Neah Evans and Katie Archibald rode to brilliant bronze medals at the UCI World Track Championships in Roubaix on Thursday evening as part of the successful Great Britain Women’s Team Pursuit squad.
A comfortable, although untidy on occasions, performance against Canada secured a medal in the Bronze Medal Final, and a medal was nothing short of what the British squad deserved as they had consistently been the third quickest quartet throughout the competition.
Led by Olympic champion and recently crowned triple European champion Archibald, the quartet produced a valiant ride in the first round to narrowly miss out on the gold medal ride to a very strong Italian squad. However, as one of the fastest squads with a time of 4:14.413 they were able to qualify for a bronze medal ride against the Canadian foursome.
The afternoon session saw the Team Pursuit squad qualify in third place, behind the German and Italian squads, which gave Archibald and Evans the berth into the de facto Semi-Final.
Of their medal success, Neah Evans told BBC Sport:
“Obviously we would have liked to have been in the gold final, but this is Meg [Barker]’s first time competing at the Worlds. Also, the first time doing the Team Pursuit, so it’s a fantastic result considering everything. It’s a World’s medal – we’re delighted.”
Archibald shared her thoughts, as well as the prospect of competing for medals in four events, noting:
“The process I’m most used to is testing form on Team Pursuit and I feel good, the team is going well, and I think our preparation has gone nice. We hoped to get into that gold medal ride, but I think that’s all we’re capable of at this World Championships. We’ve got bigger dreams for the future but I feel confident about [the omnium] tomorrow.”
Yesterday saw Ali Fielding and the Great Britain Team Sprint squad marginally miss out on a Bronze medal as they lost out to the Russian Cycling Team by less than 0.1 seconds in the First Round. This was despite Fielding producing the quickest opening lap of any team. Evans was also in action, finishing tenth in the final of a chaotic Women’s Scratch Race.
There isn’t much time for recouperation as tomorrow sees Katie Archibald back in action in the Roubaix Velodrome for the Women’s Madison. Tomorrow’s action is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport Website from 17:20 BST; alternatively you keep up to date with all the goings on via Scottish Cycling’s social media accounts @ScottishCycling.
