Britain celebrates Manchester World Cup success

Organisers hailed the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester on February 23-25 as "a major success."

On home turf, Great Britain scored a record medal haul amid record numbers of fans. The weekend's racing saw gold medal rides by Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Wendy Houvenaghel. Wiggins also took victory with Paul Manning, Rob Hayles, and Ed Clancy in the men's 4,000m team pursuit, and the quartet got close to the British record when they qualified in under four minutes. Houvenaghel broke the British record in the 3,000m women's individual pursuit on her way to winning gold.

"We had done a lot of hard work behind the scenes starting 12-months ago to make this event a success," said event organiser Alan Rushton. "And it's a win-win situation all round because you will find that everyone who attended will have left the event delighted by an exciting race programme for the cost of only a few pounds." Millions also saw the event televised by the BBC and on networks across Europe and Asia.

"We are already looking forward to March 2008 when we are bringing the UCI Track Cycling World Championships to Manchester," said Rushton. Organizers of this event are part of a group that has previously organised major cycling events like the Tour of Britain. This year it breaks new ground with involvement in the inaugural Montreal to Boston road cycling stage race."

For complete Cyclingnews' coverage of the Manchester World Cup Track event, click here.