Golden girls blow away the Cyclones

Britain claim their third title at the Track Cycling World Championships as team pursuit trio win in record time
Three and easy: Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell of Britain celebrate their gold medal performance in the women’s team pursuit in Melbourne today
5 April 2012

Britain added a third gold medal to their tally at the Track Cycling World Championships with a world-record ride in the team pursuit here today.

Yesterday, Australia had been tipped to beat Britain in the men’s event, only for the GB contingent to upstage the hosts, known as “the boy band”.

And British girl power ensured the result went the same way in the women’s event as the line-up of Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell twice broke the world record in the space of three hours.

Despite an average age of just 21, they produced a mature ride, not making the mistake of their last competition in London of going out too quickly and paying for it in the latter stages.

Impressively, they refused to panic against their Australian rivals Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic despite falling nearly one-and-a-half seconds off the pace at stages.

With their coach Paul Manning, who won an Olympic gold in the men’s event in Beijing four years ago, shouting “go, go, go” track side, they steadily lifted the tempo and moved into the lead with just three laps remaining after which they were never bettered.

Not even King hitting one of the padded markers, in place to stop the riders cutting the corner, late on and putting Rowsell briefly off their stride could diminish their high finishing tempo as Trott put in a stunning final two laps at the front.

British Cycling performance manager Shane Sutton had predicted ahead of the final that a time of three minutes and 15 seconds would be needed to win the gold, an effort that would have been unthinkable last season.

But the gun to mark the end of the three-kilometre race went with the clock reading 3min 15.720sec, remarkably nearly two-and-a-half seconds quicker than the world record the team set two months ago at the Track World Cup in London.

Rowsell, at 23 the elder stateswoman of the team, said: “Our plan was consistency. In London we went off too fast but we went out steadily here. The Australians went out fast but we stuck to our plan to go out steady and hold pace.”

The win was particularly sweet for Rowsell, whose last two seasons were plagued by glandular fever and a broken elbow following a training crash. She added: “I’m absolutely over the moon. I can’t believe I’m world champion again — it’s been three years.”

Trott, who suffers from a stomach condition that regularly makes her sick after tough rides, sat on the floor inside the velodrome for 10 minutes afterwards as she allowed the queasiness to subside.

Despite that, the 19-year-old insisted: “I just love the feeling of winning. I’ll do anything to get it, whether it means passing out or throwing up at the end. I just love it, I can’t really explain it, it’s overwhelming.” King, meanwhile, added: “We came out here to win and the girls were absolutely amazing.”

Sutton had told the British trio in their pre-event meeting he fully expected the world record to go and it first fell to the Australian trio in qualifying with a time of 3min 17.053sec, to the delight of those inside the Hisense Arena. But that mark stood for barely 10 minutes, as Australia’s riders — known as the Cyclones in the media — were swept aside by the British contingent’s time of 3min 16.850sec. Manning targeted a time of 3min 18sec for their qualifying to get through to the final.

The trio dropped marginally off the pace, so Manning raised the pace sufficiently to be safe, leading to the initial record, which they cut in a pulsating final, which Sutton admitted “could be anyone’s”.

There was talk that Wendy Houvenaghel might be brought in for the final but the qualifying line-up was retained and questions whether they had the experience to cope with Australia were answered in the perfect fashion.

Victoria Pendleton remains in contention for a medal in the women’s sprint by qualifying for the bronze-medal race with a comfortable victory over Virginie Cueff.

Pendleton has been setting some of the best sprint times of her career at Manchester Velodrome but the 31-year-old was unable to translate that in the heat of the early competition at the Hisense Arena today.

Riding in what is her last worlds, she was the fifth-fastest qualifier and looked reasonable in the opening round against Yvonne Hijgenaar, timing her run past the Dutch rider for the win.

But the subsequent round was unbelievably tight against China’s Junhong Lin, Pendleton making her break for the line and holding off the Chinese athlete, who had knocked out Britain’s Jess Varnish in the previous round, with the width of a tyre.

Come the best-of-three ride in the quarter-finals against Cueff, she won the opening two encounters by more than a wheel length to reach the last four.

Coverage of World Track Cycling Championship is supported by IG Markets, CFD trading providers and sponsors of Team Sky, Team IG-Sigma Sport and the IG London Nocturne (June 9). Win a signed Team Sky race jersey at facebook.com/igmarketscycling

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