Great Britain Cycling Team technical director Shane Sutton looks back on a busy month for the Great Britain Cycling Team
It’s been a really encouraging month for our teams across a number of disciplines, with some big success stories and lots of medals won by our riders.
In October, we sent a strong team to Grenchen in Switzerland for the UEC European Track Championships. This event is always a great test for the squad, the chance to compete against some of the very best in the world.
I was really pleased with the performance in Switzerland as we topped the medal table with six gold and three bronze medals.
There were very impressive performances from Laura Trott and Katie Archibald, who both won three medals each, and it was great to see Sir Bradley Wiggins back in Great Britain colours – and on the top step of the podium as part of the team pursuit squad, his first European title.
Laura’s good form continued as the team moved on to Cali, Colombia, for the first round of the 2015/16 UCI Track Cycling World Cup as she dominated the omnium from start to finish to win gold.
There was also a silver for Andy Tennant in the individual pursuit, with a personal best as well and the women’s team pursuit line-up of Joanna Rowsell Shand, Katie Archibald and Ciara Horne battled bravely to bronze, despite Elinor Barker being forced to pull out on the opening lap due to illness.
One of the most encouraging things we’ve seen on the track this season is the emergence of some of our younger riders and Senior Academy Programme rider Emily Kay had a sensational weekend at the Revolution Series in London this month.
She took four victories across the weekend with wins in the points and elimination events as well as a scratch double.
There were some great performances on the track from the Great Britain Cycling Team across the Manchester Para-cycling International this month.
The team topped the medal table with 24 medals, including 12 golds, and also claimed valuable Paralympic qualifying point ahead of Rio 2016 with a number of very impressive rides across the three day event.
Fresh from making history in the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup, Liam Phillips closed out his 2015 season with wins in rounds nine and 10 of the 2015 UEC BMX European Cup.
Finally, to cyclo-cross, and Nikki Harris took bronze for the second year in a row at the 2015 UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships in Huijbergen. It’s the fourth year in a row she’s been on the podium at the championships.
Cyclo-cross attention now turns to the next round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. The third round takes place in Koksijde on 22 November and we’ve named an eight-strong team for the event, which is the first of three back-to-back rounds in Belgium in the remainder of 2015.
Shane
