News – GB Fastest in Switzerland

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On the opening night of competition at the European Championships, Great Britain’s Team Pursuit teams are fastest

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News – GB Fastest in Switzerland

The Great Britain Cycling Team got off to a flying start at the European Championships by qualifying fastest in both the Men’s and Women’s team pursuit.

First event of the night was the Women’s Team Pursuit qualifying round and the last team off, Great Britain showed what a gulf there is between them and the rest of the women’s team in Europe by being fastest by over nine seconds.

Joanna Rowsell Shand, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne stopped the clock at 4:21.089 whilst the next team, Russia, finished their 4000 metres at 4:30.664.

Ciara Horne, who made her international track debut for Great Britain a year ago, said afterwards “I’m really happy we qualified fastest. It was a really good, solid team effort, really chuffed. We were trying a new strategy and yeah it worked really well so happy with that.” Great Britain will race Poland in the next round.

Men’s Team Pursuit
In the men’s event, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Andy Tennant, Steven Burke and Owain Doull set a time of 3:57.277 to qualify for Thursday’s first round and a ride against Russia. Olympic champion from London, Steven Burke started Great Britain’s challenge with a storming opening effort, leaving the team a third of a second up on the next fastest time by Switzerland after the first kilometre, an advantage that grew to half a second at the halfway point and continued to grow all the way to the finish.

Owain Doull, part of the team that won the European title a year ago in Guadeloupe, was pleased with a ride that measured up to the team’s pre-race hopes. “We didn’t really know what to expect coming in because we’ve been doing a lot of training into it. That was the aim, to do something around that time and have a nice smooth consistent ride. Yeah pretty successful.”

The competition continues today (Thursday) with the conclusion of the Team Pursuit (two more rounds).

The day will also see Great Britain’s men’s and women’s Team Sprint squads racing. In the Women’s Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant ride and in the Men’s Jason Kenny, Lewis Oliva and Philip Hindes.

Matt Gibson is also entered in the Men’s scratch race with the talented 19-year-old having already won both European Team Pursuit and Scratch titles at under-23 level. Elinor Barker is also entered for the Points race.

Results so far

Men’s Team Pursuit
1 – Great Britain 3:57.277
2 – Switzerland 3:59.026
3 – France 4:00.735
4 – Russia 4:01.152
5 – Denmark 4:02.319
6 – Germany 4:02.341
7 – Belgium 4:02.459
8 – Italy 4:02.884
9 – Netherlands 4:03.271
11 – Belarus 4:04.878
12 – Ukraine 4:09.127
13 – Czech Republic 4:10.599
14 – Ireland 4:11.539
RYAN Fintan, DOWNEY Mark, ENGLISH Felix, IRVINE Martyn

Qualification rule:
The eight teams recording the best times in the qualifying round will be matched in the First round as follows:
The 6th fastest team against the 7th fastest team.
The 5th fastest team against the 8th fastest team.
The 2nd fastest team against the 3rd fastest team.
The fastest team against the 4th fastest team.
WOMENs
1 GBR – Great Britain 4:21.089
2 RUS – Russia 4:30.664
3 ITA – Italy 4:32.480
4 POL – Poland 4:33.305
5 GER – Germany 4:33.326
6 BLR – Belarus 4:33.404
7 FRA – France 4:34.521
8 IRL – Ireland 4:35.090
BOYLAN Lydia, KNIGHT Josie, RYAN Caroline, SPATH Melanie

9 ESP – Spain 4:40.765
10 UKR – Ukraine 4:48.152

Qualification rule:
The eight teams recording the best times in the qualifying round will be matched in the First round as follows:
The 6th fastest team against the 7th fastest team.
The 5th fastest team against the 8th fastest team.
The 2nd fastest team against the 3rd fastest team.
The fastest team against the 4th fastest team.

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