Great Britain dominates the team pursuit

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 Italy’s Elia Viviani and Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands confirmed their pedigree as world class track riders by winning the points race title during the opening day of the European Track Championships in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands on Friday.

Russia won the women’s team sprint title, while Germany beat France to win the men’s team sprint. Great Britain continued to dominate the team pursuit events; the men’s quartet beat Russia in a close final, while the Great Britain women’s team set a new world record in both the qualifying and final rides in one of the first ever major championships with women racing over a distance of 4000 metres and with four riders.

Elinor Barker, Dani King, Joanna Rowsell, Katie Archibald and Laura Trott smashed their own world time of 4:28.738 seconds for the new 4000m distance. With King replacing Rowsell for the final, the Great Britain team then posted an even faster time of 4:26.453. The second-placed Polish team finished more than nine-seconds behind.

With all five riders having contributed to the team's performance, Barker, King, Rowsell, Trott and Archibald were all presented with a European champion’s jersey and medal.

In the men's team pursuit, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Andy Tennant recorded a time of 4:02.258 to earn them both the gold medal and the European champions' jerseys. Russia put up a fight, finishing just 0.2 of second slower in the final. The Netherlands took the bronze beating Spain in their ride-off.

Points races

The women’s points race title was decided in the final sprint, with Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands getting the better of Dani King (Great Britain). The race saw riders share the sprints points but no one was able to take a lap and set up victory and three riders were tied on points late in the race. Wild reached 12 points to equal King and then finished second behind solo attacker Leire Olaberria of Spain in the last sprint to take the title.

Elia Viviani used his sprinting speed and some help from fellow Italian Marco Coledan to win the men’s point s title. Viviani rode the Tour of Beijing last week and clearly had better form than his rivals. He took a lap with some other riders mid-race and then defended his lead for the rest of race. France’s Thomas Bauda was second and Eloy Teruel of Spain took the bronze medal.

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