Yesterday saw our old friend Mr Amos weigh in on the decision to protect people riding their bikes along a diverted cycle route in Worcester– by installing temporary protective measures on the main road they’re forced to use as works are carried out on an active travel bridge – as the former Tory MP highlighted the safety concerns of lorry drivers put in danger by the “irresponsible and unnecessary” bollards.
And up in Glasgow, a councillor in favour of cycling measures (I know, a rare sighting indeed) has been inundated with the same blinkered responses from local motorists after he shared a photo celebrating the installation of bollards on one of the city’s bike lanes.
The Byres Road bike lane is getting bollards! 🚲
I’ve been working with officers for almost a year now to get these added, stopping inconsiderate parking from blocking the bike lane 🅿️
Not long to go now until all of the Phase 1 (Partick Cross to Uni Ave) work is complete! pic.twitter.com/HBJquhcpxd
— Cllr Blair Anderson (@blairanderson35) August 4, 2024
The newly protected cycle lanes have been installed on both sides of Byres Road – a major West End thoroughfare between Dumbarton Road and University Avenue, and where cycling activists staged a ‘human protected bike lane’ in 2019 to protest against the lack of space afforded to cyclists– as part of the council’s expansion of Glasgow’s active travel routes.
“The Byres Road bike lane is getting bollards!” Scottish Greens councillor Blair Anderson tweeted as the first bollards were installed earlier this week. “I’ve been working with officers for almost a year now to get these added, stopping inconsiderate parking from blocking the bike lane.
“Very grateful to Glasgow City Council officers for working constructively with me over recent months to make sure our new cycle lane is safe for cyclists!”
And while Anderson was delighted to see the road made safer for cyclists and to curb inconsiderate parking in the area, he was almost immediately flooded by the inevitable wave of motorists complaining about no longer being able to park… in the cycle lane.
“Please do tell us where drivers are to park now?” community activist Stephen McNamara asked. “Or is it a case where you will simply tell them to go elsewhere? How will that go down with the local traders who rely on people being able to park?”
Errr, maybe don’t park on the bike lanes to begin with Stephen…
“Struggling to see how delivery drivers for the numerous cafes, restaurants etc can now go about their business,” another added, while one user brought up the well-worn anti-bike lane trope: “Well done in making an already congested area even more so. And making things more difficult for emergency vehicles.”
There are still lots of bollards to be installed which is why there are all these new holes appearing on the bike lane’s edge 🚧
Very grateful to @GlasgowCC officers for working constructively with me over recent months to make sure our new cycle lane is safe for cyclists! pic.twitter.com/7JHXJqg3AV
— Cllr Blair Anderson (@blairanderson35) August 4, 2024
However, thankfully, most locals replying to Anderson’s post were just happy to see the introduction of safe cycling measures and, hopefully, the end of dangerous pavement parking too.
“Good news. The amount of times I have feared for my life recently just walking along a pavement in West End and a car speeds up in front of me right up on to the pavement. Need bollards on pavements too,” said one local.
“Brilliant work, makes the street much safer, liveable, and enjoyable,” added Chris.
Meanwhile, Jonesey noted the bollards were already doing the business in stopping bike lane blocking motorists. The other, unprotected side of the lane – not so much…
Already working where they’ve been installed. Looking forward to more popping up on the other side. pic.twitter.com/sd3KMsG4zE
— Jonesy Evens (@TwiterTwouble) August 4, 2024
Wow Hamish Turnbull, might just be one of the closest things I’ve seen in sport, wins his round by a thousandth of a second!#Olympics#OlympicGames#OpeningCeremony#BBCOlympics#Paris2024pic.twitter.com/SDSnqW2Vrs
— Jacob (@jacobbbb2001) August 7, 2024
Another day, another debate about cyclists and red lights on the internet.
This latest fair and balanced discussion comes courtesy of a video shared by Surrey Police’s RoadSafe account – which has a bit of history when it comes to contentious cyclists and red light clips– which shows a cyclist riding through two sets of red lights in Guildford last week, before being promptly pulled over by officers and issued with a £30 fine.
