It was a night to remember for Great Britain as Emma Finucane became the first British women’s individual sprint European champion ever and Dan Bigham took Great Britain’s first men’s individual pursuit European title since 2014. Charlie Tanfield took the individual pursuit silver medal while Neah Evans also won silver in the women’s omnium.

Women’s sprint

Emma Finucane made history in Apeldoorn, becoming the first ever British woman to win the individual sprint European title. The 21-year-old world champion breezed through her semi-final matches against Emma Hinze with controlled delivery and tactics seeing her advance after 2-0 wins.

In the final Finucane found herself head-to-head with world championships final opponent Lea Sophie Friedrich. Hungry for the win, Finucane raced with poise and determination and unphased by Friedrich’s acceleration, she went on to deliver a dominating performance in the first race, putting her 1-0 up. In the second ride, Finucane started on the outside, but pushed the pace quickly, pressuring Friedrich to make a move. With one lap to go, the sprint was on and Emma stayed high on the track, enabling her to move around the top of her opponent and go full gas along the home straight to take the European title in sensational style.

Finucane said: “I'm speechless to be honest, I didn't really know how I'd come into this competition. Obviously is really early on in the season and this is my first time competing at a major championships in the rainbows. I was really, really nervous.

“There’s expectation versus how you deal with pressure and I felt like I coped with everything today and I stuck to what I wanted to achieve on the track yesterday. Today I wanted to learn, I wanted to race aggressively, and I feel like I did that and to come with the jersey for all the hard work that me and Scott (Pollock) have put in our first race together, it’s unbelievable. 

“I want to thank the team so much, I couldn’t have done it without them and it’s really special. My family are here, they couldn’t watch me at worlds so to see me win Euros, it’s really really special and I hope the momentum continues.”

Men’s individual pursuit 

In the men’s individual pursuit, Dan Bigham and Charlie Tanfield qualified first and second respectively, with just 0.073 seconds between them, setting up a nail-biting all-British fight for the European title.

In the gold medal ride-off, the first 1750m saw the lead regularly alternate between the riders, with miniscule margins separating them. Bigham increased his acceleration, steadily growing his lead lap after lap with 0.879 on Tanfield with five laps to go. Tanfield was unable to pull back Bigham’s gap and with 500m to go, was trailing by over 1.5 seconds. Pulling away for his final push, Bigham crossed the line to become European champion in style with a time of 4:05.783, leaving his fellow Brit to take the silver medal.

Bigham said: “It was pretty cool, all British final. I knew I could beat him, I had a really cruisy qualifying but my legs just weren't there in the final. I had to really dig in and just focus on the little details to get it all out.

“I was hoping for a bit better on the time front but a win’s a win. To race against Chaz, I’ve had so many pursuits against him over the years and to be honest the vast majority have gone towards him so it’s nice to get one over on him! I want to beat Charlie and I’m sure he wants to beat me, we approach it very seriously, we’re not here to mess around. We want to win and I think that’s a really good mentality to have. 

“Hopefully we’ll just keep continuing like this. There’s a whole lot of training to be done anyway in the next few months. Hopefully a nice consistent year, no upsets, just good flow and hopefully hit Paris with even more better form than this."

Women’s omnium 

Neah Evans started strongly in the opening scratch race of the women’s omnium, controlling the race well to finish fourth, before gaining another fourth place in the tempo race. 

An exciting elimination race saw Evans stay in the mix throughout, showing some fantastic speed to sprint and maintain her place in the closing stages. Evans gained height on the track in a bid to make some room for an attack but ended up being boxed in and settling for fourth place.

Evans went into the final points race in second position on 102 points. It was an active race from the start, with riders in the lower half of the standings gaining laps and sprint points. Lara Gillespie of Ireland managed to move herself up to second position on 103 points, giving Evans the initiative to attack with two others. On the fourth sprint, Evans took the maximum five points and gained a lap to sit in second on 127 points. With 33 laps to go, Lotte Kopecky made a monster attack with Evans hot on her wheel, and just as the pace increased in the bunch, a crash with 29 laps remaining meant the race was neutralised.

Restarting the race, a sprint lap saw Evans just miss out on points, before Kopecky tried to get away solo. Evans and three others bridged over, with Evans taking maximum points. Kopecky continued to make attacks, and in the final two laps, she led the bunch. A fantastic sprint saw Evans cross the line in fourth place to take the silver medal overall on 136 points.

 

Men’s scratch 

Ethan Vernon finished in fourth place in a tactical men’s scratch race. The race was competitive from the gun, with the Austrian rider escaping off the front in the opening laps. Vernon chased behind, staying smooth and consistent to reel him back into the peloton.

Vernon continued to stay near the front, reading the race well to follow wheels and conserve energy. Attacks were made frequently, with the Polish rider attempting to gain a lap and stringing out the bunch. Vernon spearheaded the chase to catch him as the peloton split into two, with the front group gaining a lap with 22 laps to go. 

With 15 laps remaining, Vernon went to take another lap with two other riders but was swallowed up by the bunch before the combative Portuguese rider sprinted off the front. A moment of hesitation cost the European title, with Iuri Leitao taking the win, as Vernon rode a tactical race to finish fourth.

Men’s sprint

In the men’s individual sprint event, Hamish Turnbull made it through to the 1/8 finals where he faced world champion Harrie Lavreysen. After two valiant rides which saw Turnbull pressure Lavreysen to work until the last second, it was not to be and Turnbull left the competition after two straight wins for his opponent.

After qualifying fastest, teammate Jack Carlin was knocked out in the 1/8 finals by Sebastien Vigier.

Three days into the competition and Great Britain has racked up two gold and five silver medals with two days of competition remaining.

Tomorrow, Katy Marchant and Lowri Thomas will return to the track for the women’s 500m time trial. Endurance riders Sophie Lewis and Jess Roberts will race the women’s points and elimination races respectively while Ethan Hayter faces his third event of the competition, the men’s omnium. 

You can watch the finals live on Discovery+ from 17:00 and follow updates on the British Cycling social media channels.