Britian's team pursuit quartet (Clancy, Burke, Thomas and Wiggins) grabbed gold in emphatic style beating New Zealand in the final on the last day of the Manchester round of the UCI Track World Cup yesterday. The ride was the fifth fastest of all time, 2 seconds outside the world record and one second off the Manchester track record.
In a post race guest blog for road.cc Geraint Thomas said, "We were really happy to ride a 57 in qualification and a 55 in the final!! Especially after the limited amount of time we had together on the track."
Two other medal were captured by the British on the final day, both bronze and both in the sprint disciplines. Victoria Pendleton had to make do with a bronze in the keirin. An imperious ride to victory in the semi final made her the rider to beat in the final, but it was one of the riders she beat in the semi, Shuang Guo of China that emerged the winner powering out of the final corner to take victory. Pendleton found herself boxed in with a lap to go and was forced to go the long way around to grab bronze just a few metres from the line.
Victory went to the French trio of Bauge, D'Almedia and Sireau in the men's team sprint competition who convincingly beat their German opponents in the final. A disappointing time in the morning session meant the British team of Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton could only qualify for the afternoon's Bronze medal run off.
In the other compeitions decided on the final day, the American rider Sarah Hammer took gold in the women's omnium to underline her dominance of the event - Team GB's Lizzie Armistead came seventh; and the JKA Japanese Keirin was won by Maximilian Levy of Germany who held of Teun Mulder to take the win.
Full results and reports from the Manchester round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup can be found on the British Cycling website.