Cycling World Championships: Sam Ruddock and Blaine Hunt claim golds for Britain in Men’s C1 and C5 1km time trials

Britain got off to a superb start in Saturday’s evening session at the UCI World Championships at the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow when 2022 champion Sam Ruddock successfully defended his C1 1km Time Trial title, before fellow reigning world champion Blaine Hunt did likewise in the C5 event.

The first event of the evening saw Ruddock up against Spain’s Ricardo Ten, Malaysia’s Mohamad Shaharuddin, American Aaron Keith, and Chinese duo Weicong Liang and Zhangyu Li.

Keith was the first around the track and set a time of 1:17.76. Shaharuddin was next and unseated the American by over a second.

Spain’s Ten looked disappointed after his run, but he did enough to move into the provisional lead.

Perhaps Ten had known what was coming next, as Chinese rider Liang blasted into the lead with a rapid 1:12.529 time.

Ruddock was next up and found himself behind at almost every split but found enough to snatch a narrow lead, finishing in 1:12.210.

World record holder Li was the final rider and Ruddock could hardly watch as his Chinese rival whipped around the velodrome.

But Li could not overhaul him, finishing behind both Ruddock and compatriot Liang in third place.

The arena exploded with joy as Britain claimed victory.

Speaking to the BBC in the immediate aftermath, Ruddock could scarcely believe he had won.

He said: “I didn’t expect to come here and defend the world title. The crowd got me round on that last lap.”

Up next was another British world champion in the form of Hunt who was attempting to defend his own C5 1km Time Trial title.

Switzerland’s Franz-Josef Lasser was the early pace-setter, and his time was too hot for China’s Shanzhang Lai to handle. Spain’s Alfonso Cabello Llamas blew Lasser away, finishing fastest by a full two seconds.

Belgian Niels Verschaeren then knocked the Spaniard off his perch, before American Christopher Murphy did likewise.

Hunt was the final rider to take to the track and blasted into an immediate lead against Murphy’s splits and never looked like letting up.

A faultless ride made it a perfect two golds from two events for Team GB to start the evening.

Like Ruddock before him, Hunt credited the vociferous home crowd for his victory.

“You can hear the crowd cheering and you cannot let them down, and I had to go for it. You can sense the building of atmosphere and sense you are hitting positive splits,” he told the BBC.