DUNDEE’S Mark Stewart made sure that there was a Scottish winner on day one of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow last night.
The 21-year-old was one quarter of the men’s team pursuit squad which took gold in the final race of the night and they did it in emphatic style. With 2013 world champion, Andy Tennant coming into the team for last night’s final, the Brits were in a strong position.
However, they had stiff competition in the shape of France, who won gold at last month’s European Championships while Stewart and his GB teammates could only take bronze.
The Brits gained revenge in impressive style in Glasgow though, dominating from the gun and building an early lead of over one second. France began to peg the British back but the home riders were too strong, eventually taking the victory by a margin of 1.339 seconds.
Perhaps the most exciting race of the evening though was the women’s team pursuit. GB are Olympic champions in this event but none of those Rio gold medallists, including Milngavie’s Katie Archibald, were in the team pursuit squad for this World Cup.
However, the young quartet of Emily Kay, Ellie Dickinson, Manon Lloyd and Emily Nelson stepped up to the plate admirably and snatched gold from Italy at the death in last night’s final. The Italians had gained control of the race by halfway and it looked like the home crowd were going to have to settle for a silver medal for the Brits but with only a couple of laps to go, a gap appeared in the Italian team and GB took full advantage. The Brits overturned a half-second deficit to win by almost two seconds.
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