Katie Archibald and Mark Stewart give Britain scratch race double triumph at Track Champions League

Britain’s Katie Archibald was in imperious form once more at the Track Champions League as she began the new season with a fine win in the scratch race.

Tania Calvo Barbero of Spain came in second behind Archibald, while third place was taken by Jennifer Valente of the USA. Archibald’s former Team GB team-mate, Laura Kenny, finished in 17th.

In completing the win, Archibald collected 20 points to begin her evening in style, while Stewart stunned the Mallorca crowd with his unexpected victory.

“I wanted to create a break that could go and then I didn’t want to be part of it so I made that attack, and I see Laura [Kenny] and I see Anita [Stenberg], and I thought that this isn’t good,” a delighted Archibald explained.

“That gallop isn’t my strong point so I just put my best foot forward and stayed at the front to fight, and when Maggie [Coles-Lyster] came over we all knew that the winner is going to come at that wheel and I got it.

“It is fantastic to have won. I came in with a very different mentality last year, I was nervous but confident. But this time, as I’m less confident, I’m learning to be aggressive with it.”

“It was a bad enough year with the crashes, the accidents and the injuries she had at the start of the year, but her partner, Rab Wardell, the Scottish mountain bike champion, died in his sleep next to Katie,” Hoy said.

“The whole cycling world – the whole world – was in shock. You will never hear a bad word about Rab, one of the nicest human beings you would ever meet, and we are all still in shock now.

“To see how Katie has used her grief and clung onto her cycling, her training – she is getting through it by riding her bike. So it is more than a bike race, but to see her performing the way she has tonight is wonderful and we are all so pleased for her.”

He added: “For everyone going through grief right now, they can be inspired by looking at Katie. The strength of character she has, I just don’t know where it comes from.”

It was not to be for Archibald in the elimination race later in the evening as she was the first to go with an apparent miscalculation of where she was in the field, while Kenny finished eighth.

There was another very fine victory for Britain in the men’s scratch race as Stewart, who is now the endurace league leader, came out on top ahead of Sebastian Mora of Spain and Michele Scartezzini of Italy.

“Last year, Corbin Strong said to me that it’s savage, it’s just full gas from the start and it was,” Stewart said. “I could sense towards the end that everyone was on their knees. I don’t why but I actually felt alright, so I had a lot of fun out there.

“That was fantastic, I nearly didn’t get so much of a cheer from the crowd because the crowd were cheering for the local rider, Sebastian Mora, but I will happily be the villain. I am tired, that was so hard that I am nervous about having to do it again in the elimination.”

Mathias Guillemette of Canada clinched the victory in the men’s elimination race ahead of Gavin Hoover of the USA and Britain’s Mark Stewart, while it was Norway’s Anita Stenberg who prevailed in the women’s elimination contest from the USA’s Valente and Lily Williams.

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