News: European Track Championships

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Gold for Raleigh GAC pairing Seb Mora & Albert Torres as well as Katie Archibald on final two days of European Track Championships

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News: European Track Championships

The Raleigh GAC Spanish riders, Seb Mora and Albert Torres capped off a great European Championships by defending their Madison title in the European Track championships. There was also Gold for Scotland’s Katie Archibald in the Women’s Omnium and a Silver medal for GB Emily Kay and Emily Nelson in a new event at the championship, the women’s Madison.

After Torres had won the Men’s Omnium on the Friday, he and Mora again triumped in the Madison ahead of riding the London Six Day starting on Tuesday. The Spanish riders beat their trade teammate Morgan Keisky of France to the title.

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Torres and Mora took two laps as well as winning 11 points in the sprints to finish with 51 points whilst Kneisky and his partner for the race went on a point scoring spree, winning 45 points and finishing second without having taken a single lap, one point ahead of the Belgiums who again, relied on their sprinting for the points. The GB pairing Ollie Wood and Mark Stewart finished the race in 15th place.

In the Women’s Madison, Emily Kay and Emily Nelson took the top points from the first two sprints of the 120 lap race, beating the Belgian duo of Lotte Kopecky and Jolien D’Hoore by a whisker. As the race progressed, the Netherlands team, containing multiple European gold medallist Kirsten Wild, the Belgains and the French pair joined Nelson and Kay at the top of the standings, and the lead changed hands several times.

The British team dropped into fourth place as the race came into the final 10 laps but a fantastic effort by both riders saw them take maximum points by winning the final sprint and finish with the silver medal behind the Belgian pairing.

“It was a tough race but we fought all the way so we’re really happy to take silver,” said Kay. Nelson added “I think we went a little bit big at the start and paid for it in the middle but we came back strong from fourth place.”

Women’s Omnium – Gold for Archibald
Scotland’s Katie Archibald claimed her second gold medal of the 2016 UEC European Track Championships in Paris on Saturday in the new format omnium. Finishing the four-race event with 141 points, the Olympic gold medallist performed strongly across all four disciplines.

The 22-year-old rider showed no signs of fatigue from the previous night’s victory in the Pursuit and was fifth after the opening race, the Scratch race. In the Tempo race with sprints each lap, Archibald took an early lap with Italy’s Elisa Balsamo and gained a valuable 4 points, as well as four intermediate sprint points. Archibald timed her tactics perfectly in the omnium Elimination, putting her pursuit skills to good use by soloing the final four laps at full pace and leaving the rest of the field with no response.

With 108 points Archibald, led the standings going into the all important Points race and after 10 laps of racing, Archibald and Kirsten Wild took a lap together, putting Wild, already the winner of two starred jerseys at these championships, ahead of Kopecky into the silver medal position. Archibald continued to race well tactically, taking intermediate sprint points throughout the race and ensuring that Wild and Kopecky did not gain any opportunities to nick the Gold from her.

“I wanted to attack the first of the Points race so that I could maintain the second half,” said Archibald. “It never works out that way, so I’m nailed but I guess it was worth it!”
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In the Men’s Keirin, GB’s Truman was sixth in the final whilst Carlin went on the win the 7-12 final, while Truman could not find a way around the fast-finishing finalists and crossed the line in sixth place in his first elite level European keirin final.

In the Men’s Points race, Ollie Wood took a lap on the field and won a sprint to move into third place after 50 laps of the 150 lap points race. With 60 laps remaining, Wood took a further two sprint points and moved into the silver medal position. A lap from Belgian rider Kenny de Ketele moved Wood back to third place, where the competition for bronze was tight between the British rider and riders from the Netherlands, Poland and Belarus.

A medal wasn’t to be for Wood and he ended the event in fourth, three points off the Bronze medal.

Rachel James, older sister to Becky, Fion and Megan, and new to the track as a solo rider after discovering she had the power to be a world class sprinter, set the seventh fastest time of 11.175 seconds in her qualifying lap for the women’s sprint competition, a stunning time for a newby at this level. Ellie Richardson was just outside of the 12 qualifiers in 12th place with a time of 11.697.

James started her 1/8 final in the first position on the start line but managed to gain an advantageous position, high up the banking, as her opponent Tatiana Kisleva of Russia took the lead. Unable to overpower the Russian, James contested the 1/8 repecharges and finished second meaning she would contest the 9-12 place final.

In that, James hung back as her three opponents set the pace and waited to make her move until the third lap, when she accelerated off the penultimate bend and sped home to take ninth place. James was racing tandems in the paracycling competition but was not selected for Rio despite breaking world records and is now looking to make her mark on the track as a solo rider. Fingers crossed GB see sense and help her fulfil her potential.

In the Individual Pursuit for Men, Mark Stewart returned to the velodrome after the rigours of the men’s omnium on Friday and put himself in the mix of the men’s individual pursuit with a time of 4:25.037 which saw him in 13th place. Senior Academy rider Matt Bostock was 22 with a time of 4:30.148.

 

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