Archibald cements lead in Track Champions League penultimate round

Katie Archibald delighted the home crowd in London during round three of the Track Champions League with an unexpected and rousing performance in the Elimination Race to win ahead of Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) and Annette Edmondson (Australia).

The Briton thrilled the crowd by playing the dangerous game of sitting at the back to save energy and then accelerating to escape being eliminated on most of the 18 sprints. She very nearly lost out with 15 riders still in the race but narrowly snuck past as Kendall Ryan (USA) missed out instead.

She dangled at the back until there were three riders left: her, Wild and Edmondson and strangely dropped back and up the banking. Her strategy became quite clear when she put out a fierce acceleration to first blast by Edmondson and then attack to leave Wild behind and take the win. Archibald credited the British fans for giving her the energy to pull off her victory.

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"Every bit was needed, I don't have the speed on Kirsten tonight but thankfully I had the crowd," she said. "As soon as I saw how it stacked out in the scratch race, I was seeing her riding on the front and was saying from six laps out 'you're going to have to go'. It's horrible because you're in total agony and you have to pretend it's a walk in the park and hope the elastic snaps."

The win comes after Wild dominated the sprint in the Scratch Race by leading out for more than a lap and then holding off Portugal's Maria Martins with Archibald in third.

Archibald heads into the now-final round on Saturday with a commanding lead of 108 points to Edmondson's 73. Wild is a close third with 72. With 40 points awarded to the winner, there is still room for Wild, Edmondson and Canada's Maggie Coles-Lyster to unseat the British rider.