before being wound back in by the pack. With 63 laps to go, eight riders including Oliveira went clear, with Hayter absent from the move before bridging the gap with the field in tow as sprint four came into view. Hayter took the win, staying in fifth with 100 points.
Hayter stayed with the bunch, opting to recover rather than chase moves. This put his position in the table in jeopardy, causing him to drop to seventh place with 35 laps to go. Mora and Nilsson-Julien subsequently gained a lap, stretching the gulf above Hayter who dropped down to ninth.
With 26 laps to go, Hayter made his move, attacking with an out-of-the-saddle sprint, taking the next sprint win before accruing an additional 20 points for a lap gain, putting him level on points with Nilsson-Julien. Meanwhile, De Vylde was running away with the race, 20 points above Consonni in second, having taken a lap just behind Hayter.
In the final laps of the race, Hayter was caught out by several aggressive attacks from the riders on the podium. He eventually finished the day’s racing in fifth position overall.
Men’s individual sprint - qualifying
Joe Truman delivered the fastest first lap so far, before slowing up slightly in his qualifying lap to put down a flying 200m time of 9.721, placing him 11th on the leaderboard.
Drawn against Muhammed Sahrom (Malaysia) in the 1/16 finals, Truman made light work of the race, fending off Sahrom’s attacks from behind to cruise into the next round. Against Mateusz Rudyk (Poland), Truman stayed high to build speed, dropping down into the final lap to make the initial overtake. Pushing hard along the finish straight, Truman took another comfortable win to put himself into the evening’s quarter-finals.
This time against Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago), Paul put the power down from the off, creating an early gap between him and the Brit that Truman was unable to close, giving Paul the first win in a best-of-three format.
The second race saw Truman push ahead with two laps, to go, winding up the pace with Paul on his tail. Head down, Turman continued to push hard through the final lap as Paul gained on him, pipping him to the line to knock Truman out of the competition.
Debutant Marcus Hiley put down a flying 200m time of 9.950 to qualify 24th, before heading into the 1/16 finals against 17th fastest Kevin Chavarro Uintero (Colombia). Starting in position two, the race began cagily with the two facing off in a track stand. Hiley went long off the front with two laps to go and delivered an impressive effort, managing to hold off his opponent until the final corner when he was pipped to the win, ending his competition.
The final day of racing sees the culmination of the men’s sprint event, women’s points, men’s elimination, women's keirin and men’s Madison.
You can watch the event live on BBC and Discovery+ as well as follow updates on the British Cycling social media channels.
