2022 UCI Track Cycling World Championships: Team GB win gold in men’s team pursuit, and silver in women’s team pursuit

Great Britain claimed victory in the men’s team pursuit world title against defending world champions Italy at the 2022 UCI Track World Championships.

The win marks their first in the discipline since 2018.

The Italian team consisted of Filippo Ganna, Simone Consonni, Jonathan Milan, and Manilo Moro, while Team GB contained Dan Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood and Ethan Vernon.

It was an early advantage for Team GB, but Ganna, who is known for his late surges, came up front in the final 750 meters of the race, but he just fell short, as the Brits were able to hold on to their minuscule 0.2-second lead on the line.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bigham said.

“I think we were obviously wanting to a good performance here, and we really focused on just executing good clean rides.

“It’s not about being here to win. It’s about doing everything we can to perform to the best of our ability and just get the maximum performance out. And bit by bit every single round, we stepped forward and really improved in that way. And I think it was the best we had full stop. It was a really, really clean solid ride. And I think all of us, obviously, are on cloud nine.”

The fight for bronze saw Denmark’s Tobias Hansen, Carl-Frederik Bevort, Lasse Norman Hansen, and Rasmus Pedersen look extremely lethargic against Australia’s Conor Leahy, Kelland O’Brien, Sam Welsford and James Moriarty, but after a big push in the final kilometre, they managed to hang on for third by 1.4 seconds.

Team GB’s women were hoping to add another gold on the night, but they fell short to Italy’s Elisa Balsamo, Chiara Consonni, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini.

The Italians came racing out of the gates with an extremely fast start, and despite Great Britain’s efforts to catch up in the second half of the race, Neah Evans, Katie Archibald, Josie Knight and Anna Morris were just unable to cut the deficit. They were forced to settle for silver, finishing +2.166 behind Italy’s time of 4:09.760.

“We have no words,” said Guazzini after the win.

“We knew [we were coming] here with a big chance of winning a medal, but to win is really beyond our dreams.

“We went full gas from the start. I was looking at the time from our coach, and I knew we were fast. We just kept pushing until the end and we won.”

Harrie Lavreyson added another medal to his collection, winning gold in the men’s keirin.

The defending world champion managed to beat fellow Dutchman Jeffery Hoogland, giving the Netherlands both gold and silver in the event.

Kevin Quintero of Colombia took home bronze, and Team GB’s Jack Carlin finished ninth in the event.

Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky won the world championship title in the Elimination Race, her third world title on the track.

The gold medal also comes one year after she finished with the silver medal in the Elimination Race, marking a full-circle moment.

“It feels really good. I got together with Kenny de Ketele, our national coach, to rewatch the footage of last year, and I knew what I did wrong last year and knew I couldn’t make the same mistake this year.

In the men’s scratch race, 19-year-old Dylan Bibic won Canada’s first world title beating Japan’s Kazushige Kuboki, who nabbed silver, and Netherland’s Roy Eefting, who took the final podium spot. Rhys Britton, 23, represented Great Britain and came in 14th.