Great Britain collected two gold medals and a silver with outstanding team performances at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico on Saturday.
Laura Trott, Ciara Horne, Elinor Barker and Amy Roberts, the latter replacing Katie Archibald from qualifying, dominated their women’s team pursuit final to win in 4:21.256 against Canada after defeating China in their semi-final meeting.
More joy was to come at the Pan American Velodrome as Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner overcame Germany in 43.092 seconds with a stunning effort to add team sprint gold.
The British trio had finished second in qualifying but reversed the result as their opponents opted to replace Stefan Botticher with Eric Engler in the final.
With Britain's medal account opened in emphatic fashion, Jon Dibben, Steven Burke, Mark Christian and Andy Tennant added silver in the men’s team pursuit.
The quartet comfortably saw off the Netherlands in their semi-final before pushing Australia close for gold, setting a time of 3:58.129 to their opponents’ 3:55.976.
“Loved riding team pursuit with the girls and then to see the men's TS smash it!!!! #Happydays,” Trott tweeted after another team pursuit win.
Three-time Olympic champion Kenny nearly added to his tally in the men’s keirin but ended fourth with less than a second separating the six finalists as Germany’s Joachim Eilers took the victory.
In the women’s sprint, Jess Varnish and Victoria Williamson both exited before the quarter-finals.
Varnish, 23, was knocked out in the 1/16 finals by Spain’s Tania Calvo Barbero before Williamson was unable to progress from the last 16, defeated by Guo Shuang and losing out in the repechage.
Having been rested from the team pursuit after helping Britain qualify fastest on Friday, Katie Archibald started her omnium with the first three of six events.
A disappointing 23rd in the scratch race, won by Poland’s Malgorzata Wojtyra, was far from the ideal start. An improvement in the individual pursuit was enough for 16th with a time of 3:41.844 as world champion Sarah Hammer won in 3:31.132.
Tenth in the elimination race leaves the 20-year-old outside of the podium places though the new format, which gives riders the chance to add to their tally in the points race finale, means positions can quickly change.
In the men’s event, Jon Dibben balanced his team pursuit responsibilities with the three events and started well with sixth in the scratch race, won by Denmark’s Casper Phillip Pedersen.
Fifteenth in the individual pursuit in a time of 4:31.350 before 19th in the day’s final event, the elimination race, means that like Archibald, 20-year-old Dibben sits outside of the medals heading into the final day of racing.
As well as the conclusion of the omniums, Sunday’s racing sees Great Britain compete in the men’s sprint and women’s keirin.
Results
Men's omnium - individual pursuit
Men's omnium - elimination race