#VanguardRST officers patrolling in an unmarked car on Thursday witnessed this cyclist flagrantly contravening multiple red lights in Guildford town centre! The rider was handed a fixed penalty notice. Reminder: red lights mean stop for all road users. #stopmeansstoppic.twitter.com/d1twPn6OvX
— Surrey RoadSafe (@SurreyRS) August 6, 2024
“Vanguard Road Safety Team officers patrolling in an unmarked car on Thursday witnessed this cyclist flagrantly contravening multiple red lights in Guildford town centre!” the Surrey RoadSafe account tweeted yesterday.
“The rider was handed a fixed penalty notice. Reminder: red lights mean stop for all road users.”
While the clip and news of the FPN was greeted with the usual glee from motorists – with some claiming they are “sick to death of seeing this kind of behaviour” and that “most cyclists don’t stop at red lights” (Nigel Havers, is that you?) – it has also appeared to divide opinion within the two-wheeled community.
“Totally deserved. Red lights apply to everybody and there is no mitigation here,” wrote cyclist Paul Sheen, while Chapona Bike added that he hoped the £30 penalty “will teach him a lesson”.
“Good. Rules are there for a reason. It may not look dangerous until the situation when it ends up very bad,” wrote road safety activist account PhoneKills.
Meanwhile, Philip said: “As an occasional cyclist I’m glad to see this rider get a penalty, because it’s bad cycling like this that appears to give vehicle drivers the justification to ignore the rules around priority for vulnerable road users. A case of ‘they don’t follow the rules, why should I?’”
However, others were critical of the decision to stop and fine the cyclist, arguing that he was, in fact, enhancing his own safety by riding through the lights (slowly) and not mingling with accelerating motor traffic.
“He treated those lights as give ways, which is safer for cyclists to do and should be legal, and it is legal in many places where they’ve thought about it. Get serious about road safety,” said Chris.
“I guess Surrey RoadSafe are unaware that RLJs at quiet intersections free of pedestrians are one of the ways cyclists enhance their safety over the length of their journeys,” added vfclists.
“Going shoulder to shoulder with 2+ tonne vehicles accelerating away from traffic lights must be very safe!”
> "Why I skip red lights": Journalist makes the case for cyclists riding through reds
When challenged that he only sees “the benefits and not the risk” of continuing through red lights, the cyclist continued: “If it wasn't safe why was the police carable to chase him right away through the same red lights? Didn’t they notice that the red lights were red too?
“Being in a car they would have waited for the lights to turn green then catch up with him. So why ignore the red lights?”
Meanwhile, Travis, the owner of London’s most famous cycling cat Sigrid, pointed out that he’s “basically gone full California” – “If there is a green man in my direction, I jump the red (proceeding with caution and giving pedestrians priority, of course). It makes so much sense, but I doubt it’d fly here legally with the anti-cycling lobby.”
“100 per cent on this,” replied Sy. “If the red is for the pedestrians to cross, and there are no pedestrians, it also means no traffic to knock you off. Highway hierarchy should win always.”
And to back up his point, Travis reminded everyone of the time“I learned my lesson about unnecessarily stopping for reds”:
Impatient, close passing moped driver knocked us off our bike today. Fortunately the police (?) were right behind us, so they could scold me for not wearing a helmet and then leave. First time off my bike since 2007.
Sigrid is fine; my knee is messed up, can't ride for a bit. pic.twitter.com/LdAESnSXnO
— Travis and Sigrid (@sigirides) November 13, 2023
Finally, other cyclists stayed out of the debate, with Adespoto noting: “It’s like all those times you tweeted film of drivers blocking cycle lanes. (Zero).”
Thoughts, comments?
Despite the devastating nature of their defeat in one of the most thrilling, closely-fought Olympic team pursuit finals of all time, Team GB’s silver medallists were surprisingly reflective in their post-race comments, with Ethan Hayter – whose last lap mishap ultimately cost his team the gold – laughing that the incident was “a bit embarrassing”, but insisting that winning silver against a rampant, record-breaking Australian quartet was “really nice”.
“It was quite a long way for me to go, about five laps in the end,” Hayter told Eurosport. “I had the race in my hands, which was what we wanted, but I literally tied up. I went pretty deep, and my arms went weak.
“We really took it to them – we maybe could have paced it better, but we left it all out on the line, that’s the deepest I’ve gone for a while, as you can see!
“A bit embarrassing, but we gave it everything, and a silver medal after the last few years is really nice.”
