Katie Archibald won gold in the individual pursuit at the 2016 UEC European Track Championships, after victory in Rio as part of the team quartet.
The Scottish rider, who’s winning margin was four seconds over her Polish opponent Justyna Kaczkowska, had set the fastest time and a personal best in qualifying earlier in the day.
Archibald, who will also return from the championships with a silver medal from the women’s elimination race, took her third consecutive individual pursuit victory at these championships.
Personal best
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) October 21, 2016
Three times European individual pursuit champion
Meet the affable Olympic champion @_katiearchibald #EuroTrack16 pic.twitter.com/F8iOEen7fP
The Olympic gold medallist started her qualifying heat steadily but gradually caught up with her French opponent Elise Delzenne, caught her on the final lap and finished as the fastest qualifier.
"I thought I was destined for failure because I'd been working at a lot slower pace in training," said Archibald.
"I guess I must still be benefitting from my Olympic form but I'm also pretty well rested!
"It guarentees me a place at the world championships as continental champion so that's my ticket booked - I'm really happy!"
Manon Lloyd clocked a time of 3:44.112 and held the fourth final slot for a while but was eventually knocked down into 16th place.
Men's sprint
The day got off to an excellent start for the sprinters as Ryan Owens set the second fastest qualifying time for the men’s sprint qualifying round, and Joe Truman the fifth fastest.
Huge rides from @ryanowens0 and @JoeTruman97 in qualifying there lads
— Jack Carlin (@jack_carlin97) October 21, 2016
The field of 32 riders was whittled down to 18 for the 1/16 finals where Owens beat Jose Moreno Sanchez of Spain and Truman saw off Juan Peralta Gascon, also of Span, to progress to the quarter finals.
Owens beat Moreno Sanchez for the second time, after the Spaniard reached the 1/8 finals through the repechages, and the British rider progressed to the evening’s quarter finals.
Truman chose to lead from the start of his 1/8 final and, despite a powerful attack from Kamil Kuczynski of Poland around the final bend, managed to power home and into the final eight.
Both riders failed to progress from the quarter-finals, after losing 2-0 to stiff competition in the form of Eric Engler from Germany and the Ukraine's Andriy Vynokurov.
In the 5-8 final, Owens finished in seventh place and Truman in eighth.
New omnium structure
Mark Stewart started well in the men’s omnium, racing to eighth place in the field of 21 riders and then took a lap and five points in the new addition to the omnium, the tempo race.
Ninth in the elimination race left Stewart in sixth place heading into the final points race.
A fierce contest followed, in which Stewart was one of several riders to successfully take a lap on the rest of the field.
Following the hotly contested finale, the under-23 Briton finished in sixth place with 104 points.
"I went into that knowing I was going to have to work hard," said Stewart.
"I rode with the leaders, I got a lap halfway through and paid for it at the end - I suffered!"
Stewart added that he thinks the new structure is good for the omnium competition.
"There are only three events before the points race now so it opens it up," he said.
"The points gaps are quite close so everyone goes in thinking they've got a shot."
Women's keirin
Rachel James raced well in her first round heat for the women’s keirin but, placing third, did not automatically progress to the semi-finals.
After reaching the final, with a third place finish in her semi-final, James did not finish after clipping wheels with another rider and hitting the track.
"There are a lot of positives and a lot of negatives," said James.
"I was really happy to get into the final but I'm 100% missing some race experience - I crashed twice today, which was not ideal!
"I knew I didn't have much in my legs in the final, so I tried to wait but the gap didn't open up and I ended up touching a wheel and coming down."
Ellie Richardson also went to the repechages after finishing fifth in her opening heat but did not place in the top three in her heat and exited the competition.
Elinor Barker competed in the points race, alongside reigning world champion Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland and scratch race champion Kirsten Wild.
Barker took points from several of the ten intermediate sprints but finished down in fifth with 11 points behind Wild, Belgiums Jolien D'Hoore and Pawlowska.
Results
