Silver Sunday for Katie Archibald matches four-medal record in cycling world championships
The medal was enough to match Becky James’ British women’s record of four in a single world championship she took in 2013 and account for half of the British medals won in Roubaix.
Having already collected bronze in the team pursuit, gold in the omnium and bronze in the Madison, Archibald added the points race runners-up spot with some impressive sprinting.
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Hide Ad“I’m really pleased,” the former City of Edinburgh cyclist said. “It’s almost like the harder it is, the happier you are. I really struggled there, and I think that was all I had. When you’re fighting for something and you get it – maybe at 20 laps to go, I realised I was fighting for silver – so it felt like a victory.
“I’ve had such a good time this week, but it’s so emotionally draining, wanting something so bad. The most relief I get is during the race, when all you are thinking about is going hard and not about how much it is going to hurt afterwards. But the sweet relief we get for those 100 laps – it’s so worth it!”
After observing the first two sprints from the back, she launched her first attack in the lead up to the third, taking maximum points before easing off to re-join the bunch. After winning the fourth sprint she joined a group of seven other riders – including Kirsten Wild (Netherlands), Jennifer Valente (USA) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) – on the attack, and successfully gained a lap on the field.
Some more impressive sprinting saw Archibald leading by a narrow two-point margin after seven sprints, and a second lap gain took her advantage to five over Kopecky. However the Belgian rider still had plenty more to give, and as Archibald found herself battling alone Kopecky gained another lap alongside Wild and France’s Marion Borras, with further points in the sprints giving her a 14-point lead and all but securing the gold medal.
Not for the first time this week Archibald found herself head-to-head with Wild, who was riding in the final track world championships of her distinguished career, but found a second wind to take maximum points in the final two sprints and an incredible fourth medal of the week when added to Saturday night’s madison event bronze.
In the women’s keirin, team sprint bronze medallist Sophie Capewell entered the repechages after finishing sixth in an incredibly tough qualifying heat. There she narrowly missed out on qualification to the second round, finishing runner-up to the USA’s Madalyn Godby.
Omnium gold medallist Ethan Hayter also teamed up with Ollie Wood for the men’s Madison, but after taking maximum points in the third sprint, the pair sat fifth at the half-way point, just six points off the medal places, but narrowly missing out to Belgium in the end.
Sunday’s final results mean that the Great Britain Cycling Team finished the championships with a total of two gold, one silver and five bronze medals.