Track Worlds: Great Britain topple Italy in men's team pursuit

Men's Team Pursuit

Men's Team Pursuit - Britain beat Italy, Denmark takes bronze

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Great Britain claimed the men's team pursuit world title in a gloves-off title fight with defending world champions Italy, their first in the discipline since 2018.

It was Hour Record holder against previous Hour Record holder as Filippo Ganna and his Italian teammates Simone Consonni, Jonathan Milan, and Manilo Moro went up against Dan Bigham and British teammates Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood and Ethan Vernon.

The British gained the early advantage but Ganna came to the front in the final 750 metres to do his usual late surge but this time he found it was not enough, as the British held onto a 0.2-second lead on the line.

"It's unbelievable," Bigham said. "I think we were obviously wanting to a good performance here, and we really focused on just executing good clean rides. 

"It's not about being here to win. It's about doing everything we can to perform to the best of our ability and just get the maximum performance out. And bit by bit every single round, we stepped forward and really improved in that way. And I think it was the best we had full stop. It was a really, really clean solid ride. And I think all of us, obviously, are on cloud nine."

Olympic champions Denmark (Tobias Hansen, Carl-Frederik Bevort, Lasse Norman Hansen, and Rasmus Pedersen) looked to be lagging behind Australia for the bronze medal, but the quartet made a big surge in the final kilometre to snatch the last podium spot from Conor Leahy, Kelland O'Brien, Sam Welsford and James Moriarty by 1.4 seconds.

Women's Team Pursuit

Italy women win their first Team Pursuit world title

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The roles were reversed in the women's team pursuit, where the team of Elisa Balsamo, Chiara Consonni, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini almost caught the team of Great Britain in the 4km final.

Neah Evans, Katie Archibald, Josie Knight and Anna Morris had to settle for the silver medal after finishing well behind Italy's blazing 4:09.760 effort.

France (Marian Borras, Clara Copponi, Valentine Fortin and Victoire Berteau) beat Australia soundly for the bronze medal.

Women's Elimination Race

Kopecky wins Elimination Race world title

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Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) won the world championship title in the Elimination Race, chasing down a late attack by Rachele Barbieri (Italy) to take the rainbow jersey. Jennifer Valente (USA) held on for third.

After a restart caused by a crash in the send-off that saw Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia) run into the holder for Kateřina Kohoutkova (Czech Republic), there was another crash in the early laps involving four riders - Yumi Kajihara (Japan) sparked the multi-rider crash, bringing down Sophie Lewis (Great Britain) and two other riders. 

Racing resumed after a quick neutralization, with Lea Lin Teutenberg (Germany) the last rider eliminated to take fourth before the last three riders faced off for the medals.

The win was Kopecky's third world title on the track after winning the Points Race in 2021 and Madison in 2017, and comes one year after she finished with the silver medal in the Elimination Race.

"It feels really good. I got together with Kenny de Ketele our national coach to rewatch the footage of last year and I knew what I did wrong last year and knew I couldn't make the same mistake this year," she said.

"In the end, Jennifer Valente already rode so long on the front of the bunch. So yeah, she was done, and that it was only Barbieri and me, and I knew I had to begin early."

Scratch Race (Men)

Canadian Dylan Bibic wins Scratch Race world title

Canada claimed their first world title of the 2022 UCI Track World Championships, with 19-year-old Dylan Bibic delivering an impressive sprint victory in the men's Scratch Race.

After a blistering late surge by Belgium's Dens Tuur, Bibic came around the fading leader and muscled his way to the line with a wheel's length advantage over silver medalist Kazushige Kuboki (Japan). 

Roy Eefting (Netherlands) got past Tuur to take the final podium spot.

Keirin (Men)

Lavreysen takes another title in Dutch 1-2

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Defending world champion Harrie Lavreysen added another victory to his ever-growing palmares, out-sprinting teammate Jeffrey Hoogland to give the Netherlands gold and silver in the men's keirin.

The pair hit the front early and never looked back, holding off Kevin Quintero (Colombia).

Sebastien Vigier gave France something to cheer for, taking fourth after making the finals in a photo finish with Australia's Matthew Richardson in the semifinal round.