(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
Dan Bigham, who overcame a crash last week to take part in today’s final, added: “I was really nervous, basically jumping to get out of the gate – it’s probably the best start I’ve ever had! But we were riding damn well, we were exactly where we needed to be. But we leaned on Ethan for maybe half a lap too much, and that costs us.”
Reflecting on winning Great Britain’s 1,000th medal at the Olympics, Ethan Vernon said: “It’s really special.
“At the moment, it feels like we lost gold rather than won silver, but on reflection, the run-in was far from ideal with Dan crashing, and we had to change the line-up every time, but we knew we had to try something new and pulled together to get the most out of it we could.”
Great Britain’s team pursuiters continued to rake in the medals this evening in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, as the quartet of Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris, and Jessica Roberts mounted a stirring comeback against an Italian that flew out of the blocks, overhauling a second-plus lead in the final 500m to secure a bronze medal with a time of 4:06.382.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
And in another thriller of a final, the USA team of Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Chloe Dygert, and Kristen Faulkner secured a shock victory over pre-race favourites New Zealand. The US quartet, known for their power if not for their tactical finesse, put on a thunderous display, one that opened up a good gap over the Kiwis but which saw their own line-up fall apart in the final few hundred metres, as Dygert powered on at the front while gaps opened up behind.
However, fortunately for the Americans, New Zealand’s formation also faltered under pressure, the US doing enough for gold – the second of a truly remarkable games, in two different cycling disciplines, for Kristen Faulkner.
In one of the most epic, thrilling, and closely-fought Olympic team pursuit finals of all time, Australia edged out a dogged Great Britain team, who pushed their Aussie rivals – who smashed the world record in qualifying yesterday – right to the limit, with the two teams locked together for almost the entirety of the 4,000m race, until Ethan Hayter lost control entering the final lap, ending GB’s hopes of a sensational gold medal.
With Dan Bigham regaining his place in the GB quartet alongside Ethan Vernon, Ethan Hayter, and Charlie Tanfield after overcoming the injury he sustained in a crash at the weekend, the British team exploded out of the blocks, opening a slender lead over the Australians in the first few laps.
However, midway through the first kilometre, the race settled into a tense nailbiter, both teams separated by just a tenth of a second – the track racing equivalent of a Rizla paper – for most of the first 3,000m.
In the final kilometre, the Australian team of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy, and Kelland O’Brien opened up a slightly more convincing gap (well, 0.3 seconds, anyway), but one that began to wither in the last few laps as the GB riders turned the screw.
(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
And then, on the bell, with the gap back down to a tenth of a second and the gold hanging in the balance, Ethan Hayter – GB’s designated finisher – dramatically slipped off his saddle, almost crashing as he momentarily lost control of his bike up the track, a disastrous incident that appeared to be linked to a mechanical problem but which in the end seemed to be the result of Hayter pushing too hard on his bars.
In that one, terribly unfortunate moment, the gold slipped away from the GB team’s fingers, and Australia secured their first team pursuit Olympic title since 2004.
Now, I think I need to have a lie down…
It’s been a mixed bag for Team GB in the latest heats of the men’s sprint, as Jack Carlin led from the front to see off Colombian Cristian Ortega and reach the quarter finals in his heat.
(Ed Sykes/SWpix.com)
Carlin’s team sprint silver medal-winning colleague Hamish Turnbull, however, lost out to the experience of Azizulhasni Awang, who managed to hold off the fast-charging Brit to win a tightly-contested, thrilling battle.
All is not lost for Turnbull, however, who will take part in the repechage later in a last-ditch bid to seal his place in the quarters.
Now, for the team pursuit…
Now this is the kind of Olympic content I like to see:
When you leave Skip alone in the mixed zone @Paris2024. #Olympicspic.twitter.com/4kXIlG5itU
— Sophie Smith (@SophieSmith86) August 7, 2024
The excitement is definitely starting to build. Just one hour to go…
After yesterday’s stage of the Vuelta a Burgos was marred by a mass crash that left Nairo Quintana bloodied and Tao Geoghegan Hart reporting dizziness after hitting his head, today’s mountain-top finish at Lagunas de Neila stuck closer to the script, as Sepp Kuss secured his first win of a frustrating season marred by illness and patchy form.
Tras múltiples caídas y un 2024 para olvidar, parece que Sepp Kuss por fin ha encontrado su golpe de pedal y llega preparado a #lavuelta24
Hoy victoria en la etapa reina de #vueltaaburgos para confirmar estado de forma y confianza.
— Joan Prats (@JoanPrats360) August 7, 2024
The American, who missed the Tour de France with Covid, benefited from his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks’ fierce pace-setting on the final 11km climb, before dropping Caja-Rural’s Jefferson Cepeda to take a morale-boosting victory ahead of the defence of his Vuelta a España title over the next month.
Cepeda (not to be confused with his cousin, also called Jefferson Cepeda, who rides for EF EasyPost and finished sixth on the stage) was passed by Lorenzo Fortunato and had to settle for third, seven seconds down on Kuss, while DSM’s 21-year-old British star Max Poole continued his own journey back from injury with a promising fourth place, 20 seconds behind the American.
In probably the least surprising transfer announcement of cycling’s silly season (oh yeah, there’s track racing on), Visma-Lease a Bike have today confirmed the signing of newly crowned Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who will make her long-awaited return to road racing in 2025.
The multi-disciplined 32-year-old, who after winning the world road race championships and Flèche Wallonne in 2014 and the cyclocross worlds in 2015, switched full-time to mountain biking in 2019. Since then, she has won five rainbow jerseys and last week soloed to a sensational Olympic gold at her home Games, while also adding a gravel world championships in 2022 for good measure.
But now, after a two-year stint racing off-road under the Ineos banner, Ferrand-Prévot has signed a three-year deal with Dutch squad Visma-Lease a Bike, in a return to road racing she hopes will culminate in a first French yellow jersey win at the Tour de France for three-and-a-half decades.
“Last winter, I was thinking about my future after the Olympics. I had been chasing an Olympic medal in mountain biking for 12 years. I have now achieved that goal. I think it’s time for a new challenge in cycling. Choosing Team Visma-Lease a Bike Women was an easy decision. The way the team works and its professional approach really appeal to me”, Ferrand-Prévot said in a statement today.
“Women’s cycling has come a long way since I left the sport. I can’t wait to get back into the peloton. With the support of the team, I am sure I can do great things again, so I am very motivated. I want to win The Tour de France Femmes.”
The fella at the front of the peleton in the Gurney races ought to be disqualified! Clearly using a motor in his bike!! Everyone can see it! The most blatant example of motorised drugging since that edition of the Rhonnda of Flanders that time.
— UK Cycling Expert (@ukcyclingexpert) August 7, 2024
It’s the same old joke every four years – but hey, if the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Good for him for taking himself out of the race. Shame on the commissar for not showing the red card earlier. #NoMotorsInGurneyRaces
— UK Cycling Expert (@ukcyclingexpert) August 7, 2024
Good job Bordeaux-Paris isn’t around anymore, they’d have a field day…
Oh, you rim brake beauty…
> Rim brakes aren't (quite) dead after all — Colnago launches new C68 Rim Brake frameset
No problems for Katy Marchant in the repechage, as British Cycling’s latest gold medal-winning ‘super mum’ booked her place in the keirin quarter-finals, finishing second behind Canadian Kelsey Mitchell.
(Ed Sykes/SWpix.com)
Marchant’s place in the next round came at the expense of Colombian Martha Bayona, the silver medallist in the keirin at last year’s worlds and one of the favourites for a maiden Olympic medal in Paris, but whose sprint for third resulted in her early exit and the competition’s first big upset.
Back over to the sprinting side of the Olympic track events, where newly minted Olympic gold medallist Emma Finucane easily made her way into the quarter-finals of the keirin, leading out from the front and seeing off a late-charging German Lea Friedrich to book her place in the next round and cement her status as a big favourite to secure win number two of the Games.
No stopping Emma Finucane! 🔥
She's straight through to the second round of the women's keirin 🙌#BBCOlympics#Olympics#Paris2024pic.twitter.com/QYNeORP2bS
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 7, 2024
Her team sprint colleague and fellow gold medallist Katy Marchant’s place in the quarters, however, will be reliant on her showing in the repechage, after Marchant was forced to settle for third in her very tightly-packed heat.
Meanwhile, in the men’s sprint heats, GB’s team sprint silver medallists both progressed to the next round, Jack Carlin easily seeing off Canada’s Tyler Rorke, while Hamish Turnbull pipped China’s Zhou Yu.
Considering the ludicrous strength and success of Britain’s women’s team pursuit squad over the years, as Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald propelled them to a series of Olympic golds, it’s quite something that the current GB team just set their second national record in as many days, as Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris, and Jess Roberts clocking a stunning 4:04.908 in their heat against the US.
A great fight by Team GB - but it's the USA who go through to the women’s team pursuit gold medal race.#BBCOlympics#Olympics#Paris2024pic.twitter.com/1Hs2lM3nRR
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 7, 2024
However, even that wasn’t enough to beat a powerful if occasionally ragged American team, containing road race gold medallist Kristen Faulkner and double world TT champion Chloe Dygert, who edged the Brits by just 0.279 seconds after a thrilling to-and-fro match to seal their place in the gold medal ride later today.
They will face – in what could be a race for the ages – an equally impressive New Zealand, after the perfectly tuned Kiwis easily saw off European champions Italy, who GB will battle for bronze and to keep their staggering medal run in the discipline going.
As we noted earlier this morning, Team GB pursuiter, former Hour Record holder, and outgoing Ineos aero guru Dan Bigham sat out last night’s team pursuit heats with an injury, as Ethan Vernon, Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, and Charlie Tanfield stepped up to beat Denmark and secure a gold medal match against Australia later today.
Expanding on the reasons behind his absence from the track, Bigham said: “I had a pretty big crash on Saturday and have been doing my best to recover quickly, so hopefully another 24 hours of rest does the trick.
“Thanks to everyone for all the messages of support. We’re in a great place and ready to battle.”
Let’s hope Bigham’s right and that extra 24 hours of recuperation – minus the stressful four minutes or so watching last night’s heats from the trackside – certainly does the trick, as the Aussies have proved they’re going to be very tough to beat…
After Surrey Police announced that it had fined a cyclist for nonchalantly riding through two sets of red lights, this morning the City of London Police has published its statistics for the past 12 months, revealing that its Cycle Response Unit has issued more than 1,200 fixed penalty notices to cyclists for going through red lights “or putting themselves, other cyclists and pedestrians at risk”.
Read more: > City of London Police claim 1,200 cyclists fined in a year is “great result” for “Cycle Response Unit” tackling “road safety and anti-social behaviour”
Bike lanes create Olympic Champions @ManCityCouncil🥇 pic.twitter.com/lVZRinGEaJ
— Walk Ride GM (@WalkRideGM) August 6, 2024
Now, there’s a persuasive argument for more cycling infrastructure if I’ve ever seen one – Build a bike lane, help the next Keely Hodgkinson win gold…
Movistar’s penchant for snapping up the most highly rated talent in British women’s junior racing continues, as 17-year-old Carys Lloyd follows in the wheel tracks of her Madison teammate Cat Ferguson by making the jump to the Spanish WorldTour outfit as a teenager.
The Maidstone rider, who currently races for Tofauti Everyone Active in the UK, has signed a three-year deal with Movistar to the end of 2027, joining compatriot Ferguson, who will jump up to the WorldTour squad next year after being snapped up last year.
Like Ferguson, Lloyd is regarded as one of the finest talents in the junior ranks on both the road and the track. In 2023, she became European junior champion in the Madison, and last month secured her second straight title in the discipline alongside Ferguson, while also winning the Omnium.
On the road, she won the 2023 GP Plouay and two bunch sprints at the Dutch Omloop van Borsele, a prestigious UCI Nations Cup event, finishing ahead of GB teammate Ferguson on both occasions.
“As a competitor, I’m a classics rider, one who loves to use her ‘powerhouse’ ability and quick change of speed,” Lloyd said in a statement. “Bunch kicks are something I excel at, and I can’t wait to put those skills to the test in the WorldTour in the future.
“I also love riding as a team. The trust you build with your team-mates for a common goal – there's no greater feeling. That’s why I can't wait to turn pro with the Movistar Team. I believe they will help me in my development.
“I’ve known Cat personally for about four years now, and had already raced her for so much longer. It all makes it special to also turn pro together with her next year. She’s not just my team-mate or my friend – she’s my family. This is why I’m not scared to turn pro, because I've got Cat with me.”
With this year’s Tour of Britain is fast approaching (I know, where has the year gone?), this morning it was announced that the Ineos Grenadiers – who last won their home stage race back in 2013, courtesy of Bradley Wiggins – will head a quite stellar cast racing on British roads in early September.
Alongside Ineos, this year’s Tour of Britain – the 20th edition of the race in its current guise and first under its new British Cycling organising team – will also feature six teams that raced this year’s Tour de France, including Soudal Quick-Step (who took the GC in 2018 with Julian Alaphilippe), Bahrain-Victorious, DSM-Firmenich PostNL, Israel-Premier Tech, and Uno-X Mobility, who won last year’s stage to Gloucester thanks to Rasmus Tiller.
Rasmus Tiller wins stage seven of the 2023 Tour of Britain (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
Q36.5 will be the seventh team from cycling’s top two tiers to race next month’s Tour, which will finish with stages in Northampton and then from Lowestoft to Felixstowe, it was announced yesterday, while Groupama-FDJ, Decathlon-AG2R, and Lidl-Trek will also send their development teams to compete against the likes of Trinity Racing, Saint Piran, and a GB national selection.
“We are excited by the line-up of teams for this year’s Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain, and the combination of squads that will be lining up on 3 September,” race director Rod Ellingworth said.
“Many of the teams have enjoyed previous success with stage wins and overall victories in the race, while others making their debut will be keen to add their names to the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men roll of honour this year.
“We are sure that fans can look forward to six thrilling days of action, and we can’t wait to see all of the teams in action next month.”
Commenting on the team’s return to their home tour, at which they have won 20 stages, Ineos CEO John Allert said: “We’re delighted to be lining up at this year’s Tour of Britain, and excited to get out there and thank our amazing home fans for their support.
“We’ll be racing through some of British cycling’s heartlands, through areas that have produced some of our greatest champions. With a number of British riders in our team, I’m sure we’ll give the home crowd plenty to cheer about.”
It was another record-breaking night at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome last night, as the Netherlands’ flying trio of Roy van den Berg, Jeffrey Hoogland, and Harrie Lavreysen broke their own world record twice – and in the process became the first team to smash the 41-second barrier – on the way to winning Olympic gold in the men’s team sprint.
The relentlessly powerful Dutch squad clocked a 40.949 in the final, beating Team GB’s Jack Carlin, Hamish Turnbull, and Ed Lowe, who came in at 41.814 as they secured a very impressive, and somewhat surprising, silver medal, one day after Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell, and Emma Finucane won gold in the women’s team sprint.
“I’m buzzing!” Turnbull said after earning silver on his Olympic debut. “We weren’t expecting to fight for gold, we were chasing the bronze really. To get into the gold final, all the stress was off so we could really enjoy it and soak up the crowd and show everyone what we could do without any pressure on our backs.”
(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
While Turnbull was “buzzing” about silver, Lowe was “elastic”.
“Silver medal is something that I didn’t think was possible going into this,” he said. “Second place – I'll definitely take that to the Dutch. A huge credit to these boys and I’m so pleased.”
Carlin, who adds another silver to his collection after his second-place in the team sprint in Tokyo, said the trio “came and delivered and it’s probably the best we could have done on the day”, praising the “two boys who came in without any experience really at this level – they’ve really stepped up and I’m proud of them both”.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Meanwhile, the records kept falling in the men’s team pursuit, as the Australian quartet of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy, and Kelland O’Brien recorded a staggering time of 3:40.730 – a full 1.3 seconds quicker than the world record set by Italy in Tokyo three years ago – to tee up a final with Great Britain, who were without Dan Bigham, who sat out last night’s session to fully recover from a crash he suffered at the weekend.
Ethan Vernon, Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, and Charlie Tanfield’s win over Tokyo silver medallists Denmark, however, also instigated a changing of the guard in team pursuiting, as Australia – who haven’t won gold in the event since 2004 – also confined reigning champions Italy to the bronze medal race.
Australia and GB will go head-to-head for gold this evening at 5.30pm – it promises to be a cracker.
Medals will also be handed out later today in the women’s team pursuit, which saw New Zealand qualify fastest, while a GB team missing Katie Archibald after her freak accident at home in June clocked the third quickest time, setting up what could prove a closely fought match against the USA to reach the gold medal final.
A sigh of relief echoed throughout the UK bike industry this morning, as the uncertainty surrounding the future of iconic manufacturer Raleigh – prompted by a warning notice from Companies House over late financial accounts which, if unaddressed, could have seen the legendary British brand struck off the register – has been eased and the compulsory strike-off action now discontinued.
