Great Britain tops men's team pursuit qualifying, France fastest in men's team sprint

Great Britain wrapped up the first day of competition with three gold medals at the European Track Championships. The women's team nabbed the top honours in the team pursuit and team sprint, while the men topped the team pursuit standings.

France fell to Germany in the men's team sprint final, while the eastern Europeans took gold in the points race, with Russian Evgeniya Romanyuta winning the women's race and Poland's Rafal Ratajczyk taking the men's.

Qualifying

In the run-up to the European Track Championships, which gives vital qualification points for the 2012 Olympic Games, British Cycling’s head coach, Shane Sutton, had been talking about his plans for Great Britain to dominate the competition – and in the first session of the first day, it looked like his plans were working – until the French fought back.

The competition kicked off with the women’s team pursuit, and the reigning world champions, Great Britain, were the clear favourites. Recently, their main rivals have been New Zealand, Australia and the USA – and with the team of Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott all experienced in the art of winning, the only surprise was how fast they qualified – at 3:22.414, a second faster than their winning race at the world championships, raced on the same track. Germany was second at 3:27.778, and will face Great Britain in the final, while Ukraine will race Belarus for bronze. There was disappointment for the home nation as the Netherlands finished fifth, out of the medals.

In the men’s team pursuit, the pattern was repeated, as Great Britain once again qualified fastest and will face Denmark in the race for gold, while Spain and Russia will battle it out for bronze.

Next up on the track was the women’s team sprint, and once more, it was Great Britain’s pair of Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish who qualified fastest, going through to the final against Ukraine's Lyobov Shulika and Olena Tsos, while Russia will ride against Germany for third place. Once again, the Netherlands team finished an unexpected 5th place, taking them out of the competition.

It seemed as though Sutton’s wish was on the way to coming true, until the men’s team sprint. France were racing without team sprint world champion, Gregory Baugé, but Mickael Bourgain, François Pervis and Kévin Sireau still finished fastest at 44.636, just fractions of a second ahead of Germany. The Netherlands regained some pride, finishing fourth fastest – they will be hoping to beat Poland and take at least one medal. Great Britain had appealed its fifth place result, after Jason Kenny’s wheel apparently was caught in the starting gate, but the appeal was denied, and the team will not be in the hunt for a medal.

The final races of the session were the qualifying rounds of the men’s points race – Spain’s David Muntaner Juaneder winning the first race, while in the second race, Ioannis Tamouridis of Greece was the only rider that morning to gain a lap, sending him straight through to the final. They’ll be joined by 18 other riders, but without any of this year’s world championship medallists – Colombia’s Edwin Alcibiades Avilá and Australia’s Cameron Meyer obviously not racing, while the bronze medallist, Morgan Kneisky of France choosing to ride the Amsterdam Six-Day instead – leaving the European Olympic qualifying points up for grabs.

The evening session will be interesting – can Great Britain live up to their qualifying success, or will their rivals leave them with silver? Is France unbeatable in the men’s team sprint? And with the men’s and women’s points races always good value for the spectators, will there be riders in Amsterdam wishing they were in Apeldoorn after all?

Final results

Qualifying results