British champions Team KGF stormed to a superb team pursuit gold at the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Minsk on Sunday.
The quartet of Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield, Harry Tanfield and Jonathan Wale beat Russian trade team Lokosphinx by over two seconds in a time of 3:56.015.
GOLD!!!
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) January 21, 2018
They've done it!
Outstanding from @TeamKGF as they beat Lokosphinx to win the team pursuit!#TissotUCITrackWC pic.twitter.com/4bPUeVdJN8
They had earlier defeated Switzerland in round one, having qualified fastest on Friday in Belarus. It was a second gold for the outfit after Charlie Tanfield’s individual pursuit victory.
The Great Britain Cycling Team could not add to Elinor Barker’s two medals, leaving the Minsk Arena with two silvers as focus turns to the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Apeldoorn next month.
Madison
Barker, who won omnium and scratch race medals on Saturday, paired up with sister Megan for the Madison.
The duo finished sixth on -13 points after a bright start which saw the Britons take four points from four sprints.
But a lost lap put them out of medal contention as Italy took gold, with 20-year-old Megan Barker still recovering from an illness which had ruled her out of the points race on Friday.
Sprint
In the team sprint, world cup debutants Lauren Bate and Georgia Hilleard gained valuable experience as they lost to Germany’s Pauline Grabosch and Emma Hinze in round one.
The Senior Academy stopped the clock in 34.848 seconds against Germany’s 33.332.
World junior sprint silver medallist Bate was soon back on track in the keirin but missed out in round one and the repechage, completing a busy three days for the 18-year-old.
Been an amazing experience here in Minsk and I’m coming away from this weekends racing with a big smile on my face. I can’t complain with two pb’s but I am disappointed with how the racing ended for me. However, very exciting to see how much I’m yet to learn! pic.twitter.com/BEI8J8F3YS
— Lauren Bate (@LaurenBatee) January 21, 2018
Welsh Cycling’s Lewis Oliva could not add to his superb keirin bronze in the sprint, exiting in the quarter-finals in a close-fought 2-0 defeat to Poland’s Mateusz Rudyk.
Omnium
Chris Latham was 11th in the omnium as he took on four disciplines - the scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race - in one day.
Third in the scratch race for Latham, a bronze medallist in the event at the world championships, was a positive start before 14th in the tempo race left the Briton in seventh overall.
Eighth in the elimination race put Latham sixth heading into the points race finale. Two points in the final event left Latham with 78 and enough for 11th overall as Dutch rider Jan-Willem van Schip won gold.